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Halfbrick Rocket Racing When I started this new format for Trial Rundowns, I didn’t expect to have a hard time choosing a game of the week. If anything, the hard decision would come during those weeks when every single game sucked. So imagine my surprise when I had to choose between four great games this week. Halfbrick Rocket Racing, Avatar Drop, Kuchibi, and Avatar Golf are all impressive releases that are worth your time. Halfbrick Rocket Racing is your game of the week for a few reasons – all of these titles are great fun, but Rocket Racing barely edges out the competition by offering something a little more unique to the Indie Games’ library.
Rocket Racing is an overhead, futuristic racing game – think R.C. Pro-Am mixed with Wipeout. Your vehicle of choice is a rocket car with powerful, individually-controlled jet engines. The default control scheme has you throttling the triggers for precise control, but most people will find the beginner layout to be ideal. Once you adjust to the controls, it’s all about beating your times on 40 different courses or taking on your friends in local multiplayer. The twist in Halfbrick Rocket Racing is its edge-of-your-seat wall-hugging mechanic. Crashing into walls will cause a time penalty, but brushing your rockets along them will give you a record-smashing, race-winning boost. Combine this with real online leaderboards, and you have a recipe for a lost afternoon. (240pts)
Avatar Golf Avatar Golf is a casual take on golf with online play, leaderboards, and a great course creation tool. It also happens to have avatar support, but that’s just a gimmick in what is otherwise a fully-featured game. The course editor is a particular standout feature. The toolset is simple to use, and your designs aren’t bogged down by too many artificial limits. It’s super simple to create a pirate-ship laden moat around the green, surround that with a village, surround that with a forest, and then unleash it on unsuspecting friends. The only thing holding this game back is some atrocious loading that can significantly bog down the experience. (400pts)
Kuchibi XBLI is overflowing with great puzzle games, and Kuchibi is no different. What sets it apart is a clever mix of Pipe Dream (or the hacking minigame in Bioshock) and a little bit of Hexic. Just as in Pipe Dream, the goal is to connect pipes and create long chains, but you can eliminate a chain at any time. This is where the Hexic bit comes in, as you create elaborate, high-scoring arrangements, you must carefully ensure you don’t send the whole thing toppling down too soon. (240pts)
Avatar Drop Avatar Drop is blazing trails in the realm of avatar violence. Microsoft says you won’t be shooting at your avatar, but at least you can drop them the sky and mangle them on floating obstacles. Your goal is to navigate your avatar through the vertical course, popping balloons and diving through rings for points. Aside from that, it’s just a lot of fun to toss your avatar around. There’s not a lot to Avatar Drop, but it’s a hilarious and well-made distraction for only a buck. (80pts)
??????????? shining blood Shining blood is an odd treat – it plays somewhat like Virtual On or other mech games, but it looks like Rez played through a filter of crimson. The goal is to navigate your sluggish mech through an arena of odd enemies, figure out how to kill them, and move on to the next arena. It’s certainly not a perfect game, but it gets by with an almost avant garde design that will compel enthusiasts to explore its depths. (400pts)
Crystal Spear remake Question of the week: What is Crystal Spear a remake of? I certainly can’t find it anywhere. This game, remake or not, is another one of those bite-sized experiences that’s hard to deny. You have your fun within the trial time, navigating in first-person perspective through a hallway of obstacles. You continuously increase in speed as long as you don’t crash, and you can slow time to make last second dodges. You may find you’ve had your fill by the end of the trial, but that’s the idea, the developer even encourages it. (80pts)
The Answer to Life (80pts) – Pure evil condensed into 5MB. The Answer to Life is little more than a text-based gimmick. But hey, it comes with yet another version of Get the Ball so it can’t be that bad, right?
Sky_Arena (80pts) – While it’s nice to see the son of God taking a stab at indie game design (the developer’s name is Jesus), this half-baked flight sim doesn’t offer the kind of divine perfection you’d expect from our savior.
????????? ????????? (240pts) – After stumbling through some Japanese menus you’re dumped into a pit of despair (dancing anime girls) with no means of escape.
Mini Golf 360 (80pts) – If this is an approximation of real mini golf then the developer should have calculated a few more decimal places.
Color Break (80pts) – Color Break is Pong mixed with – surprise – Ikaruga. All these color-matching action games aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but this one just falls flat.
Dark Skies: Constellations (240pts) – Cool stargazing app, unfortunately priced.
Fireworks Spectacular (80pts)
Wizard’s Tower Screen Saver (80pts)
Flash Cards for Kids (240pts)
Stereo3D Gallery (80pts)