Reviews written by jigsawhc
Platform
Tons of funI'm having a great time playing Awesomenauts. Reviewed if for VGrevolutions.com at http://www.vgrevolution.com/2012/05/awesomenauts-review/ Was this review helpful to you? 10 RPG
Not that greatI do enjoy a good co-op hack-n-slash from time to time. However, I find Fable Heroes somewhat shallow and disappointing. It is not that the game is bad, but it just could be better. You start off with four playable characters available. Each of these has a different attack type and behaves a little differently, but for all of them I found the controls felt a little sluggish. Actually, the controls might have been ok but the whole game feels just a little slow. Once I got use to the speed of the game I still struggled a little with the camera angle and movement at times. The camera moves based on where you and the enemies are. Sometimes this works fine but others it will have one enemy off screen that you can’t see. Or, you’ll get lost in the crowded group in the middle of the screen. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Shooter
Underwater arcade shooterI had a mixed experience playing Deep Black this week. There are moments while I was playing where I would have given the game an 8.5 or even 9 out of 10. But there were a few spots (mainly boss fights) that nearly made me give the game a score of a 6. So, I settled for something in the middle. Deep Black is an arcade shooter with both multiplayer and a single player campaign. I did not know a lot about the game before I sat down and started playing other than it was a shooter. I was surprised to find both game modes in a $10 game. Yes, it is just the first half of the overall story (Episode 2 will finish the story later this summer) but still there is a lot of content in there. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Platform
Brain Melting FunFez is a tough game to explain let alone review. For the most it is an absolute blast to play, but there are times when I was stuck on a tough puzzle for way too long. At its core Fez is a 2D platformer. Except that you play in a 3D world. As you travel the world you can rotate the viewing angle by 90 degrees at a time. At first this can be disorienting, but after a while it just clicks and you start to “see” the game world as a whole. Jumps that may not be possible on one side of the screen can be done easily once you rotate to the correct perspective. From start to finish you will have to use this game mechanic to get through every room of the game. It actually reminded me of the first time I played Portal when I started playing Fez. At first the change in perspective was confusing but after a few areas it just clicked and the game’s core mechanic became a lot of fun. Was this review helpful to you? 10 Puzzle and Word
Simply Addictive and CharmingI have to admit that physics based puzzlers are not normally my kind of game. I just don’t normally have the coordination and timing to play them well. So, I am pleasantly surprised with how much fun The Splatters is to play. The levels progress in difficulty but at a pace that allows you to learn and pick up some tricks along the way. I have about two-thirds of the levels completed so far and while the last ones are proving more challenging I am, and to continue, working through them without getting frustrated. Partially, because you can replay just the section of a level you a currently on as many times as need, and also because there are 2 or 3 levels unlocked to play at any given time. So you never have just one level you have to win to continue. Was this review helpful to you? 20 Strategy
Possibly the best platform for it.I’ve started playing Anomaly Warzone Earth in the past on both my PC (Steam) and my Xoom. In both cases I got part way through and then got side tracked and never finished it. It is not that I was not enjoying the game but I just don’t play games that much on either platform. So, I was pretty excited to play Anomaly Warzone Earth on the Xbox with a controller in hand. If you have not tried it on another platform the gameplay is pretty unique. It is almost the reverse of a tower defense game where you are the guys walking through the turrets. Only, you can only control a single character, the Commander, and you have the ability to change the course of the troops under your command as needed. Was this review helpful to you? 20 Platform
It is not very often that Xbox Live Arcade gets a platformer where you don’t have direct control over your character. In Puddle instead of controlling the liquid on screen you control the angle of the screen itself. Use gravity and momentum to traverse the levels you have to preserve enough liquids until the end. This lack of direct control takes quite a bit of getting used to. Even the first couple levels of the game I failed a few times until I finally started getting the hang of things. However, I never really got completely use to playing like this. The controls are easy enough; the triggers tilt the screen and that all you can do. This play style works ok on some levels but as this is a platformer there are times when you need to make fairly precise timed jumps and since you have to reply on gravity it can be quite difficult. I played a lot of the time with my 5 year old watching and he got a kick out of seeing the count of my attempts going up each time I failed. Was this review helpful to you? 10 Shooter
Still challenging and still so funLike Hypership Out of Control this is a challenging game. However, like its predecessor I am having a lot of fun playing it. The game play is pretty strait forward. Your ships brakes are out again so the longer you fly the faster you get. Dodge or shoot any obstacles while trying to grab coins and power-ups. For gamers with quick reflex the is a score based system, but personally I'm happy just trying to complete all 10 waves in one sitting. In addition to the normal game mode there are some harder options available if you really like to torture yourself. The game keeps the retro style while still looking nice. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Platformer
MehI decided to check Almost Total Mayhem out based on Stickler's review, but I did not find it as great as he did. The art style is fun, but at times it can be hard to tell what is going on as it is very fast paced. The game play is pretty simple with only a few controls so the focus can be on strategy and working with a teammate, but playing with an AI teammate was not that great. They never seem to be where I am even when I was carrying the bomb. Playing against another human is better than playing the AI, but even then it did not hold my interest after a couple matches. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Strategy & Simulation
Fast paced but funI was pleasantly surprised with All Your Creeps. I was not expecting it to be quite as fast pace as it is, but the speed of the matches leads to some chaotic battles which is really fun. You can play as either the the defending "Comrades" or the attacking "Pigs". The graphics are pretty good but I did find that the towers are fairly similar looking so at times it was hard to tell what you already have placed. But, since the matches are only about 5 minutes it is not a huge deal. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Platformer
Crazy story, but tons of funI'm not a big platformer fan. Mostly because I generally suck at them. So, I was a little worried when I heard that MagicalTimeBean was making a platformer. I love Soulcaster and Soulcaster II so I decided I would play Escape Goat despite my concerns. I'm glad I did because the platforming was forgiving enough that I was able to beat most of the levels within a few tries. Sure, later on the levels get harder and take more effort, but I never felt like my skill was keeping me from progressing completely. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Action & Adventure
BoringThese 2 are full of it. This game is 4 way pong essentially and not a very fun version of it at that. The controls are slow to respond at times and the balls will get stuck in corners where they just float around for a while. Skip this. I'm not even wasting time writing a longer review of it. Was this review helpful to you? 02 RPG
Co-op RPG + Tower Defense = Awesomeness!You guys know by know if you’ve been around the site that I’m a fan of RPGs, especially dungeon crawlers, and tower defense games. So getting a title like Dungeon Defenders where they two genres are merged together with 4 player drop-in co-op seems like it would be the perfect game for me. We’ve been waiting for the Xbox Live Arcade version for almost a year so my hopes were pretty high for the game. Fortunately, it delivers on all of the different aspects of the game so well. Was this review helpful to you? 20 Action
Fun balance of strategy and smashingAfter playing a little of Orcs Must Die! At E3 2011 I’ve been looking forward to its release. However, now that I’ve actually been playing OMD! For a few days I am finding it to me much deeper and more strategic than I anticipated...and a lot more fun! You really have to combine both using traps and your weapons in a thought out plan to complete each level. In this respect the tower defense elements really shine. Sure, you might make it through a level just throwing up defenses wherever, but if you want to top the friend’s leaderboard or get 5 skulls (the best rank) you’ll need to think a little about how you’re going to set things up. Scoring is based on how many enemies get through your defenses, how many times you die and how long it takes. So kill all the enemies as fast as you can without dying yourself. No problem, right? Was this review helpful to you? 10 Action & Adventure
After finding a control scheme that I liked this got a lot better. If you like space shooters definitely check it out. There is a lot to learn so the trial does not give you enough time to get the hang of everything (not the devs fault - that is an XBLIG limitation), but once I did learn more the game was pretty fun. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Shooter
Maybe I needed to spend more time with it to unlock stuff but I found myself bored pretty quickly. So, I was not really motivated to keep playing. For me the game quickly became "fly around chasing enemies and hope they turn at an angle so you can gain some ground to shoot them". Part of it was the game seemed slow to me. Maybe you are moving fast and it is a large area, but too me because of the black background and small characters it seemed like you were moving slower than I'd like. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Shooter
I decided to give this a try based on OtakuDante's review. The game is pretty fun so I'm not going to rehash all his points. I gave it an 8 because I found it hard to keep track of the motorcycle's rotation and the weapon shooting at the same size due to how small the bike is on screen. If it was a little larger then I'd be able to see the bike easier while also aiming the guns. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Action & Adventure
Fun CloneI'm having fun with this Angry Birds clone like I did with FishCraft. The controls are pretty easy once you get use to them, but at times the camera zooms out when I wish it would not. For $1 it is worth checking out if you like this kind of game. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Racing
Pretty fun!I don't play a lot of racing or flying games because I'm not very good at them, but occasionally arcade racers (like Blur) will pull me in for a while. SkyDrift is another one of those games. Like Blur or Mario Kart you have power ups to attack the other racers or defend yourself. However, since this is a flying game you have the added element of not just staying on a track but staying within a course area. If you get too far off course the game pulls you back in but for the most part I did not have too much trouble staying on the course. Getting through narrow corridors that is another story. Was this review helpful to you? 10 Strategy & Simulation
Not just bad graphcis but bad all aroundI decided to give this a shot since Joakim gave it such high praise. I wish I had not. The only good thing about the game is the concept of mixing the strategy and shooting elements. I can live with bad graphics if the rest of a game is fun but that is not the case here. The rest is really bad too. The controls are clunky and very dated feeling. You use both thumb sticks but not in in the normal 2 stick shooter fashion. Instead the left stick controls forward and back with the right your turning. If this was a top down racer that might be ok but it is not. Also the enemy AI is really poor. They just stand in the same general starting area shooting perfectly aimed shots right at you whether you are behind cover or not. Was this review helpful to you? 00 RPG
Great co-op hack-n-slashI have been having a blast playing Crimson Alliance. I started off playing it solo and while that was fun it really got great when I started playing 3 player co-op. My co-op group had one player for each class and the combinations of our attacks made for some fun move. Personally my favorite is still to have the Wizard free everyone and then shatter them with the Mercenary, but some of the other ones are just as fun. Your character starts off with decent attacks, but by the end you have a highly leveled character that just feels fun to play with. Was this review helpful to you? 10 Action
Fun, but could use a little more time for strategyThe game's graphics are strait Monty Python style with 2D cardboard looking people and hand signs pointing the way. The story is based on Sisyphus who has to push a boulder up hill for all eternity only to have it keep rolling down. In Rock of Ages you got tired of pushing the boulder up hill and decide to use it to get your revenge. You roll the boulder down the mountain and crash it into the castle gate to crush the enemy inside. As you progress through the levels the course you have to follow with the ball gets more complex. As you roll your boulder so does your enemy, who is trying to break into your castle. To help stop them you get some defensive units you can place n the course to knock them off or slow them down. Things like catapults, walls, towers, exploding barrels and elephants can be used in combination to try and stop your enemy's boulder. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Puzzle & Trivia
Simple but funI don't know what it was that made me try the trial because it was clearly not the graphics, but I'm glad I did because my some had a lot of fun "helping" me play. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Puzzle & Trivia
Really HardI thought from the trailer I was going to really enjoy the puzzles in Blockt. Sure, the graphics are nothing special but I don't mind that in a good puzzle game. I quickly found out that Blockt is not a game for me. My brain just does not work in a way that can figure out the spacial puzzles without a lot of trial and error. Was this review helpful to you? 00 Action
Great Sequel!I love this game! They took everything that was great in Toy Soldiers and brought it back with a ton of new stuff. The core game play remains the same but now you've got barrages, co-op campaign play and survival mode. I had a blast playing co-op through the campaign and was able to play on a harder difficulty due to having a second player in the match. The best part was that one of us could focus on manning a turret while the other spent all their money and then we could switch. This allows us to always be getting extra money for kills and keep everything repaired/upgraded. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Role Playing
Fun take on checkersI finally got around to playing BloodyCheckers after all the great reviews the last few weeks and I probably had my hopes to high but I was disappointed. The graphics and sound were ok, but not great. Was this review helpful to you? 15 Other
No thanksI'm going to have to completely disagree with Chad. This app is lame. They had voice chance options in the original Xbox and they were not put in the 360 because no on liked them. I turned this off after about 3 minutes and deleted it. There is no reason for a voice change "game" like this. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Family
Great remake of a classicBoulder Dash is possible the very first video game I played as a kid. And I played it a lot. I never completed the game but I spent countless hours playing. So, when I heard there was a remake in the works I was pretty excited. Boulder Dash-XL is a lot of fun to play. They made things easier than the original by not killing you when a diamond falls on your head, but I’m ok with that since I actually can beat levels this time around. Plus, if I want the extra challenge the original game is also included in the $10 price. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Shooter
Fun co-op but challenging soloRight off the bat I’ve got to admit that my biggest gripe, like many others, with Kill Team is the lack of co-op over Xbox Live. Sure, local co-op can be fun, but I would have gladly paid $5 more for Xbox Live support being added to the co-op. I played the game solo because everyone I play games with is not local to me. Which would not be a big deal except that Kill Team is clearly setup as a co-op game. The levels are really hard solo, and as far as I could see there is not a difficulty setting. Even the menu setup is laid out for 2 players. Was this review helpful to you? 21 RPG
Sheer #XBLA Brilliance!OK. Let’s start with the obvious. Bastion is gorgeous! Seriously, if you have not seen the trailer stop reading this and watch it (then come back and finish). However, the amazon atmosphere in the game goes well beyond just looking great. The music is soft most of the time but fits this mystical world nicely. The game is fully narrated and the way that plays out is great. It mixes a play-by-play style with pieces of the background story. There are also some side missions/quests that you can to get even more of the background story. However, these come with a hard fought battle if you want to hear the whole thing. Frankly, it is worth the fight even if it takes a few times to complete them. Was this review helpful to you? 53 RPG
Like the others I'm going with a 9 (and not a full 10) because of the load times. My save game is at 23 hours and 30 minutes having just finished the item to get 100% of everything completed. I would guess 1/4 of that was loading screens. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Platform
More SplosionsI should probably start with a disclaimer. I never finished the Splosion Man. I worked on it a while but I'm just not good at platfomers and eventually gave up. I enjoyed it but it was just to hard for me personally. That out of the way I'm really enjoying Ms Splosion Man. I have not gotten a single par time yet but I've been able to complete every level I tried so far. I think the game is easier because I doubt I got any better. For the hardcore platfomer fan don't worry they still have you covered. On each level you can download ghost runs of the top leaderboard players to race through the levels against. While I may never make the top of the leaderboard myself it is nice to be able to see how others are so I can get better at my game. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Shooter
So much funTrenched is a great take on a tower defense game where you play as a mobile tower. The waves of enemies come and you shoot the down. Simple but well done. Being from DoubleFine the game is not even a little serious with funny characters and animations. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Shooter
Good idea, but good gameI like the idea of adding a level mechanic to a galaga clone, but the sound effects and poor graphics really turned me off. It probably did not help that the game froze on me while loading (twice) so I was already a little annoyed when I started playing. Unfortunately it did not get much better once I actually get it started. Load times are really long but I see no reason why when the graphics could be from a Commodore 64. Was this review helpful to you? 02 Platformer
Not funI'm going to have to disagree with Victor. This game is not fun. It is really bad. Maybe there are people who like platformers so hard you can't finish the second level in under a dozen tries but I'm not one of them. Even if you do like brutally hard ones like this the graphics are still really rough. Not worth downloading. Was this review helpful to you? 01 RPG
Fun even with the flawsDungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a little hard for me to review because while I love playing it there are noticeable glitches from time to time. Let’s start with the good stuff. First off co-op hack-n-slashing is a ton of fun. I played the first 1/3 of the game solo before playing co-op, and now I’m not sure I can go back to playing solo because it is so much more fun co-op. The way the various classes complement each other makes things better together. The co-op takes a second to join the match which occasionally makes you think your game is not working but give it a second and you’ll spawn in. The fact that everyone other than the host can drop in and out is really nice. The story is somewhat generic but I never really cared as the focus for me is cutting down more enemies and looking for better loot. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Puzzle & Trivia
ChallengingLike past Ishisoft games UpBot Goes Up is really well made and a lot of fun. It also happens to be pretty challenging as you progress into the later levels. However, things start of fairly simply giving you plenty of time to get a hang of the mechanics. In this puzzle game you control robots who try to get across the map to a set location. However, each robot can only move in a certain direction which mean you need to use the robots to push each other around. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Puzzle & Trivia
Funny action puzzle gameHedge Wizard is one of the few action puzzle games that does not make me frustrated. Most of the time as levels get harder you have to start getting your timing down perfect. That is not the case in HW. You spell combinations and timing do have to be more precise, but as a wizard you can pause, rewind and fast forward time so if you mess up you can just back things up a little and fix it. This allows the puzzle solving to be the main component of the game without making it annoyingly difficult. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Other
My son loves this game.I started playing BumblePig and got about 5 levels in when my son asked to give it a try. It is not most of the afternoon later and I've not been able to get the controller back. Was this review helpful to you? 21 Shooter
MehI'm not really impressed with Bangai-O HD. It is not bad or anything but I just did not find it all that great either. Graphics are ok, but not great. Gameplay to me gets annoying pretty quick. Was this review helpful to you? 03 Shooter
Fun if you like that sort of thingZeit² is a pretty fun game but expect a challenge. It definitely takes some getting use to playing with a copy of yourself so expect some learning curve is this is not your regular genre of game. Well worth checking out but probably not for everyone. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Shooter
Great Sci-Fi ShooterI can’t think of any other game franchises that started as a retail title and then have a sequel on Xbox Live Arcade, but that is exactly what happened with Section 8. So, going from a $60 retail title to a $15 arcade game it seems like TimeGate would have to cut back on what all is included in the sequel. Instead they have added a single player campaign and a co-op, horde style, mode called Swarm. It is nice to see them stepping up the level of content while lowering the price. Was this review helpful to you? 22 Strategy & Simulation
Fun little tower defense gameThis is a fairly simple tower defense game but I had fun with it. It was nice to see a TD game where it is not all lasers and missiles. Here you just have a family trying to defend the swamp. There are only 5 "tower" types and each can be upgraded 3 times, but they all server a distinct purpose. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Strategy & Simulation
Like the ideaI like the idea of a Tower Defense game with RPG elements but not like this. The graphics really bugged me after just a few minutes and the music got turned off pretty much right away. There was a lot of text to read at the beginning but it did not explain how to play or which units had what abilities. Was this review helpful to you? 02 Role Playing
Fun little adventure gameWizard's Keep is a pretty fun little adventure game. I enjoyed playing it in short bursts. If I tried to play fore long periods though the game got a bit repetitive. For $1t thought it is well worth checking out. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Shooter
Great with kidsI played this quite a bit with my son today and we had a blast. The difficulty curve is a little steep with objects at the top of the screen coming pretty early but he got the hang of it pretty quick. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Platformer
Great mix of genresI'm become a pretty big fan of vertical shooters over the years but this is the first one I've played that is merged with a platformer. I'm generally not great at platformers but something about the way these two genres are blended together works really well. The pacing is not to fast but keeps things going and there are plenty of upgrades just as my current ones are running low. Was this review helpful to you? 01 Card and Board
Well done!I went into Full House Poker without any real expectations. I do not play a lot of cards games on Xbox Live Arcade usually, but I do like poker in general. So, I find myself pleasantly surprised with how much fun I was having playing FHP. I intended to play just a couple hands to check things out when I started, but about 90 minutes later I had made about 8000 chips and was hooked. Was this review helpful to you? 21 RPG
Love me some lootTorchlight is one of the few games that I regularly go back to and play on my PC. I’ve got two characters that I’ve played through the entire story with and have spent a lot of time playing the end game content with both. So, you can say that I was pretty excited for the Xbox Live Arcade version to release. Despite my excitement I was also a little nervous about how it would play with a controller since it was originally designed for the keyboard and mouse. Fortunately, Runic put a lot of effort into adjusting the interface and controls for the Xbox. The changes to the inventory and combat to accommodate a controller work beautifully and I can’t even tell it not originally made with the controller in mind. Was this review helpful to you? 11 Puzzle and Word
Quick and funWe don’t get a lot of $10 Xbox Live Arcade games there says that are not remake of arcade title so it is nice to see PopCap releasing a newer title for that price. If you have not played Bejeweled before it is a match 3 style game where gems fill the screen and you have to destroy them. Frankly, I suspect that pretty much everyone has played some form of Bejeweled before and you don’t need an explanation. Bejeweled Blitz Live keeps this same gameplay style but you have just 1 minute to get as many points as you can. There are 2 game modes in Bejeweled Blitz Live that determine how gems cam move. There is the classic mode where 2 gems switch places and then twist mode where you rotate a square of 4 gems to make matches. Was this review helpful to you? 21
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