Archive for March 2nd, 2010
4 items.
Congratulations to Ska Studio’s who has announced that they’ve moved 200,000 units of the seriously awesome I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1. To celebrate the team has decided to do some give aways here are the details:
To celebrate the occasion, we felt it would be appropriate to give back (you know, pay it forward) and decided the best way to do that is by giving away some of our soon to be released merchandise. Up for grabs are three Z0MB1ES prize packs which include one PLAED Z0MB1ES GAM3 tee, two Z0MB1ES mini pins and one GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES game download code for you or to share with a friend (ARV $18).
To Enter The Giveaway:
1.) Simply follow @skastudios on Twitter.
2.) Tweet this exact message verbatim: “I am one of the @skastudios 200,000 who PLAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES! http://bit.ly/clkABt” and do so by Friday, March 5th at 5PM eastern.
3.) Wait to see if you’re one of the lucky three winners to get a Twitter direct message from @skastudios informing you that you won!Good luck on the giveaway and, of course, this Z0MB1ES success story would never have happened without your $1 purchase, recommendations to friends and positive game ratings. Know that James and all of Ska Studios are grateful for yourZ0MB1ES enthusiasm of which no words can express. Your Ska support has not gone unnoticed, thanks so much!
Be sure to head over to their site to get the rest of the info and while you are there check out all the information on their other games.
View Comments
It’s been a little too long since we did our last Microsoft Indie Marketplace Update. So long in fact, that we have changed its name since the last one. The reason for the name change is simple, it looked ugly in the side bar due to its length. The new much shorter and prettier XBLIG Update title is now, as you can see, in use. All the tags and categories have been updated to recognize this change.
Also due to the extended procrastination, we have a whole lot of titles to cover. Some of these titles have already had full reviews and in those circumstances we’ll let you know. All items in bold are our commentary, all other descriptions are that of the developers.
Avatar Boogie
50 avatars can simultaneously bust out fly dance moves to Avatar Boogie’s music, or to the music you already own! Choose from randomly-generated avatars, create your dance party, and watch them perform a variety of dances! Multiple dance arenas, tons of camera options, and slick dance moves await you in full 1080p resolution!
Avatar Showdown
A great conflict awaits you and your Avatar. Challenge yourself and your friends in this purest test of skill. Includes online play and the Official JForce Seal of Quality.
Space Poker
Your challenge in Space Poker is to shoot the cards down appearing above you, and your goal is to make the highest possible poker hand. Be careful though, as shooting a wrong card or crashing the plane will destroy the possibility of obtaining the best hand.
Space Radar Opera
Interesting little shooter that uses a unique control scheme. fire missiles, release a trail of bombs, or blast out an array of high powered depth charge like bombs. Not a bad little game demo.
Shoot 1UP
Read our full review, then go buy it.
Kukaku
An incredibly addictive game where you battle against the CPU or another player in destroying blocks by joining 3 or more of the same color. In an exciting combination of the best elements from popular puzzle games, strategy, speed and skill are what you need make it through the 100s of levels and win at Kukaku. Can you handle it??
MotorHEAT
We have a full review of this racer for you. Go give it a read through.
Mouse Maze
Designed to help you improve your joystick control ability, help the mouse safely find his way to the end of the maze. Pick up cheese wedges along the way to satisfy his appetite and increase your score. Keep your mouse away from the edges though; they will zap him!
Maze Haze
Guide the ball through tricky mazes and race with your friends to see who is the fastest while everyone tries to stop the others.
Pixel Killer
We have a full review of this game available!
Autumn
Help mother nature by rotating the leaves to point to the ground in this relaxing puzzle game. With soothing soundtrack and beautiful visuals, let this game help you be at peace.
Soulcaster
Summon the power of immortal warriors in this fast-paced dungeon adventure. Use skill and strategy to fight through hordes of monsters to discover secrets, collect treasure and buy powerful upgrades for your allies. Become the Soulcaster and restore peace to the land.
Last Line of Defence
The Xecrons have attacked New Earth. Can you fight them off to defend the city of Neo York and its people?
Santa Bomber
Help Santa deliver presents to all the houses while dodging planes and snowballs! Classic side scrolling action! Something makes me think someone missed there deadline.
Adam Atomic and Danny Baranowsky, the creators of the critically acclaimed rooftop jumper Canabalt, are set to rerelease one of their first titles with some serious updateage. The original Gravity Hook was a 5 day project released back in 2008 and was the first collaborative effort by the duo. Gravity Hook HD is set to release on the iPhone soon and after playing it, you can try it below, I gotta say it is going to be perfect on that touch interface.
It looks like Toyota isn’t the only one with an uncontrollable acceleration issue, but in this case I think it’s probably working as intended. MotorHEAT is a the latest racing game on Microsoft Xbox Live Indie Games and it comes prepackaged with some seriously addictive gameplay. The game was developed by Alejandro González Fiel and Miguel Herrero Obeso of Milkstone Studios, who in the past brought us titles such as Wool and Little Racers.
Gameplay
MotorHEAT is an arcade feeling racer in that it’s obviously not a simulator and nor does it try to be. In fact, you don’t even have to do much to stay on the road. Your only objective is to dodge other cars, but not so much so that you don’t get dangerously close to them! Yes that’s right your objective is to NARROWLY miss all the other cars on the road. Doing so grants you boost based on how far you were from the cars you pass.
In addition to this boost mechanic, you also level up. The higher the level the faster you go. Anecdotally speaking, I think by the time you are getting around to level 15, your normal base speed is easily faster than your initial boost speed was. To top it off your new boost speed is something that requires calculations from the ships computer, because it ain’t like dusting crops, boy!
One of the most frustrating and yet amusing aspects of the game is the behavior of the White Cars. These little bastards have sentience I’m convinced of it! You think I’m kidding but these cars will change lanes and without fail, wined up directly in your path. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so because there is actually an award called “They Do It On Purpose” which is achieved by getting tore up by 150 of these sons of bitches.
Other than the cars on the road you will also find an array of bonuses that will offer up extra time, more boost, score multipliers, score points, and invulnerability. They pretty much do what you would expect them to do. The only one that may not be imediately obvious is the invulnerability boost. The nice part about this guy is that it will let you drive right through all the other cars and quickly max out your boost bar.
In terms of cons of the game, one I experienced was related to these bonus items. The first is that they can sometimes obstruct a car that is right on the other side of them, as soon as you collect your bonus your boned. The second relates to the blue box vans that look exactly like the blue power ups. Now I know you can tell the difference because one rotates and the other doesn’t but there is only so much sensory data you can process while traveling at the speed of holybajeezus.
On the bug front MotorHEAT does have a current issue with the score boards. The issue being, as far as I can tell, they don’t work at all. The developer has already commented on this and stated that a patch is going to be submitted this Friday and we should be one upping one another in no time. Which is really good because I think it is probably a very important element of the games replayability.
Audio Visual
MotorHEAT looks quite good, it has a full 3d environment with some nice dynamic lighting and weather effects that really up the ante. The game will start you out in regular daylight, toss you in fog, throw you in the dark, and I’m pretty sure there is a snowy effect too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more after that but I usually sucked and died right around there every time so I can’t say for certain. The music also fits well with the game and has a good sound to it. It flows quite well in the game and as such it is pleasant regardless of the length of a single play sessions duration.
A features I think I would have liked to have seen was some vehicle diversity. The only customization that appears to be available in the game is changing the paint job. A few models or ground effects could have been a nice touch, but considering the value offered here already I don’t think it hurts the game.
Summary
MotorHEAT is 240 Microsoft Points, that’s three puny human monies, and is a very good indie racing game with some serious psychological hooks to keep you playing. I think if arcade style racing is what you are looking for it’s an easy buy recommendation. If you are just plain looking for a good indie game, it is also worth looking into, but you may want to check out the demo to decide for yourself. All and all MotorHEAT is a really great offering by its two person development team.
