Tag: xbla

Review: FEZ

April is one of those in-between months when it feels like all my most anticipated games are a good six months away, and no amount of refreshing my Amazon pre-order page will make Bioshock Infinite head my way any sooner. Thankfully, a bumper crop of excellent downloadable titles were released conveniently during this early springtime lull, just when I needed them most.

FEZ, one of the stars of the bunch, is a quirky side-scrolling platformer from Polytron Corporation. At first glance it seems like it might be nothing more than another indie throwback 2D side-scroller with a clever gimmick. However, there are hidden depths to this deceptively simple game, and I think the hype is more than justified. Read on to find out more about this gorgeous little side-scroller.

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Take A Leap With This XBLA Marketplace Deal: Spend 2400 Points in October, Get 800 Free

Fresh off a successful Summer of Arcade, which included the critically and commercially acclaimed Lara Croft: Guardian of Light and Limbo, Microsoft is offering an October thank you gift for those of us who might have missed out on these or any other games on XBLA. It’s quite simple:

During the month of October, spend 2400 Microsoft Points on Arcade games and/or game add-ons and you’ll get 800 Microsoft Points added to your membership as a thank-you gift.

Now for those of you without an abacus, 2400 Microsoft Points is $30 and 800 Points is $10. So spend $30, get $10 back. Not too shabby a deal and I am already off to the races by buying Breath of Death VII. Okay, it’s not exactly a rousing start since it only cost $1, but I have the whole month to do it. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

However, if you, like me, are baffled as to what to purchase, check out this handy list of The 23 Best XBLA Games from the nice folks at GamePro. There were quite a few gems on there that I wasn’t aware of, so it might come in handy in helping you decide what to buy.

Is anyone else going to partake in this offer? Any games you love that you recommend I pick up?

Source: Xbox.com

Source: GamePro

Castle Crashers and Braid Bring Joy

So this weekend my goal was to get through a couple of new XBLA games, Castle Crashers and Braid. I’ve been hearing a lot of great stuff about both of these games, and I wanted to check them out, with hopes of reviewing them sometime in the next week or so.

As of right now, I’m completely thrilled with and loving both of these titles. It’s funny, because they’re the exact opposite of one another in terms of their playing styles. Braid is a puzzle game and Castle Crashers is an old school arcade beat-em-up a la The Simpsons or Streets of Rage.

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