When they then decided to shove it into a dark corner of said marketplace, the People, now having tasted Freedom, revolted.

The most palpable reaction took form in the way of the Indie Games Summer Uprising, a grassroots effort instantiated by Dave Voyles and Kris Steele to aggregate and showcase the very best in XBOX Indie Games and draw them to the forefront.

Well what has now become an annual event for XNA coders to celebrate, is upon us once more. A micro revolution making progressively more noise, asking whoever will listen, whomever understands, to cast their vote for the top indie micro-games for XBOX Live of the year.

What matters is that the XBLIG marketplace is ever-improving and more and more we are seeing games graduate from said breeding ground to the likes of such now big players as Steam – arguably the new business model for the gaming industry.

In their own words:
“[Our goal is] to promote Xbox Live Indie Games in the best light possible by showcasing the diversity, talent, and potential of the platform as a whole.

Our goal is not to immediately boost initial sales, but long term exposure to the platform, as well as introduce developers to their audience and the industry.”

And we at XBLIGR, who have been shining a light on the good people making the effort since XNA 2.0 (heck look at the URL our main domin redirects you to – before they knew to call them the hipster “indie” term), salute that effort.

Learn more at the Indie Summer Uprising Official Site

Developer Summary:

It’s about a super-powered squirrel with bombs, in a semi-urban setting of puzzles. Somehow or another space is involved. Why haven’t you played this game yet?

What We Think:

The Few, The Proud, The Squirrelly

Cute, fluffy…highly destructive? Other than the small paragraph provided by DTA Entertainment about Urban Space Squirrels, there was little for me to go on in regards to just what this game was going to be about before I played it, it was left completely up to my imagination. Thankfully, the creation of this game was left completely up to the imaginations of the people of DTAE.

You play as agent 1337, a highly agile, incredibly intelligent super-squirrel with an armament of bombs so vast that only the Bush administration could have possibly provided it to him. However the twist is that these are antiparticle bombs, and rather than blowing up everything in sight, you use your bombs to flip switches, open locked gates, and propel yourself to otherwise unreachable heights. If you were hoping for mass squirrel destruction or a long-lost episode of Happy Tree Friends, forget about it, but don’t let that deter you, what’s waiting for you in this game is far more gripping, challenging and crafty than anything you will find in one of today’s uber-violent button-mashers.

This game will test your brain, your fingers, and your patience… and I mean that in the best way possible.

It’s Your World, Squirrel

Although not exploding (pun intended) with colourful creatures, or crafty character/level design, I still found this to be a highly polished and visually appealing title. Agent 1337 is well drawn and animated and his environments may be simple in concept, but they have a colourful bubble-gum visual aesthetic and help to add greatly to the ambiance. Objects and enemies are also simplistic in design, but do well to correspond to the look of the scenery, giving the title a somewhat 50’s approach to space design. I half expected Marvin the Martian to be a cameo, if not an end boss.

Even the menu screens have a pleasantly appealing cartoonish theme, somewhere along the lines of Dexter’s Laboratory or Clone High. Funny fonts, and simple background drawings help to add to the fun simplistic nature and really contribute to creating a light-hearted but well conceived design scheme.

Though this game will look best on higher resolution screens, It can be enjoyed on nearly any TV because of its basic approach. My TV sucks and I thought this game looked great.

Extreme Animal Testing

The game may not have been given much of a storyline, so here’s my take on it. Somewhere in the near future, scientists have realized that running a mouse through a wooden labyrinth in order to find a piece of cheese at the end is no longer a sufficient means with which to test an animal’s capacity for learning, Instead they arm them with endless bombs and set them loose in one of the craziest, mad-cap laboratories ever invented to see how they fare. What ensues is some of the most intense, skill-testing platforming action available since games like Ninja-Gaiden, or (dare I say it?) Castlevania.

Squirrels don't fear the Reaper

The game starts lightly enough, you can run, jump and deploy a single bomb to flip a switch, open a gate or launch you in the intended direction. It’s a well calculated control scheme which helps to keep things simple at first. Run with the left analog stock, jump with the A button. The right analog will aim the bomb in which ever direction you push it, and then you simply hold the left trigger to send your bomb off in that direction. The Bomb will continue travelling in the intended direction until you let go of the left trigger, the right trigger explodes that bomb. It kind of works along the line of the puzzle bobble games, except you control the distance for how far the bomb is launched, and you can (and will have to) move while launching.

That’s it: the entire game is mapped to 5 buttons.  Seems simple, right? The game becomes much more advanced however as you pick up multiple bombs , which then forces you to use these bombs in succession, or conjunction with each other to solve a variety of brilliantly crafted puzzles which are just as, if not more, intuitive than what you would find on the early NES platformers. After a couple of levels you’ll be thanking the sweet scientist above that you only have to worry about 5 buttons, as the puzzles move so quickly sometimes that any more would melt our tiny little brains, though the game may be pop-rock in design, It’s heavy-metal in game play.

Some of the more brilliant puzzles involve use of the old Metroid-launch-yourself-in-the-air-with-bombs tool, the twist on this is that now some puzzles will force you to precisely place those bombs at certain spots in a puzzle, and in the proper order of detonation(bombs only explode in the order they are launched). Other puzzles require impeccable timing and hand-eye co-ordination as you traverse your way through narrow corridors lined with death-rays.

One puzzle had me so flustered (though it was about 3 A.M at the time) that I was forced to retire for the evening, however I ran it over in my head so many times that I was able to figure it out while I wasn’t even playing. To me that is the true sign of amazing and highly addictive game design.
There were multiple moments in this game, where I swore I was ready to tear my hair out, but all the while I had a smile on my face. It’s a relentlessly challenging game that will push your skills to the limit, yet it will never feel like success is completely out of your grasp.

Even red-necks will love this game. YEEEHAWWW! Fried squirrel!

No Squirrels Were Harmed in the Making of this Game

That’s actually a lie. This is the kind of game where you will die, and die a lot. The designers however have taken this(and your sanity) into consideration. Kindly they have put a number of checkpoints throughout each level, which you will instantly warp back to as soon as you are electrocuted, fried or squashed, however you may only save at the beginning of a level, so you may want to persevere and finish a level if you feel like you’ve made considerable progress through it. Starting again at the beginning of a level can be a might frustrating.

Squirrel Trumps Hedgehog

If it were up to me I’d crown a new king of animal-based platformers. This is Classic-platforming action at the top of its game. Without a doubt DTAE has created something special, and although this game only took me a day to beat, It would be more than worth it to re-visit and try to best my top times and scores. I’m sure that if they continue to make games in the Urban-Space universe, this squirrel is gonna fly.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Developer: Stir-Fry Games
Genre: Sports and Recreation
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English
Price: 400 Microsoft Points

Developer Summary:

“Take your Avatar to the beach for some hard-hitting volleyball action! Play with or against your friends online, or guide your Avatar through the multi-season Career Mode featuring 30 Tournaments around the world and an RPG-style levelling system. If you liked SFG Soccer you will love this ground breaking volleyball game!”

What We Think:

Can an Avatar get Sunstroke?

When first setting foot on the sands of Stir-Fry Games SFG Beach Volleyball, you may think you’ve accidentally travelled to the Wii Sports resort. But fear not, sports fan, though it may have cartoony characters (Xbox Avatars actually) and an easy to use control scheme, there is much more depth on this court than you would find on anything in the Wii Resort. So put on some sunscreen and don the Ray Bans; it’s time to hit the sand.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia….Canada….Croatia….

Without a doubt, SFG Beach Volleyball is a good looking game,  the characters are cute and well animated, crowds cheer and look lively in the background, and the court itself is well modelled and textured. There are nice little touches throughout the game such as the ref signalling whose serve it is, sand particles scatter when you hit the ground for a dig, and you even get to see your Avatars taunt other Avatars upon scoring a point on the opposing team. Overall it comes across as a good environment for the XBOX mascots and in general it seems polished. That being said however, it’s hard for me to give adulations to a game that uses pre-designed characters(I understand the Idea of getting to take your XBOX persona to the court, But I would much prefer an original design scheme). Another small gripe that comes along with this is that no matter what city you’re in as part of your “world tour” It’s always the same court (I no idea Halifax was so lush and filled with palm-trees).  It is nice however to see your XBOX alter egos run, dive and spike their way around the court, as the animations are a definite highlight , and helps to add some much needed personality. It’s always a good time watching video game caricatures dis each other.

In Soviet Russia, volleyball spikes you.

The menus are simple and barely designed, mostly just text in red boxes, but they laid out well enough that you’ll never have a problem finding an option when needed.

I Can Dig It

Though the presentation value may be somewhat lacking in terms of originality, the game play certainly does a better job of keeping things fresh and fun. The control scheme is boiled down to a very simple three button approach.   The A button allows you to bump and set the ball to your team-mate (It is context sensitive and will make you either bump/set or dig for the ball depending on your proximity where the ball is about to land.   The B button will make you spike the ball if it is high enough in the air or if you are too far away to the ball will just force a return shot via a quick bump. The Y button is cleverly used in conjunction with the B button, where if you are in a situation in which you feel like your spike is about to get blocked you can use it to switch to an in air roll shot, which will allow for a slow tap over top of the defending player.

Making sand angels has never been so intuitive.

It’s a simple and intuitive design scheme that will allow anyone to pick up and play, however there is considerable depth when it comes to spiking the ball. Upon Pressing the B button (to spike) a meter begins to fill up, If you manage to release B at the right moment your player will go into what is called the spike cam. Consider it to be like bullet time for volleyball. As your player jumps into the air time slows down for everything except your aiming reticule which can really help you assess where you want to place your spike depending on the current positioning of your opponents, it also allows for a good opportunity to use your roll-shots properly which often go unused otherwise. A pleasant highlight to this mode is the ability to bean your opponent with a well placed powerspike driving them down into the sand, this feels fairly reminiscent of games like Super Spike V-ball, without the whole glowing hand bit, and sadly there is no cameo appearance by Billy or Jimmy Lee. Though the spike cam may seem overly powerful at first and at times almost unfair, the computer AI does an excellent job on harder difficulty levels to space out properly and not give you too many openings.

Defence doesn’t have anything as interesting or unique as the spike cam, however SFG Beach Volleyball does implement a very clever design scheme which helps you to keep things organized between you and your computer controlled teammate, with a simple press of the left bumper you can designate them to either guard the net and block spikes or play the line and dig for you. I’ve found that at any given moment your computer may be stellar at one or the other position, and it can be a good thing for you to know when to switch between the two. That being said, you should also learn how to play both positions properly as well.

A Day at the Beach? Mmmm… Make it Two…or Three.

SFG Beach Volleyball comes complete with a variety of options and game modes. There are exhibition modes, online modes and to top it all off there is a robust World Tour mode which allows you to build a player up by entering tournaments which allows you to win money. You then use this money to buy stat points which you can apply to various areas of your players game such has shot aim, shot power and speed. It’s well thought out, paced properly and adds greatly to the replay value of the game. Expect a good 15-20 hours of extra play time just by entering this mode, and should you choose to play with a friend the money you gain must be spread between the two of you which extends the life of the game even further. Not to mention that this game is even better when played with a friend.

This game has a tremendous amount of replay value, and you may find yourself spending more time at the beach than you originally planned.

Download a trial or purchase SFG Beach Volleyball at XBOX Live Marketplace