Week in Review
Dec 13 – 19
Rather meh week all around. Oh well, next week looks like it’s shaping up to have some good things.
Painting Party (80 MS) – Draw pictures online with your friends.
Home Run Challenge (80 MS) – Avatar baseball hitting game.
Colaris (80 MS) – If you’re not going to give us any screenshots, why should we care about your game?
Avatar Match (80 MS) – Matching memory game with avatars.
Avatar Wave: Snowball Fight (240 MS) – Throw snowballs at avatars.
Square Off (240 MS) – Jetpack wearing faces shoot things. Decent fun in single player but geared for multiplayer.
Snail Shot Torpedo (400 MS) – Liked the intro story, but the slingshot shooter gameplay wasn’t very fun.
PARTYBOAT (400 MS) – High production values, but the humor fell flat for me.
Goblyn Stomp (80 MS) – Old timey graphics are nice, but gameplay grows old quickly.
Game Created by a 5th Grader (80 MS) – Congrats to the kid, but I’d skip the game.
Cut and Run (80 MS) – Avatar running game.
Pilot Test (80 MS) – Dodge a bunch of bouncing shapes.
Magnetic Defender (240 MS) – Vertical shmup where you have to use a magnetic to protect your escorts. Not awful, but not great either.
Sidehill Gouger (80 MS) – Good graphics, but a high level of luck removes the fun out of this puzzle game.
The Flight Before Christmas (80 MS) – Another Santa flash game.
dot.Error (80 MS) – Stylish low tech graphics with gameplay similar to the arcade game, Defender.
PanopLines (80 MS) – Weird Tetris
Grave Breaker (80 MS) – Veks & Silence mini expansion Pack
Dec 6 – 12
Amazing week for the service. Besides my own game, Leave Home, Gerbil Physics, Bonk, and Johnny Platform Saves Christmas are all must-buys in my book. There are some other pretty good games in there as well.
Bonk (80 MS) – Really good Breakout/Arkanoid clone. Probably the best one on the XBox 360 so far.
Soaring Santa (80 MS) – Simple flash-style game where you dodge obstacles as Santa.
Mind Warp (80 MS) – Skip.
Leave Home (240 MS) – Amazing side-scrolling shmup. Full review coming soon.
Border Wars (240 MS) – Okay sidescrolling shooter with ship customization.
Herman (400 MS) – First impressions were not good, but it’s strangely addicting. Funny as well.
QB Tron (80 MS) – 3D Tetris.
Crimson Blues (80 MS) – Puzzle/Platformer with some interesting ideas.
Molly the Were-Zompire (80 MS) – It’s my game! Buy it, please!
Cannon #12 (80 MS) – Not a good shmup.
Rate My Avatar (80 MS) – I could see this being fun for some people, but I doubt it will attract a large enough audience.
Runic (240 MS) – Not a bad puzzle game.
Christmas Tree 3D (240 MS) – My wife liked the cheaper 2D Christmas tree app more.
Chris Unarmed (240 MS) – Good platformer. See full review.
Don’t Be Nervous Talking to Girls (80 MS) – Video of a cute girl plus idiotic dialogue & stupid gameplay.
Johnny Platform Saves Christmas (240 MS) – Excellent game. See full review.
It’s Say on Set (80 MS) – Traditional Japanese guessing game.
Guardian (240 MS) – Fun shooter where you have to defend Earth from a satellite.
Fractal Dive (80 MS) – You can’t dive very far before it gets pixelated.
Hydro Electric Worker (240 MS) – Very retro. Amusing for a minute or two.
Gerbil Physics (80 MS) – Really good puzzle game where you have to knock blocks down with bombs & stuff.
BugRace (400 MS) – Multiplication board game with good graphics & videos which would be more fun if it wasn’t so slow.
Dual Zone (240 MS) – Most of my deaths were due to enemies being so small I couldn’t tell what color they were.
Duel: The Art of Combat (240MS) – Fun, fast-paced Death Tank/Worms clone. Grappling hook is a blast.
Nov 29 – Dec 5
Globe Clicker, Boom Chick Chick, and Holiday Trivia are the highlights this week.
myChristmas (240 MS) – Simulator of a room with a Christmas tree, music player, clock, etc. Looks nice, but feels kind of pointless.
Oichyokabu Online (240 MS) – Japanese card game.
Powa Volley Classic (80 MS) – Lite version of Powa Volley.
Ikaroids (240 MS) – Space shmup that looks nice & has several ships to choose from, but some of the basics were off.
Pixelpix (80 MS) – Fun little picross game, but there are free alternatives online.
Avatar Avenue (80 MS) – Avatar screensaver.
Rebound (240 MS) – Really bad wannabe anime art combined with a lame ball bouncing game.
Snake Maze (80 MS) – Randomly generated maze game.
Spooky (80 MS) – Ghost herding game.
Holiday Trivia (80 MS) – Good for what it is. Works well with the Scene-It controllers. Lack of pause function was annoying.
Boom Chick Chick (80 MS) – Shmup with auto-targeting. Mindless fun.
Globe Clicker (240 MS) – Find cities and landmarks quickly. Pretty visuals. Fun & educational. Wish it had multiplayer.
Squirm (80 MS) – If you want Snake, this game does a decent job of it.
Christmas Tree (80 MS) – Decorate a 2D Christmas tree.
Sqong Christmas (80 MS) – Breakout with presents instead of blocks.
Nov 22 – 28
Weird versions of Tetris seem to be the “It” thing this week. Be sure to check out City Rain.
ARC Ninja Edition (80 MS) – Cheap, lite version of a bad racing game I review recently.
Starbase Epsilon (80 MS) – Multiplayer space strategy game.
Matrix2 (400 MS) – Japanese falling object puzzle game.
Buttons (80 MS) – Another Simon Says clone.
Relic Raider (400 MS) – Maybe it gets better later on, but it seems like a bad version of Pac-Man.
Words in a Word (240 MS) – The title sums it up. Word creation game.
Musicus (400 MS) – Interesting music/puzzle idea, but controls are too loose for the precision this game wants.
ButtonHoldingExtravaganzaParty (80 MS) – Multiplayer button pressing non-fun.
Jump Duck (80 MS) – Jump or duck to dodge lasers. Sort of fun in multiplayer.
Avatar Casino Slots #1 (80 MS) – Seems good for what it is, but I never saw the appeal of slots.
City Rain (400 MS) – Review coming soon. Short review = Be sure to download this.
Gravity (240 MS) – A little clunky around the edges, but I enjoyed this gravity-based platformer.
Balloon Blocks (240 MS) – Tetris meets physics-based gameplay. Fun idea in theory, but not very fun in practice.
Txingurri (240 MS) – Variant on ChuChuRocket
The Impossible Game (80 MS) – For full review click here.
Life (80 MS) – A classic, but less fun than I remembered.
Platypus (400 MS) – For full review click here.
Catch22 (240 MS) – Interesting take-on Tetris. Demo was too short to tell if I liked it or not.
Nov 15-21
A decent week. I had a lot of fun with Aardvark & Aesop’s Garden. Some of the other games aren’t too shabby either.
A Killer’s Dream (80 MS) – Pass.
Neo Terra (80 MS) – Strategy game.
Aardvark (240 MS) – Good Breakout/Arkanoid clone.
Marvelous Galaxy (80 MS) – Strategy game with poor instructions.
The Earth Move with the Moon (240 MS) – Fun little gravity puzzle game. Not sure why it isn’t 80 MS.
Wool (80 MS) – Sheep herding game with cute visuals, but I’m not sure that herding sheep is inherently fun.
Inside Lacrosse’s CL2010 (400 MS) – Lacrosse game.
Aesop’s Garden (240 MS) – Good block pushing puzzle game with spot-on NES style presentation.
Xmas Taxi (80 MS) – Retro game where you fly around in a taxi, taking people to various platforms.
Crisis Nuclear Holocaust (80 MS) – Button pressing game.
Jumper Robot (240 MS) – Average platformer.
Nov 8 – 14
Really slow week. Armor Valley is worth checking out, but everything else can be safely skipped.
Armor Valley (400 MS) – Simple RTS where you can support your troops with an armored helicopter. Nice visuals.
Ultimate Arcade Chat Rooms (80 MS) – Pointless.
Alderman (240 MS) – Very poor 3D knight shooter with “My first 3D graphix!”
Kissy Poo (80 MS) – Any child old enough to control an analog stick is unlikely to be interested in this.
yom_Fury (80 MS) – Cheap version of a poor Pac-Man clone.
Starfield Battle (240 MS) – Mediocre dual-stick shmup.
Avatar Rockets (80 MS) – Not good. If you want a silly multiplayer avatar game, go with Avatar Drop instead.
Lemonade Ltd. (80 MS) – There are better free versions online: www.classbrain.com/cb_games/cb_gms_bag/lemonade.html
Nov 1 – 7
Experiment 12 (80 MS) – Poor N+ clone with gravity reversing.
Headshot 2 (80 MS) – Review available here.
The Flashlight (80- MS) – Only useful if you’re the protagonist in the WiiWare game, Lit.
Tank-tastic (240 MS) – Overhead tank game.
Snaker Ace (400 MS) – Another snake game.
Mirror (80 MS) – Guess where the mirrored image is! Not fun, but at least the backgrounds are pretty.
Antigrav Racing Championship (400 MS) – Review available here.
Space Milkman (240 MS) – Puzzle/Platformer. Not bad.
Lodestar 1000 (80 MS) – Simon Says with retro visuals & music.
Scare Me (80 MS) – Halloween app after Halloween.
Squid Yes! Not So Octopus! (80 MS) – Really good Robotron-style shooter.
Oct 25 – 31
They Came from the Ground (80 MS) – Another volleyball game.
Tiger Storm (240 MS) – Another tank shooter.
SFG Soccer (400 MS) – Full review available here.
Mr BeatLoop (240 MS) – Music toy.
T-Kara (80 MS) – Puzzle matching game where you move entire rows/columns at a time. Not particularly fun.
Beat Hazard (400 MS) – Full review available here.
Freqµency (240 MS) – Poor color-based Megaman wannabe.
Link Attack (80 MS) – Puzzle game that looks nice but seems too simple to be enjoyable.
Guns Loaded (240 MS) – Yet another sidescrolling space shooter that doesn’t understand the genre.
omg cats game@#$ (240 MS) – Lame joke game.
Pass the Pad (80 MS) – Multiplayer word game.
Primary Attack (80 MS) – Multiplayer strategy game involving colors.
Drinkards (400 MS) – Drinking game.
Ganbare Natsuki San (80 MS) – Platformer/puzzle with a grappling hook. Basically free so worth a try.
Equitunes (80 MS) – Puzzle game that relies more on luck than anything else.
Oct 18 – 24
Very Hungry Pumpkin (80 MS) – Nice graphics, simple dodge gameplay.
Halloween HD (80 MS) – Screensaver.
Amniotic (80 MS) – Very good dual-stick shmup. Not as deep or varied as Echoes+.
Arkedo Series – 02 SWAP! (240 MS) – Tried and true puzzle game with excellent production values.
Run Away (80 MS) – Simple run & jump game.
Krisotron (80 MS) – Ugly and unbalanced dual-stick shmup but still fun.
Crate Expectations (240 MS) – Multiplayer box pushing game. Not very fun.
Poker Blinds (240 MS) – Poker app.
Carcophony (400 MS) – Full review available here.
Speed Factory (80 MS) – Weak music game.
HuntersLunch (80 MS) – Fun block pushing puzzle game with special effect items & enemies.
LOL Runner (80 MS) – Not very fun. Not very funny.
Night of Doom (80 MS) – Barebones FPS.
yOm (400 MS) – Incomprehensible Pac-Man clone.
Epiphany in Spaaace! (80 MS) – My game.
Boring Space Shooter (80 MS) – Better than the name indicates but there are superior choices.
Banana Split (240 MS) – Full review available here.
Pumpkin Chop (80 MS) – Nice presentation. Controls are a bit touchy.
Astro Match3 (240 MS) – Generic puzzle game.
Crosstown (400 MS) – Surprisingly fun retro game.
Echoes+ (240 MS) – Full review available here.
Oct 11-17, 2009
Powa Volley = Pretty good fantasy volleyball game with creepy looking characters.
Influence = Good idea but poor execution.
Minigolf Mania = Respectable minigolf game.
Gallery: World Cities = It’s a screensaver.
Hangman = It’s Hangman.
IncaBlocks = There’s a reason why competitive 3D puzzle games haven’t caught on.
Capture the Oong = Spaceship arena game with bad graphics & complicated controls.
Ura Kaiten Patissier = An otherwise good game brought down by boring level design.
Colosseum: Hammerball = It’s basically hockey without goalies. Not my thing.
A-Maze!-ING = Really bad version of Frogger. Really bad.
Trippin’ Alien = Why do people keep making one button helicopter games?
Dark = Stylish graphics but not a whole lot of content. Worth trying.