Xbox Live Community Games

Not that many of you will care (due to lack of interest or lack of Xbox), but some community games have been released to the general public on Xbox Live. The community games are made by anyone who wants to make some neat, little games...and has purchased the $99 development kit. The best of those games (rated by others who have made the purchase) get released to the whole Xbox community.

I tried a couple of these trials and want to put down my thoughts. Artoon is a interesting platformer pitting an inkblob in different artistic worlds where he must pounce on platforms to paint them and unlock the the exit. The constant jumping and neat, stylized worlds made this one an okay, but not generally standout performance.

Colosseum consists of a player's choice of gladiator and fighting style in a ring with another fighter...like in ancient colosseums. Applicable name and good graphics, but the controls didn't seem to agree with me.

Weapon of Choice is a contra-esque, superfluous shooter that takes itself the opposite of seriously. The trial was really short, but if you liked Contra back in the day, you'd probably enjoy this. The next was Biology Battle, but it doesn't deserve its own paragraph because I'm not a fan of twin-stick shooters (see Geometry Wars).

The last one I tried is a game made by some fellow JPAGers. It deserves mention for that and being the most solid of the games played. The multiplayer looked like it could be interesting. I can't explain the mechanics, but it was like nothing I've ever played before. And it was also the best trial I played of the five (good length, good estimate of final product). You can check out their site here. I'm not a huge fan of puzzle games unfortunately.

-- "Silly caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords."