Two reviews from Xbox Indie Game developers ElvishJumpSuit who released Meet UR Match (Avatar Edition) and BrainBox360 (Physics Edition).
Meet UR Match (Avatar Edition)
Developed by ElvishJumpSuit, Meet UR Match is an inexpensive game that is fun for players of any age. In fact, this particular XBLIG addition is highly recommended for family play, supporting local multiplayer for up to four individuals. Per the official write-up, Meet UR Match is “The perfect game for very young kids (or very old kids) Use your normal controllers or try your ‘Scene It’ Pads to allow one hand free for eating/drinking while you play…..great for parties. Powerups and penalties are hidden so beware! Improving concentration and memory skills or just learning the ALPHABET – A game for the whole family.”
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Surely you’ve played a matching game before; you turn over a card and see an object, one that you will hopefully reveal when you turn over another card. Turn over the same object and you get credit, but if the second image isn’t the same then you’re penalized. In this rehash of the classic game, a hangman is drawn at each player’s corresponding corner of the play area, denoting just how close the person is to losing.
Meet UR Match makes the random element of flipping tiles even more chaotic with powerups and penalties. When turning over the cards, you’ll find yourself getting anxious about what might be waiting for you. Various icons can easily turn the tables on you or your fellow players. These modifiers may have global effects or local effects. For instance, the bomb will affect all players negatively, reducing scores by 20% and adding two hangman parts. Ying Yang will even out all scores and hangman statuses before mixing up the rest of the tiles. When the poison is uncovered, however, that unlucky player loses 10% of his or her points and gains five hangman parts. Ouch. The scissors icon, on the other hand, will reduce that player’s points by 10% but “heal” the hangman by 10 pieces.
ElvishJumpSuit takes an old, simple game and makes it fun for gamers of all ages. If you’ve got a couple friends or family members handy, sit them down with this enjoyable Indie Game. As an added bonus, Scene It controllers can be dusted off and used as an optional alternate controller for this game, and any chance to resuscitate a dead peripheral is worth consideration. For 80 :MSPoints:, Meet UR Match is a value game that is accessible to gamers of virtually all ages, easy to pick up and free of objectionable content.
You can find more information about Meet UR Match (Avatar Edition) on the Marketplace.
BrainBox 360
BrainBox360 (Physics Edition) is ElvishJumpSuit’s take on a study guide directly downloaded to your Xbox 360. Using the same engine as Meet UR Match, BrainBox tries to put the “phun” in physics! Supporting one to four players and permitting either quiz or hangman mode (shades of Meet UR Match), BB360 attempts to capitalize on the simple yet effective formula that drives Elvish’s matching game, all while teaching you a thing or two about one of the most hated school subjects.
Learning stuff sure isn’t cheap. At 400 :MSPoints:, you’re going to wish you had financial aid to help with BrainBox360. If you’re willing to invest in the indie title, you might acquire some reinforcement of hard-to-learn skills. Although you’ll eventually see the same questions popping up over and over again, BB360 introduces a variety of techniques to keep at least the delivery of the material from getting stale. Equations, Multiple Choice, True False, Term, Calculation, Unit, and Random make for an assortment of problems that the player(s) must answer. Some formats, such as Multiple Choice and True False, are fairly easy to answer. Others, such as Calculation and Term, not so much.
Term questions are peculiar. These particular problems present a physics term, which must be answered by one of the 16 answer choices. Naturally, you’re not going to find 16 buttons on an Xbox 360 controller. In this case, players are given a grid of answers and have to input a two-button tap to choose the column then row location of the chosen answer. It sounds difficult, but it’s just awkward.
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Calculations are even more complex. Quiz-takers are given an equation, and they must use the D-pad to navigate a number pad in order to select a digit, pressing X will enter the highlighted digit, B will go back, Y will lock in an answer, and LS or big button (if you’re using the supported Scene It controllers, another similarity to Meet UR Match) will enter zero. The answers to the equations are always a simple one- or two-digit number, but the answer protocol can be quite daunting at first.
Starting the game up will ask that you hit X to join; your Avatar will pop up and you’ll eventually see a number of tiles that display (by default) only the type of question format. After each question is answered, the appropriate response is displayed, as is time spent on choosing a solution, and a subsequent point total per correct answer and input speed. A wrong answer will result in your corresponding hangman gaining another part, putting you closer to losing.
There’s quite an array of topics covered in BrainBox360, and each of them can be toggled on or off. Density, Electricity & Magnetism, Energy & Heat, and Motion & Space are a few physics subcategories that can either be thrown into or taken out of the question bank. The number of rounds can be set to one, three, five, seven, or nine, time per question can be scaled up from five to 30 seconds, and number of questions in each round can go from four to 32. Hangman mode can be employed, but if you’d just like a simple quiz you can do that too.
Revise Mode is a crafty tool as well. With this mode active, players will be able to reveal solutions. For most questions, RB will subtly highlight the correct answer. For calculations, LB will display the numbers you seek. This is a neat trick for the game’s owner to utilize when he wants to cheat…or for more practical reasons such as showing yourself the answer to a problem if you’re just quizzing yourself. But who wouldn’t be tempted to cheat?
BrainBox360 (Physics Edition) is an odd duck amongst its XBLIG brethren. It suits up in Meet UR Match’s effective tile engine, minus the powerups and penalties, and substitutes a more advanced theme. The questions are of a fair grab bag of topics, yet the quickly recurring problems seem to indicate a small question bank. If you fit into the rather small niche of gamer that BB360 aims to sate, then sharpen your pencils. Otherwise, the game’s 400 :MSPoints: tuition might put this school out of your price range.
You can find more information about BrainBox360 (Physics Edition) on the Marketplace.
