Xbox Live Indie Games Insider Volume 5

Are the latest indie releases worth your time? GameZone travels abroad to go deep undercover and find out so that you don’t have to*.

*No GameZone employees had to travel or go undercover for the making of this article.

Acid Rain Heroes

Although *spoiler alert!* I’m going to recommend skipping this one although has a decent premise that could have made for a solid game. You play the survivor of a volcanic blast who resides in the mountains. Your camp is being seiged by acid rain and magma. To solve the dilemma, you radio for help and, like magic, a helicopter arrives (flying right over the erupting volcano and through the acid rain with no problems).

But wait, there are other survivors, and seeing as how this game isn’t named “Acid Rain Run-For-Your-Life-It’s-A-%$&^ing-Volcano!” like it should be, you volunteer to go rescue them. Gameplay has you dodging 2D rain (which falls from the top of the screen to the bottom without ever hitting the ground) like a mash-up of Custer’s Revenge and Dante’s Peak. Taking cover behind trees, you’ll need to locate survivors and bring them back to the pickup point. The key flaw in the game’s design (other than the amateurish UI) is that running up the map is infinitely more difficult than moving downward. You can zoom out to help to plan routes and dodge acid better, except that that inexplicably causes more rain to fall, defeating the entire purpose. So, to summarize: Entire game is an escort mission mashed up with an annoying hazard mechanic.

SKIP IT!

Seizonrenda

One of the very first (and still one of the best) games released for the PlayStation Network was Super Stardust HD, a top-down arcade shooter where you revolve around a globe shooting asteroids and blowing everything up while trying not to get hit. Seizonrenda is kinda like that. Just kidding, it’s exactly like that. It’s identical to SSHD in nearly every way, except that it doesn’t look or sound quite as good. For 400 MS points, that’s kind of a death sentence, considering Stardust’s audio/visual presentation is what makes it such an intense experience. Still, unless you have a PS3, this might be good enough, but just barely.

DEMO IT!

Game of the Week:

Snail Story

ZOMG where are the aliens and boobs and zombies and headshots?! Unfortunately, for the majority of Xbox 360 owners, Snail Story has nothing to offer. What it does manage to do, however, is provide a quality kids’ edutainment title that outshines every atrocious attempt from EA, Activision, or Random Developer #435 on the Wii. The sharp, colorful storybook graphics and child voice-overs lend a pleasant aesthetic to the game, and the simple puzzles and mini-games will keep younger players busy without frustrating them. If you want something for the kids when daddy’s not playing Modern Warfare, this is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

BUY IT!