XBLA: XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 1
In just two days, the "New Xbox Experience" will be downloaded by millions of Xbox 360 users, and with that comes the XNA Community Games section, showcasing indie and hobbyist titles which will cost 200-800 points ($2.50-$10) to download.
Those who have been lucky enough to get into the NXE preview have been able to check out the current crop of XNA titles, with new games popping up everyday. For the few days left before it's released we'll be looking at each title that pops up, and and give you a little overview of each from the trial.
Today we look at ten titles to show up on the service - each of which has a timed, free demo. Some are good, some are bad, but it's all a part of seeing what can be done with just a couple of guys (or gals) in a short amount of time.
In some case, it seems like the creators got quickly bored with the project and released it anyway, but most of the initial XNA Community Games titles are interesting, and show what kinds of games can be made with XNA and the Xbox 360.
Culture
Creator: XNA Prod 001
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: During the trial mode, you are only able to play the "paint by Numbers" mode, which allows you to fill out a painting with flowers. The actual game is more like this - surrounding weeds with flowers. Why they didn't add that as the trial mode makes no sense to me. Is there a fun game here? Difficult to determine.
Cubage
Creator: Louis Ingenthron
Genre: Puzzle & Trivia
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: This is exactly what it looks like. You want a Rubik's Cube program? You've got yourself a Rubik's Cube program.
Fruit Attack
Creator: ScrumThorax
Genre: Puzzle & Trivia
Price: 400 Points
Trial Play: Essentially, Fruit Attack is a clone of Sega's classic Columns game, except with Fruit. It certainly does that job, and has a two player mode. It keeps your highest score but has no sort of scoreboard system, which is a little disappointing. I'd say its main drawback is just how bland the setting is. Brown wood backgrounds, plain fruit graphics... You need to have a bit more fun with your game creation!
SpaceCombat
Creator: cilcoder
Genre: Shooter
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: SpaceCombat is a very simple, cel-shaded space shooter. Its hook is that it has online multiplayer for up to 8 players for only 200 Points. Unfortunately I found the control scheme to be a little confusing and the choice of cel-shading makes it difficult to understand just how far away you are. If it can build up a community it might be fun.
Being
Creator: Chounard
Genre: Platformer
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: Being is a very simple platforming game. The entire point is just to get through its 4 or so levels. You can't attack - you're simply avoiding everything, grabbing keys and coins, and completing the level. It's the only 2D platformer of the bunch, and despite its rather mundane graphics, it reminds me of a few 1990 shareware titles I used to play. I did end up buying Being, and for the half an hour to an hour it took to finish it I had fun.
Fuel Depot 360
Creator: Interstellar
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: Fly your space craft around, and shoot the bad guys before they take all of your fuel barrels away. Did you ever have Wario Ware Touched and unlocked Pyoro-T? It's vaguely like that, I guess. Simple premise, but I feel it doesn't control all that well and figuring out what's going on is a little difficult.
Word Soup
Creator: Fuzzy Bug
Genre: Puzzle & Trivia
Price: 400 Points
Trial Play: Word Soup is actually based off of a popular parlor game in Great Britain called Word Up - a simple "skill with prizes" game which you can win back a small amount of money if you play well. You simply find words within the grid and are graded based off of how well you did in 3 or so minutes. No winning money here, but if you're looking for a way to bone up on your knowledge of words this would be the place to do it.
Drift
Creator: Polychrome
Genre: Other
Price: 400 Points
Trial Play: Specifically tells you that "this is not a game". A collection of ambient screen savers. I don't think it's worth the 400 Points to be honest.
Bloc
Creator: Metacreature Games
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: A shooter that is more complex than it looks. You move around the screen as a ball of color. You rotate the ball around to change the direction the colors are facing, and then shoot said colors using the buttons of the controller. It's an interesting concept which might be worth your money. It does have cooperative play where each player controls two colors, so it might be good to get you and your girlfriend playing.
Lines
Creator: EdAndersenUK
Genre: Puzzle & Trivia
Price: 200 Points
Trial Play: This may look like a Lumines knockoff at first, but let me assure you it isn't. It's really a mix between it and Q? Entertainment's other title Gunpey - you have to set up several blocks together, but also put the line within each block next to another, like Pipe Dream. Connecting 5 together will cause them to disappear, and you can set up combos and the like.
My main concern is that you can royally screw yourself very easily - just set up two facing L blocks on the bottom and you'll never be able to get rid of them. I'm guessing that's why this game hasn't really been attempted before.
The game has online leaderboards as well - but instead of it being automatically updated, you have to go to edngames.com and put in your password. Unfortunately, it's the only way you can do it within the infrastructure.
Comments
Thanks for the article. It's nice to see a lit. We're hoping to have "Duality: ZF" up soon, but we won't be making the November 19 deadline. :( Best of luck to everyone though. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.
Posted by: Jason Doucette | November 18, 2008 4:06 AM
When it comes to online leaderboards for XBCG, watch Biology Battle. It seems the team has implemented a clever "peer-to-peer" system for sending scores around to players. How well it works is something to keep an eye on.
Posted by: CGomez | November 18, 2008 3:25 PM
its hard to determine which games to buy here, seems they all have qualities i like and in a range from 200 to 800 points. personally, i think "colosseum" for 800 points looks really interesting, almost like a AAA title... im prepared to pay more for good games, but its hard to know what im paying for after 4 minutes.
Posted by: lazslo | November 21, 2008 12:31 PM