A compilation of three Xbox Indie Game reviews for Avatar Boogie 2, Dogfight SKETCH! and Pie Collect.
Avatar Boogie 2
Avatar Boogie 2 improves on the original, which we reviewed here, with a total of eleven new dance moves and music tracks compared to the original five. They range from ballet, hip hop, disco, Russian and even the Charleston. The dance animations vary in length but they do loop when finished. The animations are fairly authentic to the style of music, with graceful dancing for the ballet through to breakdancing on hip hop. You can choose to do a Freestyle dance which allows you to perform one of twenty dance moves.
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There are three areas for your avatars to dance in, including a giant vinyl record and a disco dance floor complete with flashing square flooring. I would have liked to have seen the original locations return as they were fairly good and were a little better than the new ones. Options such as adding or removing Avatars (up to 100) are possible as well as adding strobe or coloured lighting to the area. You can also speed up or slow down the dance animations to match the style of the music.
If you get bored of the supplied music, you can listen to your own music stored either on the Xbox or streamed via a PC or media server. The interface is a little basic but you can run playlists so you do not have to spend much time using it.
Avatar Boogie 2 costs 80 :MSPoints: and much like the original version I can only recommend it if you play a lot of music on your Xbox and want something different to look at. Avatar Boogie 2 does improve on the original but not by a massive margin. You can download the trial or purchase the full game on the Xbox Marketplace.
[UPDATE] The latest version of Avatar Boogie 2 now includes the original dance arenas as well as some other improvements.
Dogfight SKETCH!
Dogfight Sketch is a two player only game which sees each player flying an aircraft and must shoot each other down. The controls are very simple with Up and Down presses turning the aircraft and the A button to fire, it is very simple which would be ideal for younger gamers. Each player starts with five lives and the first to lose them all, either by being shot or crashing into the ground, loses the game.
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The graphics are a hand drawn style which are rather basic but look pleasant enough if aimed towards younger players. Sound effects are minimal and there is no music while playing the game though there is title music which should have continued playing as it was not bad.
Dogfight SKETCH! costs 80 :MSPoints: and you do not get a great deal for your money. I would have liked to have seen a few more additions such as a four player mode using two controllers or four controllers. A couple of locations or a choice of aircraft colours would not have gone amiss, as well as setting a number of lives to play. It would have gave the game a bit more value. This might keep the kids quiet for a while but I can not really recommend it for anyone else. You can download the trial or purchase the full game on the Xbox Marketplace.
Pie Collect
Pie Collect is a arcade style game. You play as a ‘Pie Sweeper’ whose task is to collect pies. Every time you collect a pie, an enemy Orb will appear and bounces either horizontally or vertically across the screen. As you collect more pies the harder it gets as there are more enemies on screen. There is an area at the bottom of the screen where you are safe from the enemies which comes in handy. There are also some power ups to collect which include making the pies larger and smaller, extra points and one that can kill the orbs when touched.
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The gameplay is fairly fun for a few games and then it becomes fairly repetitive and eventually you will get to the point where the screen is so full of Orbs it makes it near impossible to progress. The lack of power ups appearing after a while is strange, there are plenty near the start but as you progress they go missing. It needs something to balance the game to make it more playable while at the same time providing a decent challenge.
Graphics are average at best, nothing good or bad to mention. The music is LOUD, too loud in fact, the developer is aware of this and it should be fixed at a later date. A local two player mode is present which does add to the fun as you try to collect the pies first. There are also some new characters which you can unlock by gaining a certain score for example.
Pie Collect costs 80 :MSPoints: and I find it hard to recommend. The single player mode gets boring after a few goes, the two player mode adds some life but ultimately the game is too limited to provide any long term fun. You can download the trial or purchase the full game on the Xbox Marketplace.
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