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The Indie Zone – Episode 5

Reviews for I Accidentally In Space Episode 1, CTG, CEPINAS and Shield The Beat as well as some news on TIC:Part 1 are in this episode of the Indie Zone.

Reviews

I Accidentally In Space Episode 1: Hostile Hustle – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace

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The first episode of I Accidentally In Space entitled Hostile Hustle brings back good memories of another certain space game, Space Invaders but it’s also mixed with the character style and platforming of a game like Turrican. Once you get into the game, you’ll quickly notice the very nicely done interactive menu where you jump around into the portals you want to start your game in either ‘Practice’ or the regular ‘Mission’ mode, both featuring difficulty levels ranging from Easy, to Expert for both the regular and ‘percision’ mode where you fire less bullets, but they do much more damage.

Gameplay is (as noted) very similar to Space Invaders, as you jump and avoid the aliens from above you shoot them down with either your regular gun, or the spread fire / laser special attacks you collect to gain access to new platforms to reach the next few levels and collect as many space gems as you can to increase your overall score. With 7 levels in all including a massive boss battle to finish it off, it isn’t the longest game, but long enough to enjoy it. Along with the special pick-ups such as the gun abilities, there are also Shield upgrades to increase your durability, and Drones which add another layer of firepower but can be shot down with one hit. Plus, there’s even a system to unlock in-game achievements by doing various tasks which can be found under the options screen.

Sound wise, throughout the seven levels you’ll be accompanied by an upbeat rock / retro soundtrack to power through the swarms of enemies coming straight for you. Graphically this game is nothing too spectacular, but it’s enough for the simple premise the game shoots for.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the old-school style shoot ’em ups this game is right up your alley for the bargain price of 80 :MSPoints: with enough replay-ability to last a good day or two, or even more if you’re as bad as me at the harder difficulty levels.

PLEASE NOTE: This might just be me, but I had difficulty with save-game data being stored on my console as every time I went to play it and selectded “Quit And Save” it wouldn’t save correctly, so be cautious!

CTG – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace

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Now, this is a unique title. CTG is a game all about one thing, pushing grannies into portals to kill them while you play as a renegade cat who has had enough attention from granny. Even for such an odd premise, the title is actually really fun to play – sucking up a good hour or two of my day before writing this review.

The game has your cat equipped with a gravity gun that slowly unlocks different abilities over the time you play and progress through the game, featuring gravity grenades, ‘crazy madness’, and the MEGA BLASTER all of which can be used to take out regular zombie-like grannies, grannies in rascals, and grannies with ‘launchers’ that shoot out spiky yellow monsters. Gameplay is rather simple, yet challenging with the goal just to launch all of the enemies into the air and put them into the designated portals on every level, simple enough right? However the most challenging part to this is that there is no jump ability, so if you’re surrounded you might as well call it quits and restart. Although the game lacks difficulty levels, don’t expect to just glide past all of the levels.

Sound wise, it’s pretty average with the occasional mix-up between 8-bit tracks to guide your cat to victory. And graphically not too stunning either, with a pretty simple set of graphics and sprites, but a mostly dull gray background / area.

So, for 80 :MSPoints: it’s not the best game in the world, but if you’ve always wanted to take out some old grannies without being arrested by the authorities, this should be able to tame your hatred against the elderly one level at a time.

CEPINAS – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace

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Spaaaaace, the final frontier. The oddly titled CEPINAS is a mix-up between Asteroids and a strategy game, while you try to fend off enemy ships you’ll also have to conquer various planets to remain supreme.

Gameplay is as mentioned, a throwback to some of the older arcade titles like Asteroids, where you steer your ship around the vast land of space ranging from 8 different galaxies each different than the last fending off enemies and using your left trigger to sweep around a planet in a “lasso” formation to put the planet under your control through the different rounds of that level taking as much territory as you can from the enemy. When you’re not rounding up planets you’re upgrading your ship and the defenses for the planets you own with satellites and ship upgrades from the points you get from destroying other ships, or taking planets under your reign. Plus, in addition to the single-player game you can also go online to fight against your friends to see who’s best, or against strangers who will most-likely dominate you (if you play anything like me.)

Sound wise, some good tracks inspired by the 8/16-bit era games help bring down the hand of domination to planets, and foes alike. Graphically is in-between good and bad, with sub-par graphics for enemies with most planets looking similar on the eight different levels it’s nothing that you’ll go crazy for.

I know I say this alot, but it’s a good time-killer or if you’re looking for a dose of strategy on the cheap this should be perfect for your cheap desire with 80 :MSPoints: worth of galactic ass-whooping. Otherwise I’d stay away from this game unless the topic of space conquest is your type of game.

Shield The Beat – 400 :MSPoints: – Marketplace

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Shield the beat, interesting premise involving regular rhythm game elements, but the notes are in the shape of bullets coming from enemy ships that you just can’t shake off of your back.

So your goal is to block the bullets in either single color (blue) mode using a single shield to block bullets rhythmically, and the same premise is for the two color (blue & red) mode but there are two times the notes that are color coded to the specific shields designated to the left and right shields, finally is the mirror mode (blue & red) where the blue / red notes are, as implied mirrored on the opposite sides of the ship and will be different colored notes. All of these different game-modes can be played on either easy normal or hard difficulties through the seven different levels (tracks) the game has to offer.

Sound wise, they picked some magnificent songs with the occasional oddball in French (game developers are French) so overall, solid line of tracks to play through that kept me mesmerized through the whole trip. Graphics are stunning for an Xbox Live Indie Game with the colorful menu selection, various colored ships shooting at you, and the varied space backdrops that are easy on the eyes while you concentrate on notes.

Even though the game is a rather steep 400 :MSPoints: it is a really solid little game, keyword little as the game can be beaten on easy and normal in a mere 2-3 hours (my time) with little mistakes going for an average B rating to unlock the special ships that provide better score bonuses and visual appeal. If you were a big fan of some of the more out there rhythm games you’ll absolutely fall in love with shield the beat for 5 dollars, and hey that’s cheaper than buying the same 7 tracks on iTunes for .99 cents each!

 

News

TIC:Part 1

RedCandy Games announced the release date of their great looking action adventure game TIC:Part 1. The game will be released on June 21st for 240 :MSPoints:! TIC:Part 1 follows the adventures of Tic, a unicycling, wall-drilling, helicoptering and mining robot, who goes on quest to take down EvilCorp. You can read more about the game on the homepage at redcandygames.com and check out the trailer below. I can’t wait for this game!

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