Uno is pretty fun to pay with some friends but there is nothing special about it. There are other games I prefer to play with friends, but if they want to play Uno I'll not complain.

I like the idea of this game, but I found it hard to control. I played it a couple times after I first got my vision camera, but after 20 or 30 minutes I got frustrated with it not understanding my movements and gave up.

While I tend to really like puzzle games I just could not get into TiQal. It is pretty fun, but just not a game I enjoyed as much as some of the other puzzle games on Live Arcade.

Nothing real special here here, but if is nice to have a fun game poker game to play with friends over live.

Zuma is a pretty addicting puzzle game. Simple to play, but hard to master. I've lost many hours playing it and I suspect there will be more in the future.

Rocktemen is pretty fun but it just did not hold my attention after about 20 minutes. I can't quite put my finger on why because it has fun cartoony graphics, but after a few levels I quit playing and moved on.

Maybe I don't get this game, but I found it really easy and not that fun. Plus the graphical style is annoying. Maybe it gets challenging on later levels but I quit playing before I got there because it was not fun.

This is one of the most addicting puzzle games I've played in a while. It is a very simple idea for a game, but as you start to play you find more strategies and combos to work for. For me it falls in the same category game as Tetris where I just want to play another game to try and get a better score.

For a game that is given away free with every 360 I'm pretty surprised how fun Hexic is. I figured it would be lousy when I first heard about it, but I'm really surprised with how fun it is. My wife and I both love puzzle games and have spent many hours playing Hexic.

I need to go back and finish Exit at some point. It is a fun, simple puzzle game, but the gameplay is so slow that I got frustrated and stopped after I had to redo a level a couple times to get it right. If I could just move a bit faster it would be so much better. Still, if you like puzzle games check it out.

I had a lot of fun playing this with a friend. It is simple, but fun shooter. The levels get progressively more challenging, but not to the point it is frustrating.

I liked the sound of this when I heard about it, but I tried it out and it got dull really fast. It comes down to button mashing to destroy buildings as fast as possible. After a couple levels I quit playing and deleted it.

So far I've played a few battles and finished the basic campaign. The levels generally take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete for the standard campaign. And that is with the animations set to fast. It is not really a slow paced game though. You just have a lot to do each time it is your turn. You have to move, attack, build, and repair. The later in the level you are the more units you probably have making the turn take longer as you coordinate your attacks with all your units. In addition to your standard units like tanks, scouts, and artillery there are commander units. The commander unites have both a passive and active special ability. The passive abilities effect all the other units on the screen that are close the the commander. They do things like restore health and add more defense. The active specials abilities do things like rain missiles on all the enemy units. Personally I like the commander that has the passive ability the lets your artillery shoot one square further and the active ability to restore your action points. That way my artillery can shoot further than the enemies (so I can hit them but they can't hit me). The active abilities take a few turns to charge up so use them wisely. The commanders add a nice level of strategy to the game. Without them it would be a simple rock/paper/scissors battle but with the commanders it adds a great level of complexity to the strategies available.

If you like strategy games Commanders is a pretty good one and with a lot of hours of game play it is well worth the $10 price tag.

My review of Heavy Weapon is going to be pretty short and simple. The more people playing the more fun the game is. I tried out the demo by myself and it was ok, but not so fun that I was going to buy it. A couple days later I had a friend over who likes gaming, but is not that good at the games I’m currently playing. I remembered that Heavy Weapon had co-op support and thought he might like it. So, we started playing and had a blast.

The next day I was playing online with three random players trying to get the Achievement for staying a live 15 minutes. With 4 of us playing it was not too hard. We did learn an important lesson. Always save at least a nuke so that if there is only one guy left alive he can use them while the other people re-spawn. The game only ends if all 4 people die at the same time. So, by saving a couple nukes, if three people go out the last person should be able to stay alive long enough to get everyone back alive. It can greatly increase the how long one can make in a survival type game. I had a lot of fun playing with three random players in survival mode.

The controls are simple and the end bosses are reminiscent of the side shooters I played as a kid. I give the game one thumb up playing it alone, but two thumbs up playing with two or more people.

I do like the graphical style of the game. It reminds of the Metal Slug games I played in the past. Other than the graphical style of the game there was not a lot of stuff I liked about the game. I found it very hard and frustrating. The controls themselves are easy enough to pick up, but the lack of any health bar makes it a one-hit-kills play style. This would be ok if you had a way to defend yourself, but you your only defense is to jump, roll, or dig. Basically, the gameplay boils down to shoot as fast as you can and hope you can jump over attacks in time. There are plenty of other games that have this same play style that are fun to play, but the graphical style of Alien Hominid made it hard at times to see the enemy attacks coming at you. I don't know about you, but I can't dodge attacks that I can't see. It got to the point where I just decided it was not worth it and I quit playing. I'm sure there are people who like game a lot, but I'm not one of them.

Before this released I had not played Worms since I was in high school. The simple, but addictive, gameplay is still there. The updated graphics look good and fit the game's fun goofy style.

What really makes the game fun is the weapons. They have the standard guns like the Uzi and Shotgun, but it the unique items that really make Worms fun. If you're use to playing an older version of Worms you will notice some of the weapons have been removed, but for those people who have never played before your ignorance is bliss. The Banana Bomb, Kamikaze, and Homing Missle are still there but others like the Holy Hand Grenade are gone. The weapons that are available are great fun, but anyone old enough to have played past versions is going to notice the missing weapons.

The game allows for 4 players either locally or over Live. The controls are simple and there is a nice set of tutorials that explain how to do everything. Also, it is turn based so you don't have to worry about getting beat because you can't fight as fast as your opponent. These items make this a great game to play with non-gamers. It is not a true party game like Fuzion Frenzy or Mario Party, but it also work in that role.

I'm going to give it one thumb up and save the second thumb in case they release some download content that includes more maps and weapons.

I heard somewhere this game is what spawned the idea for Zuma. I'm not sure it it is true or not, but I like Zuma so I was looking forward to Luxor 2. I'm not that great at Zuma (I've never completely beat the whole game) so I was a little concerned Luxor 2 would be hard to control since I'm use to Zuma and its stationary, rotating turret. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Luxor 2. It is really easy to control. In addition to being able to slide back and forth with either joystick you can also use the triggers to slide quickly. The gameplay itself is simple, but addictive. As rows of colored balls scroll across the screen you have to shoot matching colored balls to form groups of three that then disappear. Seems simple enough, right? Well, it is simple, but it quickly becomes more difficult as the rows speed up and make turns throughout the levels.

The gameplay is very similar to Zuma, but I think I'm going to like Luxor 2 more than Zuma. One thing that Luxor 2 has over Zuma is that when you chain combos together it gives you useful power-ups. In Zuma the only things you can do are slow down, stop, or reverse the lines that are approaching. In Luxor 2 they add power-ups that let you turn an entire section of the row a single color, shoot lightning that takes out entire columns, and shoot daggers that take out a single ball of any color. These power-ups make the game a lot more fun because even when it gets more difficult, as long as you can pull off a few combos, you get rewarded with a power-up to help against the ever advancing rows. I'm also pretty impressed with how they did the Achievements. They are a nice spread of difficulty. A few of them are for beating the different modes of the game, but others are acquired by playing through any level exceptionally well. It doesn't matter which level; so, I was able to pickup up a few of them within the first couple levels of the game. I like that they did not just do achievements for beating level X, but actually push the player to be accurate and stay alive.

Generally I'm not one to get 800 point ($10) arcade games, but after playing through the demo twice I knew it would have enough replay value to be worth it for me. If you are not a fan of Zuma's style then don't bother with this one, but if you are then Luxor 2 is a great addition to add to your Xbox Live Arcade library.

Boom Boom Rocket is pretty much Dance Dance Revolution played with a controller. All of the button presses are timed to the beats of the music so if you have no rhythm this one might be pretty hard for you. I played percussion (drums) for years and I still had a lot of trouble on the Hard difficulty. On Easy I breezed through it. On Normal things got pretty tense, but on Hard I could not make it through the first 30 seconds. The game is simple to play but tough to master. It supports two players on the same screen but no support for playing over Xbox Live. It is probably better that way because any lag at all would kill your ability to effectively play.

Boom Boom Rocket comes with 10 songs. For a game where you play to the music that is not a lot of songs. Sure, each song can be played on three difficulty settings and in two different game modes, but after playing through these songs for the 6th or 8th time the increased difficulty will not change the fact that you are hearing the same songs over and over. When I first heard about this game I was thinking it would have closer to 20 songs. Having only 10 really cuts the value of this game down.

The Achievements for Boom Boom Rocket range from easy to very very hard. You can easily get the first achievement withing the first minute of playing, but the harder ones will take hours of practice to earn.

Personally, Boom Boom Rocket is not for me. With only 10 songs it gets to repetitive to fast. I played for 30 minutes and was already getting board. For an 800 point game I expect some level of lasting appeal, but Boom Boom Rocket just doesn't have any appeal for me.

When I originally saw the screen shots and videos for Eets: Chowdown I was not that impressed because the graphics are not a style I'm normally fond of. Also, I don't generally like PC games that are converted (this is an upgrade to Eets: Hunger) for Xbox Live Arcade. In spite of this I decided to give Eets: Chowdown a try and I'm glad I did because it is really fun. For those of you old enough to remember playing Lemmings this has some of the same flavors. The main game mode has 120 levels where you try to get Eets to a missing puzzle piece. Instead of controlling Eets directly you control items in the environment around him and use these items to direct Eets' movements. There is a great level of strategy to this goofy game. Sure there are lots of crazy and funny characters in the game, but at its core it is about the strategy of getting Eets safely to the missing puzzle pieces.

In addition to the main game mode there is a Marsho Madness game mode that is a lot of fun. In Marsho Madness you have to keep the attacking marshmallows from getting to the center of the screen and killing you. I really like this game mode because the better you play, and the more combos you get, the better your weapon shoots. It is a great time waster that is going to piss my wife off this weekend when I tell her I only want to play one level and then I play a game of Marsho Madness for the next hour.

With 120 levels and an extra game mode Eets: Chowdown is well worth the $10 price. It has hours of playing just going through the levels once, but each level offers multiple ways to get Eets to safety. I realize this review is short, but I'd rather go play some more Marsho Madness than take the time to add more details to this review. Sorry. Maybe I'll post an update later when I can't see strait from staring at the TV screen to long.

When I hear a while back that Settlers of Catan was being made for release on Xbox Live Arcade I was pretty excited. Settlers of Catan is one of my all time favorite board games so to be able to play it with my friends over Live seemed like a great idea. I played a couple games today and I'm pretty impressed with how well put together Catan really is. The developers spent a lot of time adding the little customizations that make this a great game. They have an option to learn as you play so if you or your friends don't know how Catan works you don't have to try and explain it before hand. They can just start up the demo and learn as the play a game. The addition of Video Chat is a nice feature since the actual game play is turned based you don't have to just is there between turns. Sure, you may be trading on other people's turns, but while they build you can chat with the other players. They also included options to customize the rules with your own "house rules" similar to how Uno does. Since I have friends who play with slightly different rule variations this makes it easy for us to setup the game exactly like we would normally.

The computer AI for single player games has three difficulty settings. However, even on easy they are smart enough not to make ridiculously uneven trades. On harder settings they are careful not to trade you the cards you need to win and are much more ruthless in using the robber. Each AI character plays fairly consistently the same way so if you play enough single player games you can figure out the strategies that each character likes to use. I've already got a couple of them figured out (at least on easy). I read an interview with the developers this morning and they are going to release some additional AI players. They also are open to adding the expansion packs if there is enough demand.

The achievements have a decent range of difficulty from getting your first settlement to collecting 1000 victory points in online ranked matches. It is going to take some time to get all of the achievements, but if you play that many games it will give you a chance to hone your strategy until it is perfect. Personally, I'll probably not be getting very many of these achievements. A game of Catan can take 45 to 60 minutes. I prefer to play Arcade games when I have only 20 or 30 minutes. If I have over a half an hour to play I'm going to play Rainbow Six: Vegas.

As a fan of Settlers of Catan I'm pretty happy with how well the made this version for Xbox Live Arcade. If you're a fan of Settlers of Catan, or board games in general, then this is worth the $10 price tag.

The game looks decent enough, but I never though the graphics would be an issue. My biggest issue with this game is that they are charging $10 for a set of 18 versions of solitaire. $10 may not sound like a lot of money, but when I can play the same games on my PC for free it is. Not only can I play them free on my PC, but they play better on my PC. Because there is no mouse to play with on the Xbox 360 they have setup the game so that when you move the controller around the screen to select cards it jumps from card to card instead of moving around freely. I found this extremely frustrating because it slowed down how fast I could play the game. They tried to compensate for this somewhat by giving you a quick play button. By moving the cursor over a card and hitting B it would play that in the best available spot. The problem with this is that if there are multiple places the card could play you have no control with this method on where the card goes. Instead you have to pick up the card with the A button and painstakingly move it where you want it. When I play card games I want to go from play to play as fast as possible. So, I was glad to see they included options to speed up the animations, but even on the fastest setting the animations were still to slow for my tastes. After about 5 minutes I was getting pissed about how slow the game plays. The achievements for Soltrio Solitaire are pretty standard with some you could get easily and others you're going to have to work for. However, even if you are a big solitaire fan this game is just to cumbersome to play for more than a game or two. The only case I can see for recommend getting this game is if you have a spouse/girlfriend/mistress that you want to get into console gaming and they really like solitaire. In that case it might be worth the $10 to get them to play on your Xbox 360, but keep in mind that if they get into console gaming you may end up having to shell out another $400 bucks for a second Xbox 360.

It has been a while since I've played a side-scrolling shooter, but my maneuvering and dodging skills came back quickly. I started playing a little single player and then I got an invite from a guy on my Friends List. I played the rest of the night in a room of guys doing 4 player co-op. The game was ok in single player, but it really shines on co-op mode. When you're playing with other people you can merge your ships together. When you do this one person flies and the other people who are attached can shoot in any directions (instead of just shooting strait ahead like when you are not attached) with a more powerful weapon. We quickly worked through the game on Normal mode and proceed to play it on the Insane difficulty. I really like playing it on Insane because in addition to really being a challenge there are no extra lives. If you die you can only get back in if one of your teammates picks up an extra life. When they do get the extra life you spawn back in. This leads to some great teamwork as you try to work together to keep each other alive.

The game itself looks good. It plays like most classic side-scrollers with each level getting harder by sending more enemies and harder bosses at the end of each level. Unlike some side-scrollers your ship is very maneuverable. This makes it pretty easy to dodge enemy attacks with a little practice. Also, instead of dying with only one hit you do have some heath which lets you take about 4 hits before dying. I prefer it this way because one-hit-kills games are really annoying. I found Aegis Wing difficult enough to be challenging but not so hard I got annoyed with it.

There are four super weapons that are available all have distinct features that make them useful. The shield protects you from attacks, but does nothing to hurt other enemies. The laser does a great amount of damage, but only in a strait line. The homing missiles spread out nicely, but if there is not enough enemies around then some of the shots will be wasted. Finally, the "Gorgon Burst" knocks out other ships around you but leaves a lot of debris on the screen that will kill you if you hit it. The achievements are a mix of co-op based ones and ones you could get alone. One thing to note is that the achievements don't seem to be stackable. So, you have to beat it on Normal and on Hard to get them all. However, you don' have to play the whole game to get the achievement for winning. You just need to beat the last level. So, you can join a co-op game in progress and as long as you beat the last level you get the achievement for beating the game.

For a game that was given away for free I'm really impressed. The could have easily charged $5 for this and I would probably have picked it up.

Well, someone on the development team for Mad Tracks is a big fan of Mario Kart because they are very similar. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the nice balance of weapons that Mario Kart has. I had heard good things about Mad Tracks before it was released on a couple podcasts I listen to so I had thought about buying the game without trying the trial first. I'm glad I did not because that would have been a waste of $10.

The game comes with 15 single player events and a pretty decent multiplayer offering. If the actual racing was fun it might be worth the cost since it looks pretty good graphically. But, the racing is pain. Instead of having the normal racing style where you pull the right trigger to go and left to brake they have added a power spring. As you hold down the accelerator the spring slowly drains. When it reaches the bottom you're basically out of power and have to release the accelerator to get it back. Ideally you would release the gas during jumps and going down hill to get your power level back up, but in my experience there are not enough places to get your power back. I was regularly running out of juice at the bottom of big uphill climbs. At first I thought it was just that I was not use to the system so I replayed a couple races to try and get the hang of it and I still was having the same issue. Maybe someone can explain to me how this is suppose to work and I'll give it another try, but as it is right now I don't plan to try the game again let alone purchase it.

Additionally, there are 9 offensive attacks and 3 defensive (assuming you count an oil slick as defensive). This is great if you are always racing from behind because it is a lot easier to attack than it is to defend. On the other hand once you get the lead it is very hard to keep it. I'd suspect that most racers prefer to race from the lead (seriously, who doesn't?) so this makes it very frustrating.

I checked out the trail version of Pac-Man CE this morning and I'm pretty disappointed. First, for a $10 game the trail version only lets you check out one of the modes and it is only for 5 minutes. I've never been that good at Pac-Man, but I did find that I did pretty well in my 5 minutes. I did die once trying to eat a ghost before the power pellet wore off, but other than that it was pretty easy. I'm sure it would have been harder to do the 10 minute version. The game comes with 6 different game modes all of which are timed. Unlike the original Pac-Man in the Championship Edition you're not so much trying to stay alive as you are trying to get as high of a score as possible within the time limit. Also, the whole level does not start off filled with pellets. Instead a small section has pellets. Once you eat all of those a piece of fruit appears on the other side of the map and eating it adds more pellets back to the map. Each time the fruit adds more pellets than what you ate before. Despite not being that good at Pac-Man I had fun playing the single level of the trial because the controls worked well. Unlike the original Pac-Man on the Xbox Live Arcade the controls in the Championship Edition were actually designed for the controller.

The only game play related thing I found annoying was when you eat a power pellet the screen had this wavy effect for a few seconds. I don't see a need for that. The achievements seem like they would be pretty easy to pick up for the most part. They are mostly the usual get a certain score or complete a specific level ones.

The reason I'm disappointed with Pac-Man Championship Edition is because of the $10 price tag. The entire game's 6 modes can be played through in just 45 minutes. Sure, you're going to play them multiple times trying to get a better score each time, but I still think this game either needs more modes or the price lowered to $5. Not enough here to pay $10 for.

I tried the demo and it was how I remember from playing on the PC version as a kid. If you played Prince of Persia when it was released originally then all of the original goodness is here with some enhanced graphical elements and animations. Personally, I was never a big fan of Prince of Persia. I always found the controls to touchy. I'd hit the jump button with my timing off my half a second and end up dead. Having to retrace a big section of the level was never fun for me. If you've never tried the original Price of Persia I'd recommend giving the trail a run through. Even though it is not one of my favorite games a lot of people love it and now is your chance to find out why. It is a classic and I'm sure a lot of people will be glad to have it. If you have fond memories of playing Prince of Persia let me know what you think of the Xbox Live Arcade version.

There are so many layers of strategy. A couple of them are obvious right off the bat, but I could tell that there will be more layers of strategy to figure out once I spend more time with the game. The tutorial was really helpful in understanding how the gameplay works and it did not take that long to go through. I like that there are multiple ways of scoring. You can try to build your own areas, or you can try to build of other peoples areas and steal their points at the last minute. Sure, it will make for some unhappy friends, but there is nothing to stop them from returning the favor. I also like that the games don't take a long time to play. Since there are only 72 tiles to play with you know when they are gone the match is over. While the graphics are nothing spectacular there are a couple things about this game I really like.

First, you can play with 4 players on the same screen. This is a great addition to a game like this, and I think more Xbox Live Arcade games should include support for multiple people on the same system. I realize in some games this would not be possible since each person has their own cards that they need to keep hidden, but since in Carcassonne you just draw a tile at the beginning of your turn so there is nothing to keep hidden from the other player. This definitely adds to the value of Carcassonne as I can play it with my friends and family even if they don't have an Xbox 360.

Second, I like that they make it so I can only place the tile in spots where it would fit. I think learning Carcassonne form the board game would be much harder because there is nothing stopping you from trying to place a tile in an invalid location. In the Xbox Live Arcade version they have set it up so you can only place the tiles in locations where they would be a valid play.

Finally, I like the little extras they added. They have added one of the board games more popular expansions, River II, and Xbox Live Vision support. I heard on an interview that they are open to the option of making more of the board game's expansion as DLC if the game sells well. Give the fun gameplay I think we can expect to see some expansions in the future. I really like when companies add support for the Vision Camera in their games because it is nice to be able to see my friends while I chat with them in a turn based game like this.

While the game is not for everyone since it requires you to think and it could use better graphics it is a lot of fun. If you're into board games or strategy games this one worth the cost.

The new graphical version looks good for a game where the screen is pretty much the same all the time. The game is fun for about 20 minutes, but I'm not sure that anyone will play this game for hours on end. If you're a big fan of the original this updated version plays the same but looks a lot better. For everyone else save your $5 for something better. If you are set on getting this one the achievements are mostly get to a certain level or get a specific high score. They all look like they are pretty doable.

I played Hexic 2 for a while this weekend and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. There are some really fun things about it, like the multiplayer mode, but other things about it are really lame. Lets start with the good stuff. First, the new battle game mode is pretty fun. There is a decent amount of strategy involved as well as speed. I played a few matches and lost the first one to the AI, but won the matches after that by a small margin. I also like the new special pieces they added. I don't use them very efficiently yet, but it is nice you're not just stuck with stars and pearls. In addition to having more special pieces you also can blow up the special pieces. This is great is you want to clear out an area that has a lot of random pieces. At least for me all of these combined to make Hexic 2 a little easier than the original. Especially in the Puzzle mode. There are a one main thing I don't like. The graphics don't look as good as the original. They are not bad, but they did not use all of the screen in Hexic 2 which seems stupid. Why have a large unused boarder around the edge of the screen? I don't get it. Why waste all that space and cram everything together when you could just use that space and make it easier to see everything? My wife was a huge fan ox Hexic so I had her try Hexic 2. After trying out each of the game modes she went back to playing the original. She was not impressed with all the new special pieces. If you were a fan of the first Hexic then Hexic 2 is worth a try. Especially with the new battle mode, but if you're not into Hexic then don't bother with Hexic 2.

When I saw that another free Xbox Live Arcade game was being released I had high hopes for it because the only other free Arcade game, Aegis Wing, was a blast. As the game started up and I saw the nice clean menu I still was pretty impressed. I read through the How to Play and Control information and it seemed pretty strait forward. So, I started up a game and found out why it was free. The gameplay is crap. You pretty much just need to push forward to move and keep shooting non-stop. There are a few spots you need to weave around some obstacles, but nothing to fancy. Apparently whoever made this game like Mario because the tracks have coins scattered across them you need to pick up. The coins can then be used to unlock better cars and to upgrade you car. Why would a driving game have coins you need to pick up? Why not just give us points for number of kills and the finish time? It is a stupid idea that works very poorly. In addition to the lousy game play the graphics in the actual game look like crap. I've played Nintendo 64 games that look better. I'm not sure why they spent so much time making a nice looking menu only to have a crappy looking game. Sure, the game is free and you can get 200 achievement points, but even then this game is still not worth playing.

The tutorial is a bit slow to go through, but once you're through the tutorial the gameplay speed picks up as you get into the main story line. In addition to the main story there is also a scenario and multiplayer modes. The scenario modes are stand alone levels that give you a specific objective. Multiplayer is what you'd mostly expect where you can fight against 3 other players in elimination and king of the hill type battles. The multiplayer modes also include some mission mode and an 'Escape' mode that is fairly unique. In 'Escape" you have to get your army to a certain point on the map and keep the enemy armies from getting there. In addition to these modes there is a "Spider Hunt" mode that allows for 8 player at once.

One of the best features on Band of Bugs is the included map editor. The editor can be used for single player skirmish games or over Xbox Live. I'm really excited to make some interesting maps and see how they fair over Live.

I realize this is a quick little rating, but really I don't have anything bad to say. The game is fun to play and provides some great strategic challenges without making it hard to get into. If you're into strategy games this is one worth checking out. Even at $10 I think this game is a good value because with the map editor there is tons of replay value.

Additionally there are two great DLC packs that have been released to expand the campaign and multiplayer maps.

Overall, I like 1942: Joint Strike. It is just like the old vertical scrollers I enjoyed playing in the arcade as a kid. It doesn't do anything super special and $10 seems a tad expensive, but still it is a fun game and the updated graphics look good.