I’ve not had much of a chance to catch up on my backlog of games this week; I did however manage to dedicate some time to the glorious Castle Crashers developed by The Behemoth. Whereas I couldn’t quite get along with Alien Hominid HD, this title is an altogether different prospect and immediately appeals to my sadistic “beat-the-crap-out-of-everything-that-moves” nature.
To succinctly sum up the game, Castle Crashers is a side scrolling beat-em-up for up-to four players (locally or over Xbox Live) and instantly reminded me of one of my old arcade favourites Golden Axe.
Initially playing as one of four knights (Green, Orange, Blue, Red) the game starts as you’re partying hard in the castle hall only to be rudely interrupted when a fatally wounded guard is thrown through the door disrupting the party. Investigating the commotion you discover that the castle has been raided, the king threatened, some sort of magical gem stolen, and four princesses carried off by the contemptible invaders. So it’s up-to you to rescue the fair maidens and put those miscreants to the sword!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Impressions, Live Arcade, Xbox 360
It’s been a bit quiet on the demo front on Xbox Live Marketplace recently but some playable titles have started to trickle onto the service once more. One which I thought looked quite interesting was Facebreaker, a tongue in cheek fighting game from Fight Night developers EA Canada.
Whereas with most fighting games character move-sets can number into the hundreds, Facebreaker instead employs a more streamlined approach to the art of pugilism ensuring you don’t have to memorise unfeasibly long move combinations. In fact only a few types of attacks are used, low and high punches are mapped to the “A” and “X” buttons respectively which can be strung together with “breakers” (using the “Y” button) to unleash more devastating attacks. In addition the triggers are used to alter your characters stance between blocking and dodging, and when used in combination with the punch buttons, and with the correct timing, allow you to parry and counter punch quite easily before going on the offensive.
As the name of the game suggest the aim is simply to beat your opponent to a pulp. The game promotes an aggressive strategy as each successful hit fills the “breaker” gauge which when full allows the player to perform a, you guessed it, “facebreaker” which enacts a brutal finishing move on the opponent. Thankfully because of the cartoon style of the game this isn’t a gruesome experience, and in actuality is more like the stylised violence you’d expect to see in a “Tom & Jerry” cartoon.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Impressions, Xbox 360
In preparation for the forthcoming release of Soul Calibur IV the second game in the successful melee weapon fighting game series by Namco, Soul Calibur, was unleashed onto Xbox Live Arcade last Wednesday, 2nd July.
As mentioned this was the second game in the series following in the footsteps of Soul Edge (PS1) and is probably most fondly remembered by Sega Dreamcast owners with which it became an instantaneous hit during 1999 because of its stunning visual beauty, great character roster, fantastic character animation, and its instant pick-up-and-play fighting techniques.
The story, as with most fighting games, is virtually non-existent but revolves around an evil mystical sword known as “Soul Edge” wielded by its host “Nightmare”. The characters in the game have there own altruistic or selfish reasons for joining the quest to stop Soul Edge and the player jumps into that role, progressing through a series of one-on-one rounds until the final showdown.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Impressions, Xbox 360
