It’s not Halloween but here’s a spooky tale about one of Xbox Live Arcade’s shadowy secrets. The Adventures of Shuggy has been in the works from Smudged Cat Games since at least 2007. A publishing deal was struck with Valcon Games in 2009 to bring it to Xbox Live Arcade but the game and its Marketplace page (complete with screens and a trailer) have sat dormant since May of 2010.
Meanwhile, the game sounds fantastic as a mash-up of every 2D side-scrolling gameplay device in recent memory coupled with a great art style. Many levels introduce new mechanics like rotating the screen around Shuggy, playing with multiple time-delayed copies of yourself, winding a physics-based rope through the level, guiding a zombie version of Shuggy, racing against obstacles and more. Check out the video above to see the GDC 2010 demo of the game and rest assured that I’ll post any news about Shuggy (not to be confused with Nintendo’s Shiggy) as soon as I hear it!
UPDATE January 18th:Rayteoactive commented on this post but I wanted to make this as clear as possible: an update to the game is coming to add analog control! Read below to see why that’s a bigger deal than it might initially sound and check out their official post for more on.
Amidst the wash of poor first-person shooters, puzzle game knock-offs and endless multiplayer twin-stick shooters, there’s a growing selection of Xbox 360 Indie Games that pluck at my heartstrings. Arkedo‘s entire lineup, Pixel Man, Dark, several of DK Alpha‘s titles, and the classic Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp all lovingly call up the days of 2D from the 8 and 16-bit eras. Pixels, parallax, power-ups and a little bit of chiptune synth. It’s like coffee with an old friend, or at least that’s what old people say.
The latest — and most affective — example of this glorious style on the Indie Games Channel is Tobe’s Vertical Adventure. Half platforming, half puzzling, you play as Tobe who’s dragged away from his Xbox on a globe-trotting, treasure-seeking adventure full of gems, chickens and chests. You can run, wall jump, slide, climb and use items to explore these gorgeous 2D worlds but after a little “active reload” styled minigame to open each level’s treasure chest you’ll have only a few minutes to make it back out before impending doom catches up with you. I’m not sure if there’s a story element from the trial I played but each level rumbles to pieces and creates new paths to navigate as you ascend to safety, complete with Kid Icarus style run-off-the-left-reappear-on-the-right gameplay.
I have to admit, as much as I loved what I saw of the game from the demo (especially touches like the way waterfalls drop right off the level and little elements exist out of bounds) I won’t be buying Tobe’s Vertical Adventure right now. The timed escapes were already a bummer as I’d rather explore and hunt for high score but coupled with the D-pad-exclusive controls things just got too frustrating for me. As odd as analog control is for a retro-styled 2D game, the Xbox D-pad is atrocious to use for just about anything and especially for precision platforming. I love what Rayteoactive has done to create an entirely unique and beautiful 2D platform/puzzler, it’s just not quite to my personal liking. By all means, though, if you ever enjoyed a game that came on a cartridge, you too should at least check out the free demo.
Bonus free video from the official site of the game which you should also check out for the amazing faux-Genesis boxart!
I got the go-ahead to download Kodu Game Lab last week and was hopeful that it’d be another outlet for my creative juices but it’s turned out to be more of a sieve, holding those juices back. Check out the full “review” at NfamousGamers.
I know it’s not quite fair to compare Kodu Game Lab to LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule has had years to work on LittleBigPlanet and millions to back it up while Kodu was produced at Microsoft as an XNA Community Games release by a team of only six on an undisclosed budget. But at the most basic level the two strive for the same thing, to empower players to create games of their own, and in that respect Kodu has more potential than LittleBigPlanet, but its presentation and approachability are what are currently keeping it down.
It may look a little like Weapon of Choice but Grapple Buggy is a whole new game from Mommy’s Best Games. Reminding me a wee bit of Blaster Master mixed with, well, Weapon of Choice, you set out to chronicle an alien world… in a car that can grab a hold of stuff. There’s a lot more to read at the official site and even more behind the scenes stuff at the devlog, but really, all you need is this trailer. I’m sold.
XNPlay just posted about a new change to the Xbox 360’s Community Games program: pricing control. Publishers on the indie channel now have the ability to change their prices (for better or worse) after they’ve been released and several titles have dropped significantly. Take a look below and hit the title to read XNPlay’s reviews if you’re unfamiliar with the games. I’m not on the fence about any of them but it’s great that the Community Games channel is continuing to evolve. Maybe one day I won’t feel the need to post about every little change because it’ll be right there in the NXE’s Spotlight for all to see.
