Christmas Carnage (XBLIG) Review

Christmas Carnage is available now on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

 Everybody loves christmas right? Apparently not the people at Bandana Games as they have released Christmas Carnage, a game about shooting everything that signifies Christmas.

Ok. So you open the game to a very basic menu, that looks like it could have been made with Paint. BUT there is a cute little countdown to Christmas ay bobbing about near the top. It's a nice touch, but it doesn't really detract from the clipart-esque fairy stood by the side.

Stay on this menu long enough and you'll be treated*note the hint of sarcasm* to the voice acting/sound affects. Oh God it is bad. It's lazy and nowhere near as merry as the nice, christmas music.


Go into the game and unfortunately the clipart theme continues. It's bad background after bad background as you're pitted against varying Christmas themed enemies. The scrolling text at the bottom is actually pretty funny...but if you're the one playing be warned, reading it all may well lead to your death, it scrolls along AS the enemies come onto the screen.


It's a typical twin-stick shooter, nothing new there. And I guess there is a certain charm to it. It plays pretty well, but you may want to turn down the volume, the voice acting gets annoying very quickly.

The point of the game is to get the highest score. So you'd expect to see a Leaderboard of some type right? WRONG. There are no leaderboards in this game, not even local ones, it just records your best ever score. That is all. That's a very poor show in a game like this, hopefully something the developer will look into doing in the future.

At 80MSP it's worth a try. It's not going to break the bank and it provides a little entertainment. Nothing spectacular but nothing too bad it shouldn't be there.

4/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Realms of Ancient War (XBLA) Review

Realms of Ancient War is available now on the XBLA Marketplace for 1200MSP.

Now I have mentioned many a time how much I LOVE co-op dungeon-crawler RPG type games. Once the kids are in bed me and my other half pick up a controller each and go to town. RPG games are for us the creme-de-la-creme and they have an extra cherry on top if they're co-op.

So, by rights we both should have loved this game, right? Wrong. I have found it very difficult to carry on playing this game for the purpose of this review. I have lost interest in this game more times than I can count and have frequently turned it off to look for fun elsewhere. He likes it though, he's not overly enthused by it but he doesn't quite understand why I am SO bored by it.

Off the bat you pick between the three characters available, a mage, a warrior damage-dealer and a rogue. We both opt for the same characters we always do...he the warrior and me the rogue. Upon choosing them you are dropped straight into the game and it all starts to fall apart.

NO WORLD MAP! NO MINI-MAP! Quintessential in an RPG no? Well say bye-bye because this game only has a pretty useless world map INBETWEEN levels. Not good.

RPG's for me have always been best when there is at least a lose basis of tactics involved. R.A.W laughs in the face of tactics and doesn't even give players the option to roll, dodge, counter or otherwise. Just keep hitting, keep bashing the attack button and your golden. VERY, VERY basic. It means you just stand trading damage with others and running when you seem a little bit f*cked. Mage class is where this is worse, obviously, and when we did attempt to play as the mage the game just verged on the ridiculous.

The skill 'tree' (I have used this term VERY loosely as you'll see) is again extremely basic. There is no real tree. Each character has a certain amount of skills that they can level up three times. Done. It doesn't really offer any chance for customisation, something which I feel is very important.

The graphics are pretty good, everything is pretty dark, but I can't really pick on anything except the pretty crappy attack animations. They're just a bit jarring. The music is alright too, pretty atmospheric, but nothing too exciting.

Too sum it up there just isn't really anything to this game. It's very basic and monotonous and has no stand-out good points. It is what it is. Priced at 1200MSP I think this game is a total rip-off, maybe priced at 800MSP it'd have a chance. 1200MSP just seems like far too high an asking price for the quality of game you get.

If you love dungeon-crawlers and it goes on sale, maybe give it a go. Otherwise I'd say skip on this one.

4/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Deadlight (XBLA) Review

Deadlight is available now on the XBLA Marketplace for 1200MSP.

I love zombies, or as they're called in this game 'Shadows' who doesn't? I know the market is kinda saturated with zombies at the minute but there is obviously a reason for that. Zombie games, when done well, work VERY well...and they bring in the money,

When I first heard of Deadlight I knew I wanted to play it. 2D Platformer-style game with added zombs?! YES PLEASE. This game merges the two biggest reasons I am constantly searching the XBLA Marketplace, and boy does it do it well!

The story is cool. Set in the past we learn there has been an outbreak of a mutated form of rabies, creating the shadows. The shadows are the walking dead, only looking for one thing, nice fresh flesh to sink their teeth into. I LOVE that this game mentions a mutated form of rabies, as it seems that if zombies were to become a real issue, that would probably be where it would come from. It makes the most sense, no?

The animation style is right up my street, cartooony comic-style cutscenes explain the story between all the 2D platforming goodness. The voice acting is good too. Not overdone and not cheap and tacky, refreshing after some of the games I have recently played. Once we get into the game itself the graphics continue to be awesome. They've created a 3D environment which looks amazing. One of the things I loved the most is that, whilst our character is moving on a 2D rail at the front of the picture, shadows animate in the background and come into the 2D plain for you to grapple with. The 3D animation and integration is really impressive and definitely helps this game stand out as one of my favourites this year. The movement you can see in the background is quite chilling at times and definitely helps to create tension. I found myself not breathing a fair few times whilst I desperately raced a shadow to the exit. 

Now many of you will be aware of my gripes regarding tutorials. Yes we don't always need them, but I do like them to be there. This games tutorial is PERFECT. It doesn't get in the way of the game, it works seamlessly to show you how to get the best from the game and doesn't really feel like a tutorial. A*!

The game plays so well and has plenty of finishing touches that makes this experience so brilliant. Little things like being able to taunt the shadows to lure them to your position. It definitely makes this game a little less frustrating and a lot more like a survival game. I loved the way you can barge through locked doors too. Very cool. And it is pretty HARD, which it should be. It is very easy to be overwhelmed by the shadows and not so difficult to kill them. They can take you down fairly quickly if there is a few of them and the addition of a limited stamina bar only adds to that pressure. Stamina drains relatively fast and once it's drained your screen goes all shaky, another neat feature. I HATED it, but in a good way because I only hated the stress it brought me and the fact I couldn't keep tapping 'b' to get out of trouble.   Stamina is a big thing in this game. The shadows are fast, faster than you UNLESS you are sprinting, so you really have to save it for those sticky situations where running is your only option. There are MANY points where you literally scrape through and survive, making this a much more realistic zombie game than some.

All is not lost though. Yes it seems pretty difficult being faced with the all these shadows, but in a lot of places you can use the environment against them. For example you can turn on the electrics and lure them into the current. Or under a car you are duly going to drop from a crane. All good fun.

The collectables were a bit of an issue for me. I LOVED being able to read Randall's diary and get a glimpse into who he is, and I found it was a really good, realistic story-telling device. What is not realistic is that these pages are scattered all over the place. WHY?! But the diary does drive you to want them all, you want to know the whole story and this is a good way to hear about the past without any jarring story-sequences. 

Now for the issues I had, and there really wasn't that many. One of which could probably have been solved if I just had curtains. This game is very dark. Literally pitch black in points. Playing this on a bright sunny day with my humongous windows made me turn the brightness all the way up to just barely be able to see. The game isn't losing any marks for that though, just be aware you may need to fiddle with some settings. Physics are sometimes quite realistic, like when Randall is wading through water, but at other times not too good. I have no problem with bad physics in a plat former, its the inconsistency that was a little annoying. The levels are not that realistic but they do work well. It's just hard for total emersion if you're looking around thinking 'there is NO WAY that would ever be there'. But that's it. A very small list of NIGGLES are the only negative things I could think to pick at.

This is definitely one of the best platformers I've ever played. Platformers generally lack story and this game has a great one. It feels different, fresh and new. I can honestly recommend this game WHOLE-HEARTEDLY to ANYONE. This game NEEDS to feature in your game list. BUY IT!

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Lucky (XBLIG) Review

Lucky is available now on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

As I've mentioned before I am a massive fan of point and click games. This game had my attention straight away and I feel very Lucky to have been able to review it. Ok that was awful...sorry!

The game has some of the most AMAZING graphics I have ever seen in an Indie game, even better than some XBLA games. They are truly impressive, but this isn't the only thing that makes this game worthy of the score given below. The story is intriguing, mysterious. The writing is a little hammy and over-stated but that can be forgiven. This story is actually quite refreshing. You play as a man, who after having a one-night stand with a girl said girl tells you you're going to die today. She's pretty horrid to the poor guy too. But she's right, on his morning jog he drops dead, and guess who's there to lead him through the afterlife? Yep the girl he slept with, inexplicably jogging in what looks like leather underwear...strange. Every time you see her she is in varying states of undress, something which might impress the teenage boys who buy this game but just felt pointless to me.
The music in this game is again, some of the best I've come across. Truly atmospheric. Fairly mellow most of the time, but dramatic when needed. It's honestly a work of art.
The riddles and puzzles aren't too difficult and the game progresses well. As mentioned before some of the dialogue is a little cliched but it is easy to forgive when presented with everything else.

Overall this game makes for an impressive point and click. It's pretty original, works very well and is truly a piece of art. The graphics and music alone are worth 80MSP to witness so this is a definite Buy It!

8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Halloween Scream (XBLIG) Review

Halloween Scream is available now on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

Text based games never seem to work so well do they? But is's been awhile since I played one so I contacted the dev for a code and I've got to say I wasn't disappointed!
I was one of the geeky kids, nose in a book most of the time I wasn't near my console when I was a kid. And I used to LOVE the books that gave you decisions to make and pages to turn to depending on which decision you made. The games I've played never seem to be able to live up to the enjoyment I gleaned from these books. This game actually surprised me.

Now obviously I can't talk about graphics because there aren't any really. There is just frame after frame  of text and then up to four choices at the bottom. The writing is pretty hammy in parts too. It feels pretty over-exaggerated for the most part and there doesn't seem much sense to some of it. It feels like the writers just wanted to add words. Sometimes it works, sometimes the game feels slightly more atmospheric because of the writing but mostly it's just pretty jarring. Letting that go though the story is pretty good. Ok maybe it's just ok. But still that is more than I expected.

You're called to Highmoor House on Halloween to collect your inheritance from a long-forgotten distant aunt. You must work your way through the house and the various puzzles it gives you to find out what the inheritance is. I won't spoil it for you, but it's not what I was expecting.

Overall this game provided me with just under an hours worth of gaming. And I didn't really get bored. I wasn't that excited either, but come on who gets excited over text? It was an all-round ok experience that won't leave you wanting more but that won't leave you feeling ripped-off either. Try it!

6/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Demon House FPS (XBLIG) Review

Demon House FPS is currently available on the XBLIG Marketplace for 80MSP.

This game had my interest from the moment I saw it. Which is unusual for me, I think this is probably only one of five Indie FPS's I have played. I normally stick to the bigger budget shooters. But this looked a little bit new so I definitely wanted to try it!
The games graphics are pretty good by XBLIG standards, some of the other games released are just atrocious. This one looks pretty good though, not amazing but not eye-achingly bad either. I have a feeling most people will recognise this game as looking Bioshock-esque and it's true it does look like a poorer man's Bioshock, especially the guns.
The game is about you, an alchemist, defeating an alchemist gone bad. He's making steam-powered machines that kill by putting dead people's souls in. Nothing that new here, but again not too tired.
The gameplay for me is where this game really shone. Yes the story feels kind of old and tired and there are plenty of shooters out there with better graphics as long as you're willing to pay the higher price tag. But this game plays really well. The controls are familiar to anyone who has played a shooter before so there isn't any need to bash the buttons at the beginning to see what does what. The enemies are varied and there are plenty of them. The game just feels smooth, even when there are multiple enemies gunning for you.

For 80MSP this game should definitely make an appearance on most people's game list. As I mentioned it's nothing new but it works pretty well. And 80MSP is peanuts. So just Try It and see :)

6/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.