XBLA Ratings

Well, I've been working on a side project I thought I'd share withe everyone. It is not done yet, but it is getting there.

XBLA Ratings

I found myself frustrated a while back with the lack of Xbox Live Arcade reviews that talk about if the game is fun or not. To me XBLA games are not about the graphics, sound quality, achievements, etc. Yes, those things factor in, but really I just want to know if I spend $5 of $10 on a game if it will be fun. If it worth the cost of a movie ticket or a lunch out? So, since I could not find any sites that rate Arcade titles by how fun they are I figured I'd make one.

Like I said it is not done yet, but it is getting there. Feel free to post a quick rating of your favorite (or least favorite) games and let everyone else know how fun they are.

Lost Cities Impressions

I also checked out Lost Cities today on Xbox Live Arcade. I generally don't play a lot of board and card games on XBLA. It is not that I don't like them, but there are just other types of games I prefer more. Lost Cities is pretty fun - not great, but still fun if you like this type of game.

The game is a strategy card game basically that is played with two people. You have to play your cards in a strategy that gets you more points than your opponents. There is an element of chance that effects the outcome because you draw cards from a random deck. So, if you partner just gets much better cards and has an ok strategy he could probably beat you even if you have a great strategy but get lousy cards. Fortunately the cards are randomly drawn so you'll most likely get pretty even cards. Then it is up to you to have a better strategy.

I played the trial a few times and was beating the AI pretty badly. It was actually kind of boring after about the second time. I think this game would be more fun in the multiplayer mode when you're playing against a friend and shooting the breeze.

Rock and Bullwinkle Impressions

I decided to check out Rock and Bullwinkle on Xbox Live Arcade today. What a waste of time. This game is garbage. It is designed to be a party game with a Rock and Bullwinkle theme. Basically you have a lot of little games all in a row, but the games are so ridiculously short and easy that it was annoying. Most of the mini-games you play using just a single button or thumb stick. I'd guess that somewhere around half of the mini-games that I tried I literally pushed one button and either won or lost. Most without even knowing what I just did. Going into it I did not know that it was a bunch of mini-games I thought it would be like playing through some episodes of the story in and adventure game mode. If you're looking for a party game try Rock Band or Scene It. Leave this piece of garbage alone.

TiQal Impressions

I played through the trial of TiQal last night and was not impressed. This Xbox Live Arcade title is a mix of Tetris and Luxor 2. Basically, you drop Tetris like pieces on the board and when you make a square of pieces that are the same color they form a cube and get ready to blow up. You then have a few more seconds to add to the cube to make it even larger. The larger the group of pieces the more points you get. When I started the trial I was liking it. The game play is simple and has a nice pace to it. Plus, it was fun to catch the power ups and take out big chucks at once. However, after a few levels I started to get frustrated. When you blow up a section it obscures your view of that area of the screen for a few seconds so you can't drop your next piece in that same area, but the blocks continue to come up from the bottom. Also, most of the power ups seem to take out random section of the board, but it may take out a part that you've been working on building a large chain in completely defeating what you've been working on. The game wants you to make chains and combos but makes it hard to do so and doesn't really reward you that much when you do. After playing the trial I decided not to buy the game. As much as I like puzzle games this one is just no that fun.

Commanders: Attack of the Genos Review

I've been playing a lot of Commanders: Attack of the Genos. Commanders is a turn based strategy game on Xbox Live Arcade. There are 15 levels to the basic campaign, another 15 levels of the advanced campaign, a battle mode, and online multiplayer. So far I've played a few battles and finished the basic campaign. The levels generally take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete for the standard campaign. And that is with the animations set to fast. It is not really a slow paced game though. You just have a lot to do each time it is your turn. You have to move, attack, build, and repair. The later in the level you are the more units you probably have making the turn take longer as you coordinate your attacks with all your units. In addition to your standard units like tanks, scouts, and artillery there are commander units. The commander unites have both a passive and active special ability. The passive abilities effect all the other units on the screen that are close the the commander. They do things like restore health and add more defense. The active specials abilities do things like rain missiles on all the enemy units. Personally I like the commander that has the passive ability the lets your artillery shoot one square further and the active ability to restore your action points. That way my artillery can shoot further than the enemies (so I can hit them but they can't hit me). The active abilities take a few turns to charge up so use them wisely. The commanders add a nice level of strategy to the game. Without them it would be a simple rock/paper/scissors battle but with the commanders it adds a great level of complexity to the strategies available.

If you like strategy games Commanders is a pretty good one and with a lot of hours of game play it is well worth the $10 price tag.

Band of Bugs Ninja Sticks of Fury Review

So there was a second DLC Pack for Band of Bugs released last week. It is titled Ninja Sticks of Fury. Here is the official rundown:

NinjaBee announced yesterday its newest expansion pack, Ninja Sticks of Fury, for the Band of Bugs title. With this new expansion pack comes a new shadowy character, new achievements and a bigger challenge than anything that came before it.

The new campaign is set in a new desolate and mountain area beyond the known Insect Kingdom. Featuring a new unit class, players guide a ninja named Vail who leads a group of mercenaries while a mysterious group wreaks havoc across the snowy wasteland. The ninja adds a new level of strategy to Band of Bugs, forcing players to think in new ways.

Band of Bugs has gained popularity for its innovative level editor, which allows any user to create unique content for their friends and the community. Ninja Sticks of Fury adds a brand new unit and a winter tile set to the editor allowing level designers to push their creativity to the limit. The Snowy environment is not only available in the editor, but will automatically enhance select existing maps already in the game, adding new variety to old favorites.

Band of Bugs was released in June, 2007. It is available on Xbox Live Arcade as both a free trial and as a full game for only 800 Microsoft Points. It supports 1-4 players in co-op or in multiplayer versus modes and also supports the Xbox Live Vision camera. One of the few turn-based tactics games available, Band of Bugs provides gameplay deep enough to be satisfying to established fans of the genre, but friendly enough to appeal to casual gamers.

I played through the 10 new levels this weekend and had a blast with them. Band of Bugs is one of my favorite Xbox Live Arcade games and every time they release additional content for it I'm impressed with how much fun it is. This new pack, Ninja Sticks of Fury, was exceptionally fun because in addition the new unit type and some great level design the dialog is hilarious. The main character in the expansion is Vail. He is a ninja with an interesting past. It plays out really well because he has a love interest who turns out to be a little bit crazy. Besides the dialog I really enjoyed the levels in this DLC. They were laid out in really fun ways and took some new strategies to beat that made them a little bit harder than the last DLC. Personally I found the last DLC pack pretty easy and this one was more fun because it was a bit more challenging. It still was not super hard or anything, but had a nice level of challenge to it.

For anyone who played Band of Bugs and enjoyed it I would recommend getting the Ninja Sticks of Fury expansion pack. It is pretty cheap and you get an achievement when you beat all ten of the new levels. Hopefully NinjaBee is already at work on more expansion packs for Band of Bugs because these are great fun.

Yaris Review

When I saw that another free Xbox Live Arcade game was being released I had high hopes for it because the only other free Arcade game, Aegis Wing, was a blast. As the game started up and I saw the nice clean menu I still was pretty impressed. I read through the How to Play and Control information and it seemed pretty strait forward. So, I started up a game and found out why it was free. The gameplay is crap. You pretty much just need to push forward to move and keep shooting non-stop. There are a few spots you need to weave around some obstacles, but nothing to fancy. Apparently whoever made this game like Mario because the tracks have coins scattered across them you need to pick up. The coins can then be used to unlock better cars and to upgrade you car. Why would a driving game have coins you need to pick up? Why not just give us points for number of kills and the finish time? It is a stupid idea that works very poorly. In addition to the lousy game play the graphics in the actual game look like crap. I've played Nintendo 64 games that look better. I'm not sure why they spent so much time making a nice looking menu only to have a crappy looking game. Sure, the game is free and you can get 200 achievement points, but even then this game is still not worth playing.

Eets: Chowdown Puzzle Pack 1 Review

I have the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 sitting next to my Xbox 360, but since I know starting today I'll be playing Halo 3 for a few weeks I did not want to start into Tiger Woods and then take a break from it. So, last night I was look for something to play for a while, and I remembered that Eets: Chowdown released a Puzzle Pack with 20 more levels in it a while back. So, I played through the new levels last night and really enjoyed them. I beat all of them in a little over an hour, but since I had already finished the rest of the game I was familiar with what to expect. This made it a bit easier for me to beat them quickly. For the most part I'd say the new levels are about in the middle of the difficulty level, but a couple of them took quite a bit longer to figure out. The new levels do have some cool new items in them that were fun to use. The giant chocolate chips that melt and then explode are a lot of fun to use. I had forgotten how much fun Eets: Chowdown is to play. My only complaint about the Puzzle Pack is that they did not add any additional achievements with it. Other Xbox Live Arcade games have added achievements when they add downloadable content and it would have been cool to have Eets do the same, but even without any achievements it was well worth the 200 points. I had a lot of fun with it last night and hope that they release some more Puzzle Packs in the future.

Call of Duty 4 Beta Participant

A quick update. I made it into the Call of Duty 4 beta and downloaded it last night. Hopefully this evening I'll have time to play for a while.

I checked out both of the XBLA games released this week and was not impressed with either. Is anyone liking them that I should give them a second try?

Hexic 2 Review

I played Hexic 2 for a while this weekend and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. There are some really fun things about it, like the multiplayer mode, but other things about it are really lame. Lets start with the good stuff. First, the new battle game mode is pretty fun. There is a decent amount of strategy involved as well as speed. I played a few matches and lost the first one to the AI, but won the matches after that by a small margin. I also like the new special pieces they added. I don't use them very efficiently yet, but it is nice you're not just stuck with stars and pearls. In addition to having more special pieces you also can blow up the special pieces. This is great is you want to clear out an area that has a lot of random pieces. At least for me all of these combined to make Hexic 2 a little easier than the original. Especially in the Puzzle mode. There are a one main thing I don't like. The graphics don't look as good as the original. They are not bad, but they did not use all of the screen in Hexic 2 which seems stupid. Why have a large unused boarder around the edge of the screen? I don't get it. Why waste all that space and cram everything together when you could just use that space and make it easier to see everything? My wife was a huge fan ox Hexic so I had her try Hexic 2. After trying out each of the game modes she went back to playing the original. She was not impressed with all the new special pieces. If you were a fan of the first Hexic then Hexic 2 is worth a try. Especially with the new battle mode, but if you're not into Hexic then don't bother with Hexic 2.

Band of Bugs Red Kingdom Expansion Review

I downloaded the expansion for Band of Bugs Friday and beat it yesterday, but it was well worth the 250 points. It adds 10 new levels, a couple new unit types, and a couple of achievements. The new units are cavalry and artillery. The cavalry features a bug riding another one with a lance that you can attack from two spots away. The artillery is a cool little snail with a catapult on it back. Its attack hits a really large area, but does only 8 or 10 damage. It is great for knocking down large groups so the rest of your army can finish them off. Both are a lot of fun to play with and the 10 new levels feature them a lot. Even though I beat the new levels pretty quickly they were a lot of fun. Plus, now I can use the new units in multiplayer matches and in new maps I create. If you liked Band of Bugs I would recommend checking out the the expansion pack. It costs about $3 and has some really fun battles.

Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog on XBLA

Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog were both released today on Xbox Live Arcade for $5 each. I'm not really excited about either one. I've never been a Sonic fan and while I do remember enjoying Golden Axe I think retro titles like this are like movies and tv shows I liked in the 80's. They are better off staying in my memory because in reality they were not that good. The one thing I like about both of there games from Sega is that you can assign all of the buttons however you want. In Golden Axe they also provide an option to turn on/off rapid fire. Sonic looks about how I remember it, but Golden Axe looks really bad by today's standards. I wish they had at least taken the time to make enhanced graphics for it like many other retro titles are doing. Because neither of these games are really that good I'm not going to bother withl reviews on them since there are demos of current games I'd rather spend my time with.

Missile Command Review

Missile Command was released on the Xbox Live Arcade yesterday. The game play, for those 2 people out there not familiar with it, is just what the title says. You command some defensive towers to keep incoming missile attacks from hitting your cities. The game was originally released in 1980 by Atari. The Xbox Live Arcade version has both the original version and a version with enhanced graphics. The new graphical version looks good for a game where the screen is pretty much the same all the time. The game is pretty simple to play. You control the targeting reticle with the thumb stick and shoot with the A, X, and B buttons. As the levels progress there are more and more incoming attacks to deal with. The game is fun for about 20 minutes, but I'm not sure that anyone will play this game for hours on end. If you're a big fan of the original this updated version plays the same but looks a lot better. For everyone else save your $5 for something better. If you are set on getting this one the achievements are mostly get to a certain level or get a specific high score. They all look like they are pretty doable.

June Xbox Live Arcade Recap and Review

So another month has come and gone. Lets take a look at how things faired on Xbox Live Arcade. For those of you who are new to my blog I grade Xbox Live Arcade on a monthly basis for three main areas. These are the release schedule, the pricing, and the number of retro games.

Release Schedule
I'm disappointed with the number of games released last month. There were four games, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Prince of Persia Classic, Band of Bugs, and Carcassonne, and seven expansions to existing games. After getting two games most weeks the last couple months it is sad to have just one game a week. I heard on Major Nelson's podcast a few weeks back that they are open to having more than 2 games a week being released so I was hoping that would start soon, but I guess we'll have to keep waiting for that to happen. Standard scoring of 4 out or 4 in the releases category. The expansions are nice to see but I'm not giving any extra credit for them they are not new games.

Pricing
All four titles released this month were $10 each. Band of Bugs and Carcassonne are worth the price without a doubt, but I'm not sure about the other two. Pac-Man Championship Edition was fun, but I still think it should have been a $5 title since all of the game modes are timed. I also think that all retro titles should be $5. Prince of Persia Classic is no exception. Yes, it is a very popular game but that is not a reason to charge more for it. The graphics are not any better and there were not any major changes made to the game so why charge so much for it? In the pricing section Xbox Live Arcade gets a 2 out of 4.

Retro Titles
Only one retro title this month. Nice to see 75% of the games were original titles. Well, assuming you count an update to Pac-Man as an original title. I'm going to since how the game is played has changed so much. That makes this score a 3 out of 4.

So, that gives us a total of 9 out of 12. That is another C grade with a 75%. If these last two weeks are any indication of the games to come I think we'll have plenty of good games, but I hope they can start getting more than one game a week released again soon.

Carcassonne Review

I finally got a chance to check out Carcassonne last night and I can see why people like the board game. There are so many layers of strategy. A couple of them are obvious right off the bat, but I could tell that there will be more layers of strategy to figure out once I spend more time with the game. The tutorial was really helpful in understanding how the gameplay works and it did not take that long to go through. I like that there are multiple ways of scoring. You can try to build your own areas, or you can try to build of other peoples areas and steal their points at the last minute. Sure, it will make for some unhappy friends, but there is nothing to stop them from returning the favor. I also like that the games don't take a long time to play. Since there are only 72 tiles to play with you know when they are gone the match is over. While the graphics are nothing spectacular there are a couple things about this game I really like.

First, you can play with 4 players on the same screen. This is a great addition to a game like this, and I think more Xbox Live Arcade games should include support for multiple people on the same system. I realize in some games this would not be possible since each person has their own cards that they need to keep hidden, but since in Carcassonne you just draw a tile at the beginning of your turn so there is nothing to keep hidden from the other player. This definitely adds to the value of Carcassonne as I can play it with my friends and family even if they don't have an Xbox 360.

Second, I like that they make it so I can only place the tile in spots where it would fit. I think learning Carcassonne form the board game would be much harder because there is nothing stopping you from trying to place a tile in an invalid location. In the Xbox Live Arcade version they have set it up so you can only place the tiles in locations where they would be a valid play.

Finally, I like the little extras they added. They have added one of the board games more popular expansions, River II, and Xbox Live Vision support. I heard on an interview that they are open to the option of making more of the board game's expansion as DLC if the game sells well. Give the fun gameplay I think we can expect to see some expansions in the future. I really like when companies add support for the Vision Camera in their games because it is nice to be able to see my friends while I chat with them in a turn based game like this.

While the game is not for everyone since it requires you to think and it could use better graphics it is a lot of fun. If you're into board games or strategy games this one worth the cost.

Band of Bugs Review

Band of Bugs game out today and so far I'm really liking it. It is a turn based strategy game where your army consists of bugs. It reminds me of Tactics 100 which I reviewed a while back in that you want to position your bugs in the best position to attack your opponents without putting yourself into a position to be attacked.

The tutorial is a bit slow to go through, but once you're through the tutorial the gameplay speed picks up as you get into the main story line. In addition to the main story there is also a scenario and multiplayer modes. The scenario modes are stand alone levels that give you a specific objective. Multiplayer is what you'd mostly expect where you can fight against 3 other players in elimination and king of the hill type battles. The multiplayer modes also include some mission mode and an 'Escape' mode that is fairly unique. In 'Escape" you have to get your army to a certain point on the map and keep the enemy armies from getting there. In addition to these modes there is a "Spider Hunt" mode that allows for 8 player at once.

One of the best features on Band of Bugs is the included map editor. The editor can be used for single player skirmish games or over Xbox Live. I'm really excited to make some interesting maps and see how they fair over Live.

I realize this is a quick little review, but really I don't have anything bad to say. The game is fun to play and provides some great strategic challenges without making it hard to get into. If you're into strategy games this is one worth checking out. Even at $10 I think this game is a good value because with the map editor there is tons of replay value.

Prince of Persia Classic

Prince of Persia Classic was released on Xbox Live Arcade today. I tried the demo earlier and it was how I remember from playing on the PC version as a kid. If you played Prince of Persia when it was released originally then all of the original goodness is here with some enhanced graphical elements and animations. Personally, I was never a big fan of Prince of Persia. I always found the controls to touchy. I'd hit the jump button with my timing off my half a second and end up dead. Having to retrace a big section of the level was never fun for me. If you've never tried the original Price of Persia I'd recommend giving the trail a run through. Even though it is not one of my favorite games a lot of people loved it and now is your chance to find out why. It is a classic and I'm sure a lot of people will be glad to have it. If you have fond memories of playing Prince of Persia let me know what you think of the Xbox Live Arcade version.

Pac-Man Championship Edition Mini Review

Earlier this week rumors were circulating around the internet that Microsoft would be making a big announcement this week. The announcement turned out to be the release of Pac-Man Championship Edition. The rumors should have been that an previously unannounced game was going to be released because this does not warrant the "big announcement" category. I checked out the trail version of Pac-Man CE this morning and I'm pretty disappointed. First, for a $10 game the trail version only lets you check out one of the modes and it is only for 5 minutes. I've never been that good at Pac-Man, but I did find that I did pretty well in my 5 minutes. I did die once trying to eat a ghost before the power pellet wore off, but other than that it was pretty easy. I'm sure it would have been harder to do the 10 minute version. The game comes with 6 different game modes all of which are timed. Unlike the original Pac-Man in the Championship Edition you're not so much trying to stay alive as you are trying to get as high of a score as possible within the time limit. Also, the whole level does not start off filled with pellets. Instead a small section has pellets. Once you eat all of those a piece of fruit appears on the other side of the map and eating it adds more pellets back to the map. Each time the fruit adds more pellets than what you ate before. Despite not being that good at Pac-Man I had fun playing the single level of the trial because the controls worked well. Unlike the original Pac-Man on the Xbox Live Arcade the controls in the Championship Edition were actually designed for the controller.

The only game play related thing I found annoying was when you eat a power pellet the screen had this wavy effect for a few seconds. I don't see a need for that. The achievements seem like they would be pretty easy to pick up for the most part. They are mostly the usual get a certain score or complete a specific level ones.

The reason I'm disappointed with Pac-Man Championship Edition is because of the $10 price tag. The entire game's 6 modes can be played through in just 45 minutes. Sure, you're going to play them multiple times trying to get a better score each time, but I still think this game either needs more modes or the price lowered to$5. For those of you who are huge Pac-Man fans Championship Edition is probably going to be great for you. For the rest of us Championship Edition does not have enough replay value to be worth the cost of admission.

May Xbox Live Arcade Review and Recap

We're in the third month of grading Xbox Live Arcade and so far we've seen it climb from a C in March to an A in April. Today we'll take a look and see it it could keep up the score for May. The three areas of scoring are in game release frequency, pricing, and original content.

Game Releases
There were 8 games released in 5 Wednesdays in May. Not to bad. The games released were Catan, Centipede/Millipede, Double Dragon, Soltrio Solitaire, Aegis Wing, Xevious, Rush'n Attack, and Mad Tracks. Additionally, Centipede/Millipede was actually two games in one download. Of course they are virtually identical to each other, but still technically 2 games. So, I'm going with an 8 out of 5 in this category for May.

Pricing
The pricing was pretty standard with month with remakes and retro titles selling for $5 and original titles selling for $10. That is except for Aegis Wing which was released for free. I'm not sure how Microsoft let a free game slip through then they could have easily charged for it, but I'm not going to complain because I like free stuff especially when it is a quality product. Out off all the games released this month only two were any good. Catan and Aegis Wing were excellent. I know that Double Dragon fans are pretty happy with getting it for $5, and a lot of folks seem to like Mad Tracks for some unknown reason. I'm not sure why thought when with the add on packs it will cost over $18. So, that is 4 games decently priced. On the other hand $10 for solitaire? What?! This strange grouping of poorly priced and free games evens out to get a score of 4 out of 8.

Retro Games
Four of the eight games released in May are retro titles that were brought over to the Xbox Live Arcade. Additionally, solitaire is available about 1000 other places as well. However, since I'm still so excited about Catan and Aegis Wing I'll let is slide and give this category a 4 out or 8 as well.

Overall
So that brings the overall score to a 16 out of 21. Back to the C range. Apparently someone thought their good April goodness would carry over through May, but they thought wrong. Xbox Live Arcade Team, please, look back at April and take notes on what went right. Then, repeat it. Cut down the retro titles and help get more original content for us.

Mad Tracks Mini Review

Well, someone on the development team for Mad Tracks is a big fan of Mario Kart because they are very similar. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the nice balance of weapons that Mario Kart has. I had heard good things about Mad Tracks before it was released on a couple podcasts I listen to so I had thought about buying the game without trying the trial first. I'm glad I did not because that would have been a waste of $10.

The game comes with 15 single player events and a pretty decent multiplayer offering. If the actual racing was fun it might be worth the cost since it looks pretty good graphically. But, the racing is pain. Instead of having the normal racing style where you pull the right trigger to go and left to brake they have added a power spring. As you hold down the accelerator the spring slowly drains. When it reaches the bottom you're basically out of power and have to release the accelerator to get it back. Ideally you would release the gas during jumps and going down hill to get your power level back up, but in my experience there are not enough places to get your power back. I was regularly running out of juice at the bottom of big uphill climbs. At first I thought it was just that I was not use to the system so I replayed a couple races to try and get the hang of it and I still was having the same issue. Maybe someone can explain to me how this is suppose to work and I'll give it another try, but as it is right now I don't plan to try the game again let alone purchase it.

Additionally, there are 9 offensive attacks and 3 defensive (assuming you count an oil slick as defensive). This is great if you are always racing from behind because it is a lot easier to attack than it is to defend. On the other hand once you get the lead it is very hard to keep it. I'd suspect that most racers prefer to race from the lead (seriously, who doesn't?) so this makes it very frustrating.

For those of you who do buy Mad Tracks keep in mind that they are planning on releasing 2 packs of DLC that will each add another 15 events for the cost or $4.37 each. That brings the total cost for the game up to $18.74. If they had charged $5 for the game then I could see charging an additional $3 or $4 for the add on packs, but at this price it is just ridiculously expensive for an Xbox Live Arcade game. Since they announced that these DLC packs were coming before the game was released it feels like they intentionally withheld parts of the game so they can sell them as add on packs to make more money. That is just annoying.

If you're into kart style racers and you can get use to the strange acceleration system Mad Tracks is probably just what you're looking for. For the rest of us save your money and hope for a better game next week.

No Xevious or Rush'n Attack Mini Reviews

Most weeks when new Xbox Live Arcade games are released you'll find a mini review here, on my blog, about them within a day or two. This week I'm not going to be reviewing either Xevious or Rush'n Attack because I could not make myself play either one of them long enough to be able to put together a proper review.

I was not anticipating liking Rush'n Attack because it is not a game type I generally enjoy. I gave it a try anyway, but after playing through the demo twice I just could not make myself spend any more time with it. Anyone who is a fan of the game probably will like that they took the time to enhance the graphics, but other than the game still plays as lousy as it ever did.

When I saw a vertical shooter was coming to the Xbox Live Arcade I was pretty excited because I'm a big fan of vertical shooters. I've probably played Xevious before, but I don't recall a specific time if I have. For me Xevious is one of the worst vertical shooters I've ever played. You move so slowly that unless you know the attack pattern of the enemy ships it is almost impossible to kill them all. Also, one thing I've never liked in a vertical shooter is when you can't take out all of the enemies with your primary weapon. In Xevious you can't shoot any of the ground based enemies with your primary gun. Instead you have to position the targeting reticle over them and drop bombs on then. This would not be too bad except that you have to have it lines up almost perfect to get the kill.

After playing through the demo twice of each of these twice I delete them from my Xbox 360 because they are so lame. Unless one of these games was one of your favorite childhood games don't even bother with the demos because they stink.

Aegis Wing Mini Review

I played Aegis Wing for a few hours Wednesday night while I was waiting on the Halo 3 Beta to be fixed and released. It has been a while since I've played a side-scrolling shooter, but my maneuvering and dodging skills came back quickly. I started playing a little single player and then I got an invite from a guy on my Friends List. I played the rest of the night in a room of guys doing 4 player co-op. The game was ok in single player, but it really shines on co-op mode. When you're playing with other people you can merge your ships together. When you do this one person flies and the other people who are attached can shoot in any directions (instead of just shooting strait ahead like when you are not attached) with a more powerful weapon. We quickly worked through the game on Normal mode and proceed to play it on the Insane difficulty. I really like playing it on Insane because in addition to really being a challenge there are no extra lives. If you die you can only get back in if one of your teammates picks up an extra life. When they do get the extra life you spawn back in. This leads to some great teamwork as you try to work together to keep each other alive.

The game itself looks good. It plays like most classic side-scrollers with each level getting harder by sending more enemies and harder bosses at the end of each level. Unlike some side-scrollers your ship is very maneuverable. This makes it pretty easy to dodge enemy attacks with a little practice. Also, instead of dying with only one hit you do have some heath which lets you take about 4 hits before dying. I prefer it this way because one-hit-kills games are really annoying. I found Aegis Wing difficult enough to be challenging but not so hard I got annoyed with it.

There are four super weapons that are available all have distinct features that make them useful. The shield protects you from attacks, but does nothing to hurt other enemies. The laser does a great amount of damage, but only in a strait line. The homing missiles spread out nicely, but if there is not enough enemies around then some of the shots will be wasted. Finally, the "Gorgon Burst" knocks out other ships around you but leaves a lot of debris on the screen that will kill you if you hit it. The achievements are a mix of co-op based ones and ones you could get alone. One thing to note is that the achievements don't seem to be stackable. So, you have to beat it on Normal and on Hard to get them all. However, you don' have to play the whole game to get the achievement for winning. You just need to beat the last level. So, you can join a co-op game in progress and as long as you beat the last level you get the achievement for beating the game.

For a game that was given away for free I'm really impressed. The could have easily charged $5 for this and I would probably have picked it up. It is nice to see that Microsoft is not so money crazy that they have completely forgot about us, the gamers.

Soltrio Solitaire Mini Review

While I was waiting around for the Halo 3 beta to be release last night I took some time to check out Soltrio Solitaire even though I knew I was not going to buy the full version. The game looks decent enough, but I never though the graphics would be an issue. My biggest issue with this game is that they are charging $10 for a set of 18 versions of solitaire. $10 may not sound like a lot of money, but when I can play the same games on my PC for free it is. Not only can I play them free on my PC, but they play better on my PC. Because there is no mouse to play with on the Xbox 360 they have setup the game so that when you move the controller around the screen to select cards it jumps from card to card instead of moving around freely. I found this extremely frustrating because it slowed down how fast I could play the game. They tried to compensate for this somewhat by giving you a quick play button. By moving the cursor over a card and hitting B it would play that in the best available spot. The problem with this is that if there are multiple places the card could play you have no control with this method on where the card goes. Instead you have to pick up the card with the A button and painstakingly move it where you want it. When I play card games I want to go from play to play as fast as possible. So, I was glad to see they included options to speed up the animations, but even on the fastest setting the animations were still to slow for my tastes. After about 5 minutes I was getting pissed about how slow the game plays. The achievements for Soltrio Solitaire are pretty standard with some you could get easily and others you're going to have to work for. However, even if you are a big solitaire fan this game is just to cumbersome to play for more than a game or two. The only case I can see for recommend getting this game is if you have a spouse/girlfriend/mistress that you want to get into console gaming and they really like solitaire. In that case it might be worth the $10 to get them to play on your Xbox 360, but keep in mind that if they get into console gaming you may end up having to shell out another $400 bucks for a second Xbox 360.

Eets: Chowdown Completed

I beat the last level in Eets: Showdown today. According to LiveEye I've played it 15 hours and 42 minutes so far. Not bad for a $10 game with 123 levels, and I'm not done playing it yet. I still want to play some 4 player Marsho Madness. I played 3 player on Saturday and it was a blast. I think with 4 people I would be able to get the 1,000,000 point achievement. My only complaint is that I have to get it all of us here on the same Xbox 360. If I could play Marsho Madness over Xbox Live that would be perfect. I also want to go back through the levels still and see if I can get the par score and time on each level. Finally, there are a couple other achievements that I want to try and get. Like I said in my review, this game is well worth the $10 price tag.

Double Dragon Mini Review

With the dashboard update and the Forza 2 demo getting released I almost forgot about the Xbox Live Arcade yesterday. Fortunately, I remembered it in time to check out Double Dragon. Released in the arcade in 1987 Double Dragon is the most classic beat 'em up games from that era. It was the first side scroller to have co-op play and to allow you to take your enemies weapons. Having spent many an allowance playing Double Dragon I'm actually looking forward to playing it on my Xbox 360 for a while. Considering I would spend over $5 playing this in an afternoon when I was younger I don't think the price is to bad. Yea, I realize I'm a bit hypocritical. In most of my reviews of retro Xbox Live Arcade titles I complain about the price and how lousy the game is, but like any retro title it is the great memories, not the graphics or gameplay, that make it worth playing today.

As retro titles go this one has covered all the basics and added a few additional options. They have done the enhanced graphics like most retro titles are doing now, and they have added support for co-op play both locally and over Xbox Live. Both of these are to be expected by now. In addition to these features they also added the option to change what buttons are used to control the punch, kick, and jump. I'm glad a developer finally took the time to do this. It is such a little thing, but so nice to have. There is also on option that allows you to resize and adjust the game windows location. This benefits all of us who have TVs that either overscan or have larger frames around them. Now we can adjust the screen to fit our TV perfectly. The achievement can all be achieved by playing through the game once or twice if you are careful and don't have to use any continues (and if you have a co-op partner). Nothing to fancy with the achievements, but that is fine.

So, is the game worth $5? Again, that depends on you. I don't expect that a lot of teens and children will be into Double Dragon, but for those of us old enough to have wasted many a quarter on it the memories alone are worth the price of admission. For those of you who are not biased by your childhood memories what do you think of Double Dragon on the Xbox Live Arcade?

Catan Mini Review

When I hear a while back that Settlers of Catan was being made for release on Xbox Live Arcade I was pretty excited. Settlers of Catan is one of my all time favorite board games so to be able to play it with my friends over Live seemed like a great idea. I played a couple games today and I'm pretty impressed with how well put together Catan really is. The developers spent a lot of time adding the little customizations that make this a great game. They have an option to learn as you play so if you or your friends don't know how Catan works you don't have to try and explain it before hand. They can just start up the demo and learn as the play a game. The addition of Video Chat is a nice feature since the actual game play is turned based you don't have to just is there between turns. Sure, you may be trading on other people's turns, but while they build you can chat with the other players. They also included options to customize the rules with your own "house rules" similar to how Uno does. Since I have friends who play with slightly different rule variations this makes it easy for us to setup the game exactly like we would normally.

The computer AI for single player games has three difficulty settings. However, even on easy they are smart enough not to make ridiculously uneven trades. On harder settings they are careful not to trade you the cards you need to win and are much more ruthless in using the robber. Each AI character plays fairly consistently the same way so if you play enough single player games you can figure out the strategies that each character likes to use. I've already got a couple of them figured out (at least on easy). I read an interview with the developers this morning and they are going to release some additional AI players. They also are open to adding the expansion packs if there is enough demand.

The achievements have a decent range of difficulty from getting your first settlement to collecting 1000 victory points in online ranked matches. It is going to take some time to get all of the achievements, but if you play that many games it will give you a chance to hone your strategy until it is perfect. Personally, I'll probably not be getting very many of these achievements. A game of Catan can take 45 to 60 minutes. I prefer to play Arcade games when I have only 20 or 30 minutes. If I have over a half an hour to play I'm going to play Rainbow Six: Vegas.

As a fan of Settlers of Catan I'm pretty happy with how well the made this version for Xbox Live Arcade. If you're a fan of Settlers of Catan, or board games in general, then this is worth the $10 price tag.

Centipede/Millipede Mini Review

I downloaded Centipede/Millipede for Xbox Live Arcade this morning and had a chance to play it for a while on my lunch break. When I saw this was coming out I was actually looking forward to it because I played a lot of Centipede as a kid. I'm not into most retro Arcade games on the Xbox 360, but after all the quarter I put into Centipede 400 points is not really that much to play it as often as I want. The fact they put both games together for $5 is nice. Sure, they are essentially the same game, but it is still a nice touch. Both games offer the original and enhanced graphics as well as the original and a hard difficulty setting. The enhanced graphics are a nice (but becoming expected) touch. The controls are simple enough. The left thumb stick moves you and the A button shoots. It would have been nice to see the D-Pad also be able to move you and to be able to shoot with the triggers, but that is not really that big of a deal. The controls were fine with the thumb stick and since I tend to hold the button down to shoot the A button worked ok. It is not the same as using a trackball like I remember using in the arcades, but it works fairly well. As one would expect most of the achievements are for reaching certain point totals, but there are a couple unique ones thrown in like "Destroy all mushrooms on the screen Centipede - Default difficulty." Still, most of them don't seem to difficult to pick up.

Overall this is a pretty good value if you're into the retro games. Two games (even if one is a clone), each with enhanced graphics, for 400 points is pretty decent.