Title: Bricks4Ever
Developer: Running Pixel
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 80 Points
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English

Developer Summary:
A whole new light on the breakout style games world. Play with the double stick mode, enjoy the coop modes and the 50 levels. Play for ever with the neverending mode and the relaxing Zen mode; hours of fun for all the blocks/bricks games fans!  Ready for the challenge?

What Our Reviewers Think:
Bricks4Ever is a classic arcade-style brick breakout game.  At fifty levels, plus a randomly generated infinite level mode, its a decent sized game for the price. The graphics are a little on the retro side, but rightfully so. Mixed with higher resolution and bright colors, they add a great overall feel to the experience.  The co-op mode seems tacked on. This is the style of game you play by yourself.  As much as I enjoyed it, I can only give this one a two for originality – it’s not hard to go wrong with a classic proven game-style especially when many of these XNA developers are essentially retro modding already working templates; the breakout game has been done and redone so many times they all kind of blend together and there is nothing ground-breaking about this latest execution which will likely fade away into obscurity.

On the positive side, it has a great soundtrack, some decent glowing neon graphics and a list of power-ups that seem to comprise almost all the iterations you have seen in previous versions, rolled into one package.   Twin stick mode?  You will love it or hate it – imagine another platform on the opposite side of the field that you also control.  You can use it to steer the ball from both sides for more accuracy, but purists may find it just gets in the way.  If you feel like revisiting Arkanoid, this time with extra KoolAdeTM crystals, then 80 Microsoft points will be a small sacrifice to pay, it is among the better breakouts on XBLIG, not that that’s saying much.

Rating:  

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Title: Who Did I Date Last Night
Creator: North West
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: 80 Points
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English

Developer Summary:
She’s the girl of your dreams, but you can’t remember who she is.

What Our Reviewers Think:
To begin with WDIDLN is really more of a strategy/puzzle game rather than action and adventure as listed at Xbox.com.  I enjoyed playing through the demo one time through and had a few good laughs but even within that amount of time began to get bored by the one-note interaction. Though the idea shows promise, the developers could stand to take their idea a lot further.

Essentially, the game takes you through a variety of hints to help you figure out the girl whom you dated last night.  “She was a blonde,” “Her occupation was a model,” “She loved the beach,” “She posed like a model in her picture,” “You met her at the bar.”   By deductive processes you narrow down things down to the last few candidates to match up with the girl of your dreams.  It’s all up to you!   Unfortunately it does not constitute a game, it constitutes a chapter of a game or a puzzle within one at best.   Sad to say the demo doesn’t allow you to find out whether or not you were correct at picking your date.  I wouldn’t spend money on the full game versus playing the demo for free; it’s good for one round but I can’t envision a much richer experience beyond that.

Rating:  

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Title: Paint Boll
Developer: CandelaCreations
Genre: Shooter
Price: 80 Points
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English

Developer’s Summary:
Shoot paint balls at your opponent and hit the most splashes or collect max bonus points to win. 5 independent levels including level customization for personalizing challenges. May the best player win!

What We Think:
For this game you need two players, so scratch out playing if you are a lonely gamer looking for some “shoot-em-up fun.” It’s a basic set up with minimal places to hide and in the end I found it rather boring. I do like the premise and I think the creators should elaborate on it, make it for 1-4 players with more hiding areas…or obstacles in the way that would defer your attention to your opponent. With all the amazingly artistic and creative indie game ideas emerging on the market, I give it 2 out of 5 stars. For the idea, the work that was put into it…but I think it is a work in progress that has room for further development. I’d definitely want to play this game if it was more exciting, or in other words, elaborate.

Rating:  

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