Sushi Castle (XBLIG)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Milkstone Studios -- Publisher: XBLIG

First impression:
Like Slick, for some reason there is no information given about the game.  I'm pretty sure when you download these things, there is information, so I'm not sure why it's not there now.  Maybe something with the new dashboard, I don't know.  So instead, all I know is the name, and a few screenshots again.  I'm not really sure what to make of this so far.  The graphics are nice and bright and hand-drawn looking.  It looks like I will be travelling from room to room doing something.  Probably just fighting all of these enemies?  I see some items in the HUD, but that's really about it.  It also looks like you are sometimes carrying a panda.. let's see how this turns out..!

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Fooled around for: 7 Minutes (XBLIG Time Limit)
In a small twist of surprise, it actually plays more like a twin-stick shooter than the zelda-clone action button masher I was expecting.  Your starting weapon is a dragon cannon that spits out balls.  They don't seem that strong, and enemies can take quite a lot of balls before they are defeated.  Rooms/Level maps are random each game, which adds to variety, but also to the difficulty.  Sometimes the rooms that are spawned are just plain hard, even if it's the second room.  There are items dropped, but not many, and they are used quickly, though the variety of attack is appreciated.

The colors and graphics are definitely eye catching and fun to watch.  The music is appropriate and didn't get too irritating.  Enemies spew blood, which coats the ground, which is always fun!

Death is death and start a new map.  Seems a little intense, but I guess you -are- supposed to be a ninja.  I imagine the game ramps up in interesting items and things to do, but 7 minutes probably just isn't enough time to get to that.  Especially considering you are collecting coins, but I'm not sure what for (presumably item purchases, but where?).

The in-game menus mention future, free, DLC, which would make a purchase even more valuable.  It also tracks the weapons you have used, for the completionist in you.



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Hit it or Quit it?  (80 MSP)
Considering Indie Games are "only" a buck, and I could definitely do worse things with a buck than even play a bad Indie Game, I have a feeling many XBLIG titles are going to get "hit it" just because of "why the hell not?".  That doesn't mean this game is bad.  It's actually pretty interesting so far, it just might be a little too steep on the difficulty for me.  I would have to know I want to get good at this game to know I wanted to keep playing.  In passing, it's just a bit too tricky/hard.  Regardless, again, "for a buck" yes, I would hit this again.  Even if I stopped caring about getting past the hard stuff, it would have been fun in the meantime.

Also worth noting again is that these are demos I already had downloaded before I started this blog, so it looked good in the first place.  As I finish these pre-downloads and eventually move on to fresh "any" downloads, I'm sure I will run across games that aren't even worth a buck.  I'm a little worried to see what those might be though.

The Adventures of Batman and Robin - SNES

To add just a little bit more oomph (Google Chrome doesn't think that's not a word.. weird) to these "reviews", I'm going to start tracking the year and the company(ies) that pop up on the splash screens.  Then maybe I can start to get to know who is to blame when a game is terrible, or who to look forward to when it's good.  Also, sometimes a came just comes out too early in the console's life cycle, and it never had a chance because they didn't know what they were doing yet with the hardware.  That said:

1994, Konami

Also, I think I might start giving a little "Book by the cover" judgement before I play.  Seems to fit with the theme, and considering the awesome cover that Actraiser didn't follow through on, and the trap that was Addams Family Values, it seems appropriate.  That said:

The music sounds good, but it's Batman score, so it should.  The "demo shot" is about 3 seconds of Batman punching a couple guys.  Looks like boring level designs, running from left to right.  Punch/Kick repeating enemies, get to the boss that's probably too hard to care to beat.  Maybe you get to use Robin, not that it would make you the game any cooler.. who wants to be Robin?  I'm also betting there won't be anything cool in the way or Batman gadgets.  The art and animation actually look pretty good though.  Let's see what happens!

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Played for:  15 minutes

Alright, well.. Boy, was I wrong.  I guess after a week of shitty, can't-stand-them games, I was jaded and assumed the worst.  I should have known Konami could put out a good game.  That 3 second demo scene certainly did not do the game justice.  First of all, there ARE gadgets!  A bunch of them actually.  It's like the game slapped me in the face with them for trying to think there wouldn't be.  They all don't matter that much at the beginning of the game, but they are there.  There are so many moves, too.  Rolling, wall-jumping, throwing, grappling with your hookshot.  It's just plain fun to play because there is so much to do.  The bad guys weren't annoying, and they went down easy.  The level design so far was pretty fun.

There's actually a story and some direction, unlike most of the games so far,  There should be with Batman, but I was worried they would just leave you hanging, assuming what's going on.

The only reason I stopped now is because of this crazy scene with the Joker while you are RIDING ON A ROLLER COASTER.  WTF!  That's only like the 2nd level too.

Graphics/Animation are awesome, the music keeps you pumped, the cut scenes are entertaining.  It controls great, there's a bunch of stuff to do.  I will definitely say this was quite the surprise.

Hit it or Quit it?
I don't know if I've got bad-game goggles on from so many horrible games before this, but I would hit again with no remorse.  It was so fun to play, I probably wouldn't even care if I didn't get any further and just played the first levels a few more times.