The entire time I was playing The Tempura of the Dead, it felt as though there was some big joke that I wasn’t in on. Don’t get me wrong – the retro look and feel is great, and for the most part the action is good solid fun.

Yet the lack of any explanation about what you’re actually doing is baffling. Why am I juggling zombie heads? Why am I collecting hundreds of lives? What is ‘Tempura Feaver’? Some of the questions are eventually answered, but there’s still a sense that some underlying joke is being missed. Treat TOTD as an all-out blaster/slasher however, and you’ll have far more fun.

GAMEPLAY

Over 24 platforming levels, you are tasked with killing zombies and destroying huge germ slimeball creatures. Destroying every germ completes the level, and you partake in the killing via a machine gun (carried by the President of the United States, naturally) or a samurai sword.

There are two characters to choose from – the president and a samurai – and each has their own special abilities. The president has his long-range weapon, while the samurai must get closer to the enemy and slash, but is must stronger and can jump higher to reach out-of-reach areas. The two characters can be swapped with a press of the right bumper.

Initial impressions revolve around feeling very confused and just a little frustrated. Killing a zombie will make its head fly off, and if you shoot or slash the head enough times before it falls to the ground, you’ll enter ‘Tempura Feaver’ (sic).

At no point does the game explain why you are juggling heads, or what the hell Tempura Feaver is. Eventually you’ll discover through trial and error that during the Feaver, you can shoot a zombie head a single time to finish it off, but even then the question remains: Why am I doing this? What is the purpose?

Then there is the lives collection issue. Killing zombies will give you 1UP, killing germs yields a 5UP and other baddies even give 10UP. For a while it’s not at all obvious what is going on or why you’re being given all these lives, but again the answer finally becomes clear – lives can be used as currency to buy better weapons and extra health at shops. Why is this not explained anywhere?

Stick with it though, as there’s a knack to enjoying TOTD – simply ignore all this OTT weirdness, and you’ll find an entertaining blast’n'slasher underneath, with plenty of content to play through. Switching between characters and using their abilities in the best situations is good fun.

Along with featuring tons of levels, there are bosses to defeat too, and these generally have a great retro feel to them – difficult, but not impossible, with plenty of dodging around bullets and enemies involved.

Unfortunately, even the gameplay itself is let down by some shoddy mechanics. The jumping can feel very sticky, especially if you try jumping straight after landing. Many times I found myself pressing jump, then walking straight off a ledge after my character decided they didn’t want to follow orders.

Colliding with enemies is awful too. Touch an enemy, and the protagonist will spin on the spot for a second – but there is no moment of invincibility, so if he keeps walking towards you, he’ll hit you again instantly. Numerous times I ended up losing all of my hit points from a single bad guy. Since it’s just not worth getting close to an enemy, I eventually opted to stick with the President so I wouldn’t have to use the samurai’s close-range attacks.

STYLE

What The Tempura of the Dead lacks in gameplay, it makes up for in style. The visuals are pure bliss, with a real authentic ‘this game was made in the 80′s, honest’ look to them. The cutscenes too are very lovely indeed, splashed with only a few different colours, yet giving off a far more enjoyable radiance than the majority of games on XBLIG.

It’s actually quite insane that these old-school visuals can provide such atmosphere. The backdrops of cityscapes and stormy nights are really stunning, and give the game’s personality a real dark edge.

The music is also fantastically retro, and fits the game perfectly. If only there were more tracks, we’d be in 8-bit heaven.

STORY

As you’d expect (given the rest of the game’s content), the story is proper mental. There’s a zombie outbreak in the US, and the President is escaping in his chopper when he spots a samurai on the ground below fighting the zombies. He decides to jump down and join forces with him to eliminate the zombies for good.

The samurai teaches the President his special ways of killing – first he kills the zombies, then he juggles its head with his sword, before finally deep-frying it. When the President remarks that he doesn’t have a sword, the samurai tells him that it doesn’t matter what weapon you use, as long as you complete the kill using this special method.

Yikes indeed. The cutscenes are really enjoyable to watch and made me laugh numerous times, while following the story as it progresses is entertaining enough. Perhaps the craziest storyline in the Xbox Marketplace?

OTHER

The Tempura of the Dead is going to sell lots of copies off those screenshots and that trailer alone – it looks perfect, and you can’t help but want a go. It’s worth downloading the trial before you do so, however, as you may well find that it’s a little too awkward for your likings.

If you can work through the dodgy control mechanics and see past the elements of the game that really don’t make any sense whatsoever, TOTD is charming retro fun with several hours worth of zombie-killing for your enjoyment.

BUY/TRY

So check this out – Cubism is an Xbox Live Indie Game in which you build cubes using oddly shaped pieces for the sides. You’ve probably played a physical puzzle just like it. Now consider this – Cubism is one of the best Xbox Live Indie Games I’ve played.

Doesn’t seem likely, does it? I mean, just look at it – it really is an entire game based around the idea of building cubes. Once you’ve built one cube, you move onto the next one and build that one too. Yet there is something about Cubism that is just… right. It feels great to control, stupidly addictive to play and polished to perfection. Never considered cube-building as your cup of tea? You may well after giving this a go.

GAMEPLAY

The main mode in Cubism sees you placing pieces around a central cube. If all of the edges slot into each other and the cube is completely covered, then the level is complete and you move onto the next.

This really is the entire game, but by God is it cleverly designed. Rotating and moving around the cube is done via the right stick, and picking up pieces of the puzzle is a case of moving your cursor over them with the left stick and pressing A. Pieces can also be rotating via B, X and Y, and placed onto the main cube with A again.

The controls are simple yet effective, and feel very satisfying. Spinning the cube and putting the pieces together is such a breeze that there’s never really a feeling of frustration, since it’s so easy to take them all off and start again.

The way Cubism ramps up the difficulty is perhaps the its greatest element. The first few levels are simple, asking you to input just one or two pieces into a semi-complete cube. The edges and sides also have colours on them to show which pieces should go where. Then pictures are introduced, with dogs’ faces all over the place and a panoramic scene stretched around the cube.

Eventually you get mixtures of each element, with bigger cubes, lots of different pictures, cubes with no colour, cubes with colours that will throw you off the right track, cubes with no pieces already applied at all… the amount of variety is staggering, and does the experience a huge favour. It never really gets to the point where you think ‘I can’t be bothered to do another of these’, even after all 70 puzzles have been solved.

Apart from the main levels, you’ve also got a few extra modes. Puzzle mode sees you completing levels with whatever pieces you choose – tapping Y allows you to remove the current pieces and select a new batch. Hence, there is never one single solution to a level. Then you’ve got Freeform mode – don’t feel like building a cube? How about an oblong? A diamond? A pyramid? They’re all here, with plenty of pieces to build around them.

Seeing modes like this with real work that has gone into them, rather than a hopeless tacked on feel like most of the Xbox Live Indie Games we see, is a real breath of fresh air. We didn’t really play around with either of them too much before becoming bored, but we definitely appreciate the sentiment.

STYLE

Again Cubism surprises, this time in the visuals department. For a game that involves a cube and lots of jigsaw pieces, it looks damn pretty with bloom effects and smooth movement and rotation. The backdrops are a little bland, but you’ll most likely be concentrating on everything in the foreground to notice.

The majority of XBLIG developers should take note of Cubism‘s interface and menus. Nothing is particularly incredible about them, but they just feel right – this is thanks to a combination of style and fitting font choice. Developers: Choosing one of the standard fonts and throwing them all over the screen higgledy piggledy is not OK. Watch and learn.

STORY

One day someone was building some cubes and they thought ah, I know, let’s make a game about it! That was in fact the story behind the making of the game – unsurprisingly, Cubism itself does not feature a story.

OTHER

Cubism doesn’t look like much from the screenshots, and for this reason it will not sell well. It’s a harsh truth, but one that we would like to see put right.

Hence, we are telling you now – if you own an Xbox 360, you should pick up a copy of Cubism. It’s addictive and so easy to play, and without realising it you’ll have lost a good few hours simply slotting cubes together. And really, isn’t that all life is about?

BUY/TRY

I wouldn’t say that it’s rare for an Xbox Live Indie Game to instantly irritate me – I’ve played plenty of pretty awful titles downloaded from the XBLIG service, and a fair few of them had me baffled from the very beginning, with terrible explanation screens and slow-paced action.

Fear the Dronx is guilty of both in a very serious way. From the moment you start playing, the game tries to teach the fundamentals in the most drawn-out and tedious manner possible, and once you finally get into the game itself, the action turns out to be pretty sodding boring too. There’s very little to like about Fear the Dronx, not because it’s a poorly made game, bur rather that the concept is dull dull dull.

GAMEPLAY

The idea on each level is to trap the Dronx then blow them up. Blocks and bombs are spurting out of spawners on different parts of the level, and you use a mixture of arrows and blockers to direct the blocks, trapping the Dronx in corners or against walls, then move a bomb into the path of the block and blow the lot up.

In all honesty, I felt bored just explaining that. It’s an incredibly tedious idea, and in practice it turns out to be even worse. Moving blocks and bombs around isn’t much fun, and planning your attack by holding blocks and bombs in place with blockers is very dull too.

The most ridiculous part is that both the blocks and the bombs start shooting out straight away, not giving you any time to think about the best plan of action. There are limited of each, hence using each to its full potential is key. You can, however, ignore everything on your first try, work out how best to play the level, then simply restart it. Why is there is no ‘start the level’ option before the action begins?

Fortunately, there are barely any levels to play through. Over three difficulties, you’ve got just under 20 levels to yawn your way through, but you most likely won’t make it past 5 of them before you turn the game off. There are other ‘interesting’ ideas and elements thrown in with later levels, but the underlying concept always remains the same, hence you won’t care about the rest of the game anyway!

STYLE

Fear the Dronx doesn’t look too bad – the Dronx themselves reminded me a little of the aliens in Puppy Games’ Revenge of the Titans, and the explosions look pretty neat.

The backdrops, however, are incredibly boring, and every level looks pretty much the same. It really can’t have taken the developers very long to create Fear the Dronx – every level uses the same set of blocks, but in different positions. It feels very cheap indeed.

The music falls in the usual Xbox Live Indie Games techno-crap category. Music is far more important than you seem to believe, XBLIG devs! Give us something worth listening to, else we’re definitely not going to enjoy your game!

STORY

The Xbox Live Marketplace description for the game states that you need to ‘snare and destroy the evil Dronx mastermind’, although this isn’t mentioned anywhere in the actual game. The description does also state, however, that Fear the Dronx is ‘a fresh and innovative take on the puzzle genre’, so we can’t really take it’s word as gospel now, can we?

OTHER

Fear the Dronx is part tedium, part irritation, and a huge dose of bad idea. The game had us wanting to quit and never boot it up again within minutes, and a little while later we were rocking back and forth, not-so-jokily wishing the end of the world would come.

If you have read all this and come to the conclusion that you would still like to try the demo out, you can of course do so. You’re also mentally unstable, and should probably seek help. Good day to you!

BUY/TRY

We’ve already reviewed a couple of games from the BIT.TRIP series this year – RUNNER and FATE – both of which we enjoyed immensely. Of course, up to this point the BIT.TRIP game have only been available to play via WiiWare, so if you’ve not forked out for the white box and a waggle stick, you’ve been missing out on all the action.

Fear not, non-Bit Trippers! BIT.TRIP BEAT, the game that started it all, hit Steam this week signifying that the series may well be coming to PC/Mac in its entirety. With brand spanking new HD visuals and a whole new control system at the ready, we decided to go back to the start and see whether BEAT is still as fun as it originally was early last year.

GAMEPLAY

If you took Pong, turned it into a rhythm game then injected a bucketload of psychedelic visuals, you’d essentially get something along the likes of BIT.TRIP BEAT. Blocky retro balls flys from the right-hand side of the screen, and you are tasked with bouncing them back with the paddle on the left. Each block reaches the paddle on a beat of the currently-playing track, hence it’s more of a rhythm game than a simple case of knocking back anything that comes your way.

It’s simple yet incredibly addictive. Each level begins with just a few blocks flying in your direction at any one time, but eventually mental formations begin to appear and you’ll be flinging the paddle all over the place to keep them back. Note that BIT.TRIP BEAT is stupidly difficult, mainly due to the length of the tracks. It’s a real test of endurance that we barely see in today’s modern titles, and the game demands your full attention at all times.

There are multiple methods for controlling the paddle. You can have a crack with the arrow keys on your keyboard, or even use an Xbox controller if you’ve got one handy. The best method, however, and probably the one that is closest to the original Wii Remote controls is the mouse. It’s surprising to see the sorts of moves you manage to pull off with the mouse, and definitely makes you feel like a BIT.TRIP god. It’s perhaps not as great as with the Wii Remote, but it’s still a worthy alternative.

So what happens when you let a block slip by your paddle? This is where the magic comes in – miss too many, and the level will devolve into classic Pong-style visuals, with white objects on a black background. At this point, if you miss any more, you’ll earn yourself a game over. On the flipside, bag yourself a big enough combo by not missing any blocks, and the visuals will explode into colour with gorgeous backdrops. It’s this idea that really gives BIT.TRIP BEAT its personality, and makes building up that combo very much worth it.

While BIT.TRIP BEAT is a lot of fun to play, it can also be a little frustrating when you’ve been playing a level for a while, then lose right near the very end. The thought of having to do that entire song all over again is pretty off-putting, although you’ll most likely leave the game and then still come back to it later.

BEAT could also have done with some more levels. There are only a few different songs to play, and while each of them is quite lengthy, you’ll still have managed to see every the game has to offer within the hour. There are additional achievements to unlock and leaderboards to top, but it’s still a very short game indeed.

STYLE

This is the bit where we gush over BIT.TRIP BEAT‘s gorgeous visuals and epic soundtrack. The game features blocky visuals that actually look nicer than a lot of current indie games with smoother graphics. It’s a real feast for the eyes, and the way in which the level alters depending on how well you’re playing (as mentioned above) is fantastic.

This PC edition has had a hefty upscaling from the WiiWare version, and it now looks far more crisp and lovely. You’ll most like miss the backdrops and random objects whizzing by as you’ll be concentrating so hard on not losing, but everything still looks charming and zany.

The soundtrack is very chiptune, and very awesome – which is a good thing, given that the entire game revolves around music! It’s all chiptune stuff mainly, and there’s even a guest track by chiptune artist Bit Shifter. If you’re a chiptune fan, you’ll love every track in BEAT with a passion - the music is the main reason you’ll keep coming back to play.

STORY

This is the beginning on CommanderVideo’s epic BIT.TRIP journey, but it is a journey without much explanation. In other words, there is no story – we catch glimpses of the Commander whizzing around at the start of levels, but there’s never really an explanation as to where his journey will take him.

OTHER

It’s great to see the BIT.TRIP series finally appearing on PC, and BIT.TRIP BEAT is a fine way to kick off proceedings. We possibly would have liked to see a few more tracks added, and the difficulty towards the end of the available tracks can get rocky – although this is a new Easy mode for anyone having major difficulties.

If you’ve not been able to get into the series before due to a lack of Nintendo Wii, now is as good a time as any. BIT.TRIP BEAT is available to pick up from Steam right now, and we’d advise checking out the trailer on the Steam Store page and seeing what you think.

BIT.TRIP BEAT on Steam

If you had an obsession with the ‘The Incredible Machine‘ series back in the day, then this latest offering from the Bumpkin Brothers may well be right up your street. The Machine is a far simpler beast, with coloured boxes to stack away and conveyor belts to move everything into its required position.

It’s all very charming and enjoyable stuff that starts off strong and continually challenges you to come up with amazing designs and use all the space provided. Later puzzles can be a little tricky, and it would have been nice to be able to skip past the harder machines instead of having to tackle them in a linear fashion, yet there’s no denying that The Machine is a great way to spend an evening.

GAMEPLAY

On each of The Machine‘s 33 levels, the idea is to fulfil your boss’ order by placing a number of coloured cubes into a dumpster. A dispenser churns white cubes out, and your job is to place down conveyor belts to move the cubes along and into the goal. Each level has different requirements, ranging from different numbers of cubes, a variation of colours and different sizes.

Once the conveyor belts have been properly introduced, that’s when things start to get interesting. Paint guns spray cubes specific colours, and two-way conveyor belts allow you to split your stream of cubes up and spray them all different colours to satisfy the level’s requirements. Later levels introduced more and more wacky and challenging ideas, with a splitter machine that can turn a big cube into two small ones, and a cannon that blasts cubes across gaps in the level.

The level of creativity is astonishing. The Machine plays a bit like a Sudoku puzzle – you start by filling in the spaces that are obvious, then piece the rest of the puzzle around them. Putting together a beast of a machine is very satisfying, especially in later levels, and is made much easier thanks to a variety of simple one-touch options, such as editing and deleting placed pieces and speeding up the action once everything is in order.

Our only real issue with the story mode is its linear nature. If you find yourself stuck on a later puzzle – and believe us, you will – there is no way to skip this puzzle and try the next one. Each puzzle must be completed in order, hence you only ever have one new puzzle available at a time. It’s a shame, as it adds a slight sense of frustration that could have otherwise been avoided.

Apart from the main puzzling, you’ve also got a free play mode, a level designer and community levels. Free play does exactly what it says on the tin – you’re provided with a blank slate and every machine piece, and it’s a case of building the biggest and most badass machine you can. Our personal lack of creativity meant that our own machines were a bit rubbish, but we can definitely see how certain players will be able to lose hours to this mode.

The level designer is like free play, except that you’re in fact building machines for other people to head-scratch over. Once your machine is built, you’re able to choose the level requirements and locked-down pieces, then upload it for other players to try. It’s a great feature, although understandably there aren’t too many community-built levels at the moment!

STYLE

As mentioned previously, The Machine is really charming. It has a very casual feel to it, with bright colours and funny little workmen helping you every step of the way. No-one is unhappy in the land of The Machine, even when the difficult levels come to call.

Every level is doused in white, with a plain cream backdrop and white cubes everywhere – that is, of course, until you begin to build your machine and bring the level to life. It perhaps would have been nice to have a range of different backdrops rather than just the simple one-colour available, but there’s no denying that The Machine definitely has style.

The interface is simple and very effective. Only the bare essential buttons are available for clicking, and each has its important uses. We never found ourselves confused at any point, and building your machine is always a piece of cake (although winning the level is a different matter!).

STORY

While The Machine does feature little men giving you jobs and telling you how to build your contraptions, there isn’t really a story as such. No explanation is given as to why you’re dumping coloured blocks or who you’re doing it for. It doesn’t take too much away from the gameplay, but we would have liked to have seen some form of story to wrap it all up.

OTHER

The Machine is lovely, elegant fun that will easily fill an evening – and beyond, if the free play mode is your kind of thing. Even with the fact that you can’t skip the more difficult later levels, we’re still recommending this out-right, especially for any gamers looking to delve into a casual gaming experience or two.

There’s plenty to love in The Machine, especially at that $8 price tag. If you’re still not convinced, there’s a demo available from the official site. Otherwise, you’ll find the game on Impulse.

Starlight is quite the oddity. It’s a puzzle-platformer that revolves around the idea of shifting between two different planes, allowing the protagonist to pass through walls and navigating seemingly impassable obstacles. All the while, there’s a striking visual style on show, with scenic photos as backdrops and hand-scribbled characters.

Intriguing, but not all that entertaining thanks to some poor design. The method for unlocking levels and the lack of explanation regarding what you’re actually meant to be doing is all rather messy, and may well turn potential players off at the first hurdle. It’s a strange mix of both interesting and sloppy design choices.

GAMEPLAY

Besides walking and jumping, the protagonist can switch between planes in the world, making objects appear that were originally faded out. When a wall is in the way, he can simply swap planes and watch straight through it.

However, the idea is to swap between planes as few times as possible – higher scores are awarded for players who swap a small number of times. Hence, finding the best routes without having to swap too many times is the key. It can be pretty rewarding to work out the perfect route, as there are so many different platforms and directions to take.

To complete a level, all the stars must be collected. These can be on either plane, so again managing your number of swaps can be tricky. It all starts off pretty simple, but eventually bad guys are added, spike balls litter the levels and more complex elements are introduced. There are plenty of lovely ideas on show, and level design is interesting enough.

However, the way it is all put together isn’t so hot. First off, apart from a box of text at the start which briefly explains shifting between planes, there isn’t much explanation available at all. I had to work out myself that swapping fewer times led to better scores, and it’s not initially obvious that all the stars must be collected to proceed to the next level.

It would be nice if progression wasn’t so linear as well. All three worlds are selectable from the beginning, but going into world 2 or 3 simply shows locked levels – you must complete each level one by one to unlock the next. This is fine, but it seems like the kind of game that would benefit from offering a few levels at a time, especially as some of the later levels can be a little frustrating.

However, this frustration is doused slightly by the quick respawn nature of play. There are no lives, and when you die the hero is simply placed down right before the area where it happened. It’s a risky strategy, but this particular setup works very well indeed.

STYLE

Starlight melds a few different ‘out there’ visual ideas together to interesting effect. Backdrops are in fact photos of forest and fauna scenes, while the game objects appear to be all hard-drawn in a scribbled style.

Visually striking, although I don’t think I’d go as far as to say that I liked it. It’s definitely something different, but more of a passing ‘hmm’ than a ‘wow’.

The music, on the other hand, is a long ‘hmmmmmm’. The guitar track that plays throughout is a little tedious and not at all enjoyable to listen to, and there are no in-game sound effects to let you know you’ve swapped planes or died. Very odd, and not in a good way.

STORY

There isn’t a story to Starlight, but since the main character likes a little alien-like and you’re collecting stars, I’m sure you can come up with your own premise.

OTHER

Starlight is something just that little bit different for the Xbox Marketplace, and it’s worth downloading the demo and seeing what you think. With a bit more substance and a better interface, it could well be an XBLIG you should look into.

As it is now, the game definitely has its problems. At 240 MS points ($3), Starlight is one of the more expensive Xbox Live Indie Games available, so make sure you try the trial before spending the cash.

Buy/Try

Where would Xbox Live Indie Games be without Radiangames, eh? It would be missing out on a lovely range of twin-stick and arena shooters, that’s for sure. The gorgeous JoyJoy, the mental Crossfire and the wonderful Inferno – all games you should definitely have on your Xbox 360.

Now here’s comes the fourth in the series, and it’s a little bit different. It’s still an arena shooter of sorts… just without the shooting. Like a Radiangames take on Pacman, Fluid is really clever stuff, with plenty of medals and extra levels to unlock. It’s a little on the short side, but this is yet another beautiful experience to get your Xbox purring like a kitten.

GAMEPLAY

The idea on each level is simple – collect all the glowing orbs in the quickest time possible. Your only control is the left stick, moving your fish-like friend around and colliding with orbs to collect them. OK, maybe it’s not that simple – every time you collect an orb, a nice jellyfish thing spawns, and if you bump into one of these, you’re a dead fishy.

There are a few ways to deal with jellyfish. First off, you can swim away as fast as your little fins will let you. On many levels, escaping is your only option, and dodging around all the jellies can be tense stuff. Then there are a couple of powerups to collect – one of them acts as a whirlpool and sucks all the jellyfish in for a short while, and the other turns you into a huge fish, so you can crush the jellies for a few seconds.

It’s such a simple premise, and yet it feels so great to play. Levels start off stupidly easy, but by the end you’ll be engulfed by jellyfish all over the place and need to work out the best routes to take to grab all the orbs before a jelly gets you. There are also time trial levels, where jellyfish don’t appear – instead, you need to grab every orb before the time runs out.

There’s a huge emphasis on being speedy too. After completing a level, you’re given a rating out of 5 stars depending on how fast you were. Beating your times is insanely addictive, especially since some of the first levels are quite short. Grabbing enough stars also allows you to open up five special levels at the end, adding to the replay value.

Unfortunately, it’s also replay value where Fluid falls down the most. This game is incredibly short – it’ll take you around thirty minutes to beat every level, and then most likely only another thirty before you become bored of grabbing more medals. Yet it still feels well worth playing, especially for the $1 asking price, so we won’t linger on the length of the game.

STYLE

As with all the Radiangames titles, Fluid is what you’d call ‘a looker’. There are lovely ripple effects on show as your fish swims about the place, and everything glows satisfyingless. Every Radiangames title seems to be even more beautiful than the last, and Fluid definitely keeps this trend going.

There are some brilliant interface ideas as well – the level select menu sees you swimming on top of the level you want to play, rather than just having a boring menu as per the usual XBLIG title. The Marketplace needs far more developers trying out great little ideas like this.

STORY

Yet again carrying on a Radiangames tradition, there is no story. Everything is incredibly abstract – we don’t know who the black fishy thing is, why there are jellyfish, why you’re collecting orbs – but perhaps it’s better left this way.

OTHER

Radiangames Fluid is yet another gorgeous Luke Schneider title to add to your Xbox Live Indie Games Collection. It may be on the short side, but it’s an experience worth partaking in, and you’ll be fully immersed for the entire duration.

Is it the best Radiangames title to date? Possibly not – we did love Inferno a bit too much – but it’s still well worth 80 MS Points. Grab this and be happy.

Try/Buy

Racing and puzzling – now there are two genres that you don’t often see lumped together. Nimbus attempts to duct tape the two together, throwing a small bouncy vessel around a series of mazes at speed.

Calling it a ‘Racing’ game is stretching the truth a fair bit – if this is racing, then so is Super Meat Boy – but the puzzling elements are definitely something special. The controls can feel a little fiddly at times, but in general this is a cheap and cheerful experience definitely worth partaking in.

GAMEPLAY

Taking control of a missile-like object, the idea is to navigate increasingly difficult mazes and reach the goal at the end of each. Holding left and right causes the missile to turn in a clockwise or anticlockwise manner and initially this feels quite confusing, especially when moving in a downwards direction. A few levels later, however, and you’ll be powering towards the finish with full understanding under your belt.

The main concept is that your vessel cannot stay airborne on its own – it needs to touch a bouncy wall or fire from a cannon or use other assorted useful appliances. Here’s the thing, though – using one of these objects does not push your craft, but rather it gives your craft a boost of energy. In other words if there is a bouncy wall on the ceiling and you touch it, you won’t be catapulted towards the ground – instead, you’ll earn a boost which can be used to then move in any direction you wish.

It’s a difficult idea to grasp when saying it outloud, and you really need to try it out to see how it all works. If your craft stops moving and rests on the ground, you become stranded and die – hence, you need to keep moving until you reach the end. Of course, it’s never as simple as that, thanks to lots of obstacles and spikes in your way.

It’s all really enjoyable and we found ourselves whizzing through the whole game in one sitting. Every new level is fun to explore, and there are secret exits and hidden coins to find that really boost the replay value. Then you’ve got global leaderboards to top and lots of ship customization to mess about with. In other words, you’ll easily get a good several hours of play out of this bad boy, and then some.

What makes Nimbus really addictive is the quick stop-start elements. When you die, you’re instantly respawned either at the start of the level, or at the latest checkpoint cannon. This means that dying isn’t such a huge hassle, as you’ll be back at that point within seconds. It’s like an airborne version of VVVVVV in a sense, especially when you start messing around with gravity later on in the game!

Only a couple of niggles threatened to ruin the fun. While the controls are perfectly reasonable, later levels get incredibly difficult. This isn’t a bad thing – in fact, we love a challenge – but the lacklustre feeling of control can be a little too much when faced with tight spaces and sharp corners. It’s nothing a few dozen attempts can’t solve, but it can still feel quite frustrating.

The other issue is the lack of indication as to where all the coins are. We don’t mind hunting down collectables, but since many of the levels are pretty big, it would be nice to know which ones we should be looking in! We wouldn’t mind all that much if we knew that there was one coin in each level, but we found quite a few levels in which there were multiple coins! A small symbol next to each level that has a coin in it would do wonders and definitely make us want to grab every single one.

STYLE

There’s a lovely visual style throughout Nimbus, with bright colourful backdrops and a wonderful variety of objects to navigate. However, it does all being to feel a little samey towards the end, as every world is the very same, but with a few colour changes.

The world map is set in a Super Mario World style layout, with levels joined together and secret routes seemingly out of reach until you find the special goals. The feeling of progression is really great, and leaderboards are loaded on the fly so you can check out your top times against the rest of the world in a very easy fashion.

The Nimbus soundtrack is a mix of good-to-great tunes, and every track fits well with the general feel of the game. Throughout each world you’ll hear the same track repeated, which can become a little annoying, but we still found ourselves humming the tunes afterwards.

STORY

The Steam description for Nimbus states that the game is ‘Light on story, but heavy on gameplay’, and it’s not wrong there. There is some intro about a girl vessel thingy being snatched away by a big nasty robot, but really it’s all just an excuse to zip around some cool-looking mazes and beat all your friends’ times.

OTHER

With plenty of Steam features integrated into the game, including Steam Cloud, leaderboards and achievements, Nimbus has got tons going for it. Fun? Check. Addictive? Check. Plenty of reasons to keep playing once it’s all over? Double check. This is a game that looks good in trailers, and plays even better.

There’s no demo available at the moment which is a bit of a bummer, but honestly, for the $10 asking price, it’s not exactly a huge risk to take. Nimbus is charmingly unique and immensely entertaining, and will keep you going for a good six hours or more.

Nimbus on Steam

Game Dev Story is one of the most addictive iPhone games available at the moment – just check out our review to understand why. There’s so much depth to the game that sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what to do next.

Hence, we’ve put together this handy guide, answering all the most important questions and proving hints and a good walkthrough for how to get the most out of the game.

Looking for an answer that isn’t provided here? Simply leave your question in the comment section below, and we’ll be happy to help you out!

Which game genres and types work well together?

When it comes to creating your game, combining genres and types is usually a case of using your common sense. Initially, it’s best to use combinations that are obvious choices – for example, any type of RPG will always work well with the Fantasy type, while the Card Game genre works beautifully with the Dungeon type.

Once you’ve got a bit of money under your belt, you can then begin to experiment with more ‘out there’ combinations. Even if the combinations you pick don’t work so well, it’s still worth trying, as every time a genre or type hits level 2, you’ll receive 2 extra points to increase the stats of future games. Hence, leveling up as many different genres and types as possible is a great idea.

How often should contract work be chosen?

Contract work is useful in that it gives you development points, which can be used to level up your employees and boost the stats of your current game. When you first start the game, it’s a good idea to do one bit of contract work between each game project. Make sure to always choose work that is definitely going to be possible – anything with a time limit of less than 10 weeks, and you probably won’t get it done.

Once you get fully rolling, you may never need to do contract work, as your devs may well earn enough development points through build the games. At this point, it’s up to you if you want to do contract work or not – it does a good job of breaking up the main flow of the game, and keeping the addiction a little fresher.

However, there is one tactical aspect to taking on contract work. The best time to release a game is just before Christmas (around month 11/12), and games usually take around four months to develop – although this changes depending on how good your team is. Hence if it’s May, you may well want to take on a few contract jobs to let time pass a little, then start development in August so that your game will be ready at the peak of Christmas shopping.

When should I hire more/new staff?

When you first begin, it’s best to choose whichever are the best staff available to you. Make sure you fill every seat in your offices, as the more staff you have, the better your games will be.

Once you have the option of looking in more classy places for staff, do so immediately – well, as long as you have the cash. Getting rid of staff with poor stats feels harsh, but you’ll be able to find candidates with stats that are 5 or 6 times higher than your current lot, so it’s really not worth keeping them on – leveling them up that high will cost far more than it’s worth.

Check for new staff in between every game project, and by the tenth year, you should have a full team of workers with triple-figure stats. Make sure you take on a good range of skills – at the very least, have one sound engineer, one designer, one writer and two coders. Remember, however, that the better the staff, the higher their salaries will be, and wages disappear at the end of March, so making sure you have enough money to pay them all at that point is essential!

What’s the deal with hackers?

When searching for workers, you may come across hackers. These guys have ridiculously good stats, yet when you take them on, they turn out to be not so great. Basically, they’re massively talented, but don’t have any direction or focus. Take on every hacker you find, then use the Career Change Manual (bought from the salesman) to give them a proper job. Their stats will drop slightly at the point, but it’s still very much worth it.

What should I buy from the salesman?

Every year, a salesman will come to visit, bearing rather expensive wares. Initially you most likely won’t be able to afford the stuff he has to offer, but when you’ve got enough cash together, make sure you start to grab his boosts. You’ll want to buy the Fun, Creativity, Graphics and Sound Boosts, as these allow you to add extra points to your current game.

Once you’ve bought these four, do not bother with anything else other than the Career Change Manual. Buy three of these every time the salesman comes calling, as they are incredibly useful – especially if you want a hardware engineer (see later in the guide).

What console should I choose for my latest game?

This is where a decent knowledge of real-life gaming platforms from the last 20 years comes into play. Every console available in Game Dev Story is based on a real console, albeit with a slightly different name and design. Not only that, but the success or failure of each console is based loosely around how well its real-life counterpart did too.

With this in mind, it’s relatively simple to work out which platforms to develop for and which to stay well away from. Early in the game, developing for the Intendro consoles – such as the Game Kid and the Super IES – is definitely a good idea. Watch the Share percentages, and keep developing for a console until its share has fallen considerably lower than the rest, as purchasing licenses for the later consoles can cost a fair amount.

When Sonny enters the market, it’s a good idea to jump on the PlayStatus, as that keeps going for a good several years. By the time it has run its course, you’ll most likely have collected together the funds and the tools to create your own console. Make sure you put the maximum amount of money and effort into creating your own hardware, but also make sure you have a substantial amount of cash spare too, as console development takes a very long time.

Once your console is complete, make sure from that point on that you only develop for your own console – this way, the share will stay high and you’ll make the maximum amount of cash.

How do I get a hardware engineer for making my own consoles?

Perhaps the biggest secret in Game Dev Story, bagging a hardware engineer is simple – if expensive – stuff. The idea is to level up one of your staff to the max in every type of role. This can be done with a combination of development points and Career Change Manuals (from the salesman). Level your chosen character up to level 5 in whatever role they’re in, then use the Career Change Manual to swap their job to something they aren’t already level 5 in.

Level them up to level 5 in this role, then repeat until they are level 5 in every available role. Now use the Career Change Manual on them once more, and the Hardware Engineer role will now be available for selection. Choose this, and you’ll then be able to develop your own console.

How do I make sequels, and how often should I do so?

Sequels can only be developed if the original game made it into the Hall of Fame. Any game that manages to get a cumulative review score of 35 or over enters into the Hall of Fame, and you’ll then be able to make a sequel to it.

Sequels are very useful in that they start with plenty of points available straight away, meaning that the finished product will most likely be very highly rated and make you lots of money. There are two issues with sequels – firstly, if you make too make sequels to a row, your fans will grow tired of your antics and start to diminish. The way to combat this is to wedge a brand new game in between each sequel, to keep your games fresh.

The other issue with sequels is that you’re forced to use the genre and type of the original game, hence you won’t be able to try out new genres and earn yourself extra points for bumping future games up. It’s best to develop a sequel as every third game you make when you’re doing OK for cash, and when you’re absolutely rolling in it and there’s no money problems whatsoever, you may not even want to make sequels at all.

Who should I choose to write/design/create sound effects for my current game?

This is where having a good range of workers on your team pays off. Writers are always the best people to have script your game for you, while designers are best at graphics and sound engineers are best at sound and music. However, you should never use the same person twice in a row for two games – if you used a person in the last project, it will say ‘Prev’ just next to their name.

Having two of each type of worker, then, is a very good idea – although the likes of Producers and Directors will usually do a pretty decent job too. There’s always the temptation to use an outside source and pay a ridiculous amount for someone with very high stats, but most of the time it’s not worth it at all – choosing these guys can be very risky, as sometimes they’ll do a terrible job, then charge a ridiculous amount.

Just keep your workforce varied, and you should never need to outsource your projects.

Which advertising should I use, and how often should I use it?

Advertising affects both your company, and your current game. Using advertising during development is the best time to implement it, as it adds to both the hype of your game, and the fame of your company.

It’s only ever useful to choose the most expensive advertising going, as the less expensive options won’t add much to your fan count. However, when you first begin, it’s best to use whichever is ideal to your current budget – just make sure you use advertising at least one during each game’s development.

Once you’ve got plenty of money, use advertising lots of times during development, until the Hype rating for the game is close to 100. It can be expensive, but it’s definitely worth it, as your games will sell incredibly well.

When my staff ask to help, should I say yes?

During contract work, alway say no – the whole point of contract work is to earn development points, so using development points to speed up the process is pointless!

For game development, however, it all depends, as failure can result in lots of bugs to tidy up. Early on in the game, your devs will most likely not be skilled enough to pull this off with a success, so it’s best to say no to them. However, later on they’ll be able to do it with 80% success rate pretty much every time – at this point, you should always say yes, as these boosts can be extremely useful.

Hilariously, once you have the boosts from the salesman, you might as well say yes to your workers anyway, as the extra bugs can actually be useful! Each bug cleaned up will earn you one development point, hence if you have lots of bugs to clean up, this may give you the opportunity to use the various boosts you have bought and make the game ever better.

How do I get the Game of the Year award?

Achieving the Game of the Year award can be tricky, but if you focus on one project in particular – usually a sequel – it’s definitely doable. To be in with the chance your game needs to get at least 37/40 points in reviews – i.e. one 10, and the rest 9s.

Make sure all your staff are fully prepared and are not tired, then make a sequel to a very popular game. Give each job to the staff with the highest stats, then use each of the boosts you’ve bought from the salesman to send the stats through the roof. You should gather at least 300 points for Fun, then at least 100 for each of the others – possibly even 150 if you can manage it. Make sure to Hype up your game with advertising too

Ever since the wonderful Portal showed us exactly how puzzle platformers should be done, the test chamber scenario has been explored rather frequently by indie developers, both in 2D and 3D environments, with simple, monotone rooms to navigate and/or a sinister voice directing your journey. The Ball has neither of these features, and yet could well be the greatest Portal-like experience we’ve partaken in since Valve’s epic released.

Of course, there are rather major differences between the two – swap the test chambers for the innards of a dormant volcano, and swap the portal manipulation for a rolling ball of death – but the moments of pure jubilation and that wonderful feeling of progression via the power of your noggin make this a wholly worthwhile purchase. Enemies can become a little tedious later on, but fortunately there’s far more head-scratching involved than steamrolling.

GAMEPLAY

Armed with an odd push’n pull device, your objective is always the same – move a huge rolling ball around a series of rooms and caverns, opening the pathway to further areas. Initially puzzles are simple cases of pushing the ball onto buttons, or rolling in along narrow walkways. Holding left click and releasing fires the ball off in a straight line, while keeping the right mouse button held down will drag it towards you and keep it close at hand.

Puzzles don’t stay tame for long, however, and within the hour you’ll find yourself smiling as each room’s solution becomes apparent. Nothing ever really gets too difficult, and we breezed through the game without a single hitch, yet there’s something so charming and clever about each solution that you most likely won’t notice.

Manipulating the ball always feels so effortless, which is key to why the game feels so great to play. Feeling fully in control is important, and The Ball is fully aware of this – in fact, it plays on the idea by messing with you too. In certain areas you’ll suddenly lose the ball, or watch as it moves rapidly away from you.

In that moment, you suddenly feel a huge sense of worry and it becomes your number one priority to get it back again. It’s not actually possible to lose the ball (or at least we didn’t manage to!), but the idea that you may never see it again is enough to make you panic. You could argue that this element makes The Ball even greater than Portal a certain light – imagine taking a Companion Cube all the way through Portal, and you get a rough idea of your relationship with the ball.

Later on in the game, enemies are introduced. You cannot attack these directly, but must use your trusty spherical friend to roll over their undead bodies. The number of different methods for killing is brilliant - push the ball into them and blood splatters, or allow them to run between you and your companion and reel in it. You can also use your surroundings as well, like spike pits and arrow traps.

Enemies are both great fun and rather chilling additions to begin with, but eventually become a little tiresome when the numbers start to ramp up. Getting hit delivers a fair amount of damage, and it can be a while before you find a place to regain health. We would have rather seen less enemies and more lovely puzzles, but these sections are definitely not game-breakers.

Apart from the main story mode, you’ve also got a survival game in which enemies attack in waves, and you must roll all over their undead asses. As you can guess from our lukewarm response to the baddie overload, this wasn’t a favourite mode of ours, although it’s still nice to see it included. If you don’t mind the enemies as much as we did, you could easily find yourself playing this over and over for the highest score possible.

STYLE

The Ball is staggeringly gorgeous, attaining such an incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere. One moment you’ll be pushing the ball through tight compacted corridors, the next a doorway is opening out into a huge cavern filled with ancient artifacts and intrigue. Not a single pixel is every out of place, and the attention to detail is sometimes far past what you’d expect from a smaller team like Tripwire.

There’s also a huge scare factor involved too. Early on you’ll hear chilling noises but nothing too scary – then the zombies are introduced. The way they pelt towards you will genuinely get your adrenaline pumping, and eventually you’ll approach each new room with a great deal of caution.

Perhaps the only aspect that could be improved on is the lack of variation in environments. For the most part, you’re walking through chambers and caverns that all looks very similar to one another. Far later into the game you’ll find some interesting new scenery, but for the first few hours at least it’s all a bit samey.

STORY

A team of archaeologists are doing their business on the side of a dormant volcano in Mexico when the floor caves in, and one unlucky sod falls into the cavern below. His colleagues tell him to wait while they get help, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he ventures into the depths of the volcano.

After discovering a strange mechanical device on a pedestal, it’s not long until he finds a huge ball decorated with strange symbols. Putting 2 and 2 together, he uses the device with the ball, and the puzzling commences.

We honestly can’t think of a better story to wrap around ‘move ball with gun’, and the mysterious setting adds tons of depth and personality to the concept. Tripwire could have easily gone with a more Portal style approach, but instead risked a rather ‘out there’ underground ruins setting, and has definitely been rewarded for its effort.

OTHER

The Ball is something you must experience. It’s effortlessly clever stuff, marred only by frustrating enemy rushes late into the game. Puzzle design is always solid, and there’s more than enough entertainment to keep the average gamer happy for several hours and beyond.

As if making your mind up wasn’t already simple enough, the $20 price point is more than reasonable. The Ball is sure to be one of the underground hits (excuse the pun) of the year.

The Ball on Steam