Can’t decide between downloading another zombie or robot video game from XBLIG service? Pow Studios makes the decision simple: make a game with zombie-robot hybrids! Bot Stoppers is a robot-zombie bashing brawler coming soon to Xbox Live Indie Games. The game sports a nifty looking white and purple playable character. Regardless of how early or late in development this is, the character artist clearly has some talent.

From the video, players seem to upgrade various stats and purchase new abilities after fighting a wave of enemies. The 2D sprites are nicely animated, but all of the on-screen damage details and some visible code on the right and center (upon upgrading) take away from the visuals. With no imminent release date, Pow Studios has enough time to fix any issues people point out, and they encourage fan feedback. More details are needed to decide if this game is anything more than surviving waves of enemies in a fixed arena.

All that said, the world needs more robot-zombies. Hopefully the developers will explain more about the origins of the robot-zombie. Does it maliciously drain other robots for oil or electricity?

People interested in winning one of four 3-Day PAX East passes (which have since sold out) simply have to comment on Pow Studios’s Facebook page here. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt liking the company’s Facebook page and following them on Twitter @PowStudios.

Mommy’s Best Games has been hard at work on it’s XBLA debut Grapple Buggy for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean the mind behind Weapon of Choice and Shoot 1Up is done making XBL Indie games.  In fact, the developer’s next indie game, Explosionade, was just announced today.  And we won’t have long to wait for it either, with a tentative release of September 25.  Though given the XBL Indie peer review process, no exact release date can be guaranteed more than 48 hours ahead of time.

Explosionade puts you in the mechanical boots of a prototype war mech as you fight your way through dozens of alien-infested challenge rooms.  Promised features include 2-player co-op, online leaderboards, destructible environments in Mommy’s Best Games’ signature art style, and smooth 2D animations “just like Mom used to make! (If your mom was SNK).”

Look for Explosionade in the XBL Indie Game marketplace sometime in the next week.

If you watched the tragicomic documentary King Of Kong, you’ll know just how important the Twin Galaxies scoreboard is. Gamers battle for high scores in games from Donkey Kong and Pac-Man to Gears of War, and competition for that top spot in Twin Galaxy’s Book of Records is fierce. Now, top scores from Dead Pixel Arcade‘s indie shooter You Will Die will be included.

Right now, the highest You Will Die score is close to 8 million.  Think you could do better than that? Submit your video to Twin Galaxies and find out!

From the press release:

Dead Pixel Arcade’s indie hit ‘You Will Die’ has become the first of over 800 titles from the Xbox Live Indie Games platform to be added to the world famous Twin Galaxies Scoreboard.

Mar 17, 2010 – Dead Pixel Arcade’s indie hit ‘You Will Die’ has become the first of over 800 titles from the Xbox Live Indie Games platform to be added to the world famous Twin Galaxies Scoreboard. Players of ‘You Will Die’ can now compete for worldwide recognition and to gain a spot beside the best gamers in world like Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, and Todd Rogers. Twin Galaxies has been chronicled in critically acclaimed films such as ‘Chasing Ghosts’ and ‘King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters’ and had its listings included in the Guiness Book of World Records.

“Being added to the Twin Galaxies scoreboard is a huge accomplishment for You Will Die and it’s a testament to the hard work put in by everyone involved in creating the game.” said Derrick Hopkins, lead developer and head of the Dead Pixel Arcade studio. “Twin Galaxies has been around for nearly 30 years and it’s an organization that is recognized worldwide as the highest level in competitive, skill based games. A hardcore, brutal game like ‘You Will Die’ fits in perfectly with the high level of challenging gameplay that play that the Twin Galaxies scoreboard is famous for. We think its addition shows that Xbox Live Indie Games have shed whatever stigma they may have had in the past and can stand next to other competitive games.’

You Will Die is an intense 2D shooter where the player is a lone ship battling against a single enemy. Each time the enemy ship is destroyed, it returns bigger and meaner than before. The player does not receive any power-ups and the only aid given is a shield, and the ability to regain health. Although using either of those aids will cause an immediate and substantial decrease in your score. It’s a delicate balancing act between survival and the accumulation of points where only the most skilled players will be able to hold their own.

Dead Pixel Arcade has tracked players scores using both the in-game highscore table and the online scoring system on its website, http://www.deadpixelarcade.com. Mr Hopkins said “Right now, the highest score we’ve seen on the latest version is around 8 million points. It will be very interesting to see how long that score stays at the top now that literally the entire world will be aiming for it on Twin Galaxies.”

[Source: IndustryGamers Press Release]

Developer Mommy’s Best has announced the release of its high octane action title Shoot 1Up onto Xbox Live via the Indie Games section in the Marketplace.

In Shoot 1 UP you control up to 30 ships, in 2 player co-op that would make 60, as you implement a variety of strategies to choose how to utilize them to destroy your enemies. You replace lost ships by grabbing 1UP’s which instantly turn into ships to add to your “ever-growing armada of destruction.”

The game packs modes for both normal and hardcore gamers as well, so you can play the game on your comfort level.

The titles weighs in at 33MB and goes for the quite excellent price of 80 MS Points ($1). A demo is also available for you penny pincher’s. From the description:

Why play shoot’em ups one ship at a time? Launch them all at once! Unleash an entire armada of ships in Shoot 1UP!

Instead of stowing each 1UP you collect, each new ship becomes playable immediately, resulting in an ever-growing armada of destruction!

With your home world ruined, lead your detached battalion’s charge by destroying the mechanical-tentacle hybrid attack forces responsible for your pain.

- 1UPs INSTANTLY ENTER THE ACTION!

- Command over 30 ships at the SAME TIME!

- 2 Player coop play for over 60 SIMULTANEOUS player ship INSANITY!

- Contract your phalanx to dodge enemy fire, expand your ships to fire the PLASMA AUGER!

- WEAPONS UPGRADE as you collect more ships (Downgrade when you lose them so stay sharp!)

- Sacrifice ships for a BULLET-VAPORIZING BOMB which increases in power the more ships you’ve collected!

- Manic Shooting without all the wailing and gnashing of teeth–NORMAL GAMERS can actually enjoy this!

- Hardcore? Crank up the difficulty and gameplay speed for THUMB-TWISTING manuevers!

Play it NOW on your Xbox 360 on the Indie Games–Buy it for only 80 MS points!

On Monday, Erik Brudvig wrote an editorial for IGN that declared Xbox LIVE Indie Games a failed venture by Microsoft. His reasoning? It doesn’t encourage the same kind of environment that has made applications so profitable on Apple’s and Facebook’s application platforms.

Brudvig calls on Microsoft to open its console and actively encourage the platform’s perversion, the same perversion our own Geoff Gibson has been keeping track of since October. He wants to see more flashlight apps, more integration with Twitter, more useless screen savers and fireworks and periodic tables.

Escapist Games has announced the release of its claymation shoot ‘em up Platypus onto the Xbox Live Marketplace via the Indie Games section.

The acclaimed title brings addictive gameplay in one or two player action. Defend your home land while grabbing power-ups and other treasure along the way. Embrace the fast pace with 20 stages of endless enemies along with plenty of boss battles.

The game is said to be built from the ground up for co-op so make sure you bring your wing man Maverick. Platypus is available in the Marketplace now for 400 MS Points ($5).

Ovolo Games’ Tetris/SimCity hybrid City Rain has been released onto the Xbox Live Marketplace as an Xbox Indie. Previously only available through PC, the title has players making quick decisions to put together a sustainable city with the given structures.

The title is available now for 400 MS Points ($5) on the Xbox Live Marketplace along with a free trial for those looking to give the game a test run

Check out our interview with Ovolo on its unique philosophy as a developer and how they translate their ideas and messages into their games.

The Japanese visual novel Soredemo, Watashi wa Aishiteiru (Even So, I Love You) has returned to XBOX Live Indie Games, alas, edited. As the story goes, the novel was removed in late August because of certain visual cues that offended Microsoft Europe. At some point, a female character was pinned down with some of her underwear being exposed. Apparently, to the Western community, this amounts to sexual harassment. Never mind the sex scene in Mass Effect, the amount of inappropriate content in Grand Theft Auto, need I go on?

Well, in any case, the good news is that the peer re-review resulted in its return–although still in Japanese. The edited novel can be found on XBOX Live Indie Games for 240 Microsoft Points ($3).

[Source]

Does anybody remember those tireless days we used to spend in the arcade? Sometimes playing through until the place closed, spending whatever we could scrap together for that extra 5 minutes? What an era for gaming! Looking back, most of those games weren’t even that great. Between the pinball machines, racing rigs, shooting adventures, and fighting games was the occasional brawler. Not a typical fighting game in the same vain as say Marvel vs. Capcom, but rather those action-adventure brawlers where you clear the game from section to section.

Well, lucky for all you 360 owners—especially those with Live—Streets of Fury has come by to make us reminisce and recount the older, cheesier (maybe better) times. In fact, for only $3 (240 Microsoft points), this piece of nostalgia can be yours!

What’s so amazing about indie games is that stylistically, they are so much more original and creative (in terms of art, especially) than any other genre of games. Perhaps XBOX Live Indie Games is working to provide us with a wide variety just to showcase a few of the talented developers that have remained on the DL (that’s down low, not download). For fans of the TV show Robot Chicken, claymation is not a foreign word. The incredibly long process of animating with clay can take months for a single episode.

In this case, Platypus*, a side-scrolling claymation space shooter that has been a hit on the iPhone, PSP, and PC is coming to XBOX Live! Admittedly, this is in no way surprising as I’m sure you can find many games on XBL that can attribute to this exact same method of attaining a position on Live. However, according to Gaming Bits, this version of the game features revamped high definition audio and graphics. Most importantly, Live will also allow players to enjoy the game cooperatively. You should be able to get the game sometime in the next few weeks. Rock on, Escapist Games!

*A useless mammal. < A joke referencing the movie Dogma.

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