Xbox Arcadia

Since I posted about the Behemoth game company, I started to look on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace to find some more games that have a similar outlandish style to Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid with a retro 'user friendly' feel to them. What I mean by 'user friendly' is that the games are easy to use and the controls are basic but demand a large amount of button bashing to achieve said goal, albeit simple yet rewarding as well. 




The MAW
Winner of the 2008 PAX-10 Audience Choice Award, Maw is a full featured 3d action/adventure game that has its roots in Naughty Dog platformers such as Ratchet and clank, with black humour found in the likes of Jak and Daxter.
The plot starts when a galactic bounty hunter ship crashes on a strange planet leaving the captured Frank (the hero) and a tiny blob in a cage labeled  "The Deadliest Organism In The Universe" (Maw) as the only survivors.

Aware of the certain doom he must be wading into, but concerned with travelling alone on a foreign planet, he hooks the strange blob to a plasma leash from the wreckage starting their journey to the communication tower in the distance into the path of danger and adventure that lay before them.

The rendering on this game may not be something I could do per se, but could propose the characters and levels that are present as well as do a cool title like this one has. 
The tone, humour and audience are similar to the demographic I would like to be aiming towards in term of my own work, blending slapstick with the macabre to create a game that echoes the nostalgic framework that is integral to todays platformers.

Raskulls
Released in early 2010, Raskulls is a bone-marrowing hectic action platformer that seems to a be a mass improvement on Super Mario Bros. The huge cast rivals that of the Nintendo franchise, as well as challenging it for the various titles involved (eg Mario Kart, Dr Mario etc) as Raskulls offers a Grand Prix Mode, as well as a whole host of puzzle games that show a diversity in game play. 




The Mega Quest is the main game that the player can jump, fall, swim, bash and hack through a massive variety of levels in the rich Raskulls world. The plot is: 


"The evil Pirats have landed on the Raskulls world and begin a dastardly plan to steal the valuable Shiny Stones. Join King, Dragon, Ninja and more as they embark on an adventure across three exciting chapters to save the world!"

After playing through a couple of levels with my girlfriend it has already become apparent that this game is seriously trying to be better than its rival of sorts, Castle Crashers. 

A different game altogether as is more like Mario than Golden Axe, although its brash easy gameplay married with puzzle solving gives the game a whole new depth.

The character and level designs are a little more developed than most arcade games I have played, but the breadth of characters along with the detail of the worlds is unmatched. 

Plants vs Zombies

A popular title amongst the iPhone users, and slowly becoming a huge hit on the Xbox Live Arcade, PvZ is widely successful for its similarities to the 'Tower Defense' style of games, but giving it one hell of a facelift. 

I will be honest, the game does get incredibly tedious and repetitive early on which is a major let-down, but yet there is a market for this type fo game, especially with those who favour strategy over action - which is not me.

The main attraction for me was purely the character design as well as the new take on the strategy genre. The game in its entirety is designed elegantly, the title screens offering more than the game itself in terms of well scripted contextualised design decisions.  

Costume Quest

This inventive and imaginative take on the contemporary RPG from Tim Schafer's Double Fine Productions takes the reality of the game and superimposes itself as a double reality. Wait, a game that suggests hyperreality in itself?! 

The monster-filled neighbourhood of Auburn Pines, Autumn Haven Mall and Fall Valley Carnival is the backdrop for the Final Fantasy esque gameplay here, with the focus being on collecting magical costumes with super powers, unique weapons and special items as you complete quests. 

The artwork is simple as hell but works incredibly well, as the battle artwork is completely different to that of the actual navigational gameplay, giving the player two unique experiences when exploring.

Double Fine have a knack of keeping their individual approach to artwork consistent, especially when you look at their previous titles, Costume Quest is however, their largest production to date in terms of extensive level/character design as well as gaining a huge rise in popularity in recent years.