XBLA: XBL Indie Watch - Arkedo Series 01 - JUMP
Arkedo Studio, a small french developer, have made a name for themselves with two previous titles on the Nintendo DS - Nervous Brickdown and Big Bang Mini. Now they've decided to give the digital distribution thing a go with a series of titles for the Xbox Live Indie Games scene - starting with JUMP.
Arkedo Series 01 - JUMP is a simple platformer, but just happens to have a fantastic art direction. The goal is simple - collect bombs, avoid obstacles and get to the exit in time, all with an over saturated 8-Bit art style with Commodore 64-esque music blaring in the background.
It's a great platformer, and for only 240MSP ($3) it's a steal. I would say my only issue is that you can't save at any point - you run out of lives, you start right from the beginning again. While this was chosen by the developers ("Retro games didn't have continues!") it still would have been a nice addition.
Comments
Are you sure they're the same from BBM and NB fame ?
Posted by: K | October 3, 2009 9:38 AM
Their website says so. Same logo, some overall design style:
http://arkedo.com/
Posted by: Ryan Langley | October 3, 2009 9:57 AM
Thanks for the heads up. Downloading it now.
Posted by: Jigsaw hc | October 3, 2009 4:01 PM
Hey, thanks guys for talking about our first XBL Indie game :)
Hope you enjoy it!
Next one should be around in a fortnight or so.
Arkedo
Posted by: Arkedo Defense Force | October 3, 2009 5:48 PM
The gameplay is good, but unfortunately the game as a whole is ruined by the total lack of any save or continue system. There's not even any way of knowing how far you are in the game. There is such a thing as 'too retro', and this is it.
Given that these are quite expensive for Indie Games, I don't think I'll be picking up any later instalments in the series.
Posted by: Adrian | October 3, 2009 6:57 PM
Love the game. Amazing art style and gameplay! I hope we get to see a lot more from these guys on indie games. Also as said before, some kind of save/password system would have been great.. I wonder if it would be possible to patch it in ?
Posted by: Toledo | October 3, 2009 9:02 PM
I was going to buy the full version today, but it's been taken down - hope it re-appears soon. Easily the tightest game to come out of the Indie games channel yet IMO. To Arkedo: keep up the good work!
Posted by: E Nombre | October 6, 2009 4:26 PM
there is no need for a save state in this type of game, don't listen to those people, keep it real!!! :)
Posted by: . | October 7, 2009 6:55 AM
I downloaded the trial of this the other day based purely on the groovy art style! Hope it's good! I haven't had a chance to play it yet!
Posted by: Ujn Hunter | October 7, 2009 8:05 PM
DL'ed this today after trying the trial.
LOVE IT! Not sure if I like the absolute retro ideal of no continues (plenty retro games did have them you know), but it's still a great game none the less.
Only thing I would have added is the ability to kill enemies by jumping on their heads. If that's not "retro", I don't know what is.
Posted by: Tree-fiddy | October 22, 2009 2:56 AM