Just a quick note to say that Scrap Metal the Micromachinesesque top down racer from the developer of the superb N+ has been released on XBLA. As a big fan of the genre, I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. I’ll update with impressions when I’ve had a chance to play it!
I’m also very aware that the XBLA tag in the tag cloud seems to be growing much faster than all the others…
I often find myself whining about “new games”, it normally goes something along the lines of why don’t they concentrate on gameplay as opposed to high end graphics, of course I am basically referring to in my mind “the golden age of gaming”- the Megadrive and Snes era. Perhaps it’s me reminiscing wildly about my childhood but I can still happily sit down and play through Earthworm Jim or Streets Of Rage 2 of an evening and feel gleefully fulfilled. No over the top cutscenes, no fancy lighting effects and dynamic 3dee just good old fashioned gameplay.
Then, something happened on XBLA. 4 magical knights arrived on the scene, in the form of Castle Crashers.
Rock Paper Shotgun have got a great interview with Adrian Bauer of D-pad studio all about Owlboy which is an stunningly beautiful retro styled 2d platform adventure game.
Seriously go check out the trailer, it’s amazing – the music and graphics are just out of this world no wonder it’s been nominated for Exellence in Visual Art by the IGF.
Wow that’s a lot of links!
Owlboy is due for release on XBLA and PC at some point…
Oh wow! This new trailer for Shank is just awesome. It seems to combine Steets of Rage with Earthworm Jim and … well I’ll let the trailer talk for itself! Good work Klei and congrats on signing with EA Partners.
Greed Corp is a hex based turn based strategy game out now for download on XBLA and PSN and coming soon to Windows PC. The game supports up to 4 players locally or online and features AI players if you don’t have any (or enough!) friends.
While at a first glance Greed Corp appears to be fairly simple (compared to other games in it’s genre) with a limited number of units and fairly small maps, a closer inspection reveals a ton of hidden depth. The objective of each game is to be the last man standing and this is no small task as a result of a very interesting and unique gameplay mechanic that means the battlefield is constantly shrinking through the course of the battle.
My flotilla of three ships are facing off against an equally sized group of enemy ships of varying size and ordinance. I’ve just encountered a fleet of space pigs who’ve asked for my protection against some hostile pirates and I’ve chosen to do the right thing and step in and kick some pirate arse.
Rastafarian Cats. Yep.
"Ding" "Ding" - the critical hit sound is glorious.
I quickly assess the situation that the game has put in front of me and decide to order my beam frigate to move at flanking speed to try and get behind the enemy position so that I can use it’s superior firepower on their weaker rear and bottom armour. I make sure to orientate my ship such that I present only the front armour to my enemy. I take my two smaller destroyers (the default ship, small, fast and armed with slow firing but powerful nuclear missile batteries), order them to move and fire and set co-ordinates opposite the beam frigate.
With my genius pincer movement planned out I end my turn and get ready to watch as my plan is acted out in 30 seconds of real time full 3D space warfare set to a beautiful classical piano score. Both your’s and your enemy’s turns happen simultaneously with no opportunity to alter your plan for the full 30 seconds once you end your turn.