Microsoft is offering 400 MS Points ($5) back if you buy any two LIVE Arcade games they have listed. It’s a decent deal if you’re looking for some games to play.
Here’s my picks (with genres):
LIMBO – single player puzzle platformer
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – 2 player co-op action/puzzle
Super Meat Boy – single player challenging platformer
Monday Night Combat – multiplayer online team shooter/tower defense hybrid
Shadow Complex – single player 2D adventure (like Metroid/Castlevania)
There’s more titles, but these are the ones I’ve played through and can whole heartedly recommend. Be sure to follow the directions in the link, you need to download a Gamer Pic before you can take advantage of the discount.
It’s started a little later than usual for me this year, but this past Tuesday marked the official start of the “every week there will be an awesome new game released” season. (Yes, Halo Reach was released in mid-September, but there was just such a long gap between that and this week that I’m going to consider that like having dessert an hour before the buffet line opens.)
This week we had three solid retail titles come out: Fallout: New Vegas, DJ Hero 2 and Vanquish. Next week we’ll see Fable 3. The week after is the Kinect launch week as well as Call of Duty Black Ops. Then the storm really comes with Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Gran Turismo 5, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, then OH MY GOD THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END.
Even though I’ve yet to visit Shibuya, its name will always have a positive mental association in my head with visions of bright neon colors, modern architecture, large crowds of fashionably modern people, and upbeat music. Yes, my mental picture of Shibuya is comprised entirely of the arcade/karaoke scenes from the movie Lost In Translation and the general eccentric awesomeness of the Nintendo DS game, The World Ends With You, but so what? It works for me.
Nevertheless, that positive vibe got me interested in a recently released iPhone game unsurprisingly titled Shibuya. It’s a puzzle game inspired by the aesthetics of the real-life place in Tokyo. Think Tetris meets your favorite color matching game with some delicious special sauce that you haven’t quite tasted before. Oh, and it was also named a finalist of Penny Arcade’s PAX 10 indie games.
It’s got the “easy to learn; hard to master” learning curve going for it. Plus, developer Never Center has structured game progression utilizing achievements in a manner I can get behind. You can ignore the achievements completely if you just want a quick game. But if you’re a goal-oriented person like me, you’ll appreciate the bite-sized checklists of achievements to accomplish. Basically, there are 11 “levels” in the game broken up into groups of 4 achievements. Complete the current 4 achievements and you’ll get the next set of achievements. These can range from surviving Endless mode for a certain amount of time or for completing a 2 minute Quickplay game on a certain difficulty level. It’s simple, but effective way to motivate players to play an otherwise endless puzzle game.
“How do I play this wonderful game?” you may ask. Well, you know what they say about pictures and videos and words.
Here’s the president of Never Center explaining how the game is played:
