Pendulous

A game by Do Better Games for Xbox 360 and WP7, originally released in 2012.

Like many puzzle-oriented games, the action in Pendulous starts out very simply, building slowly and introducing new obstacles and challenges along the way. At first, you’ll just be learning how to deal with pendulum motion, swinging your orb back and forth and then disconnecting to send yourself sailing through the air to the next grapple point as you make your way toward the goal. Eventually, you’ll need to string together multiple successful swings while avoiding obstacles, activating switches, and using the environment to your advantage.

At the outset, a tutorial level and 7 additional levels are open, which may be selected in any order. The escalation of difficulty is gradual from one stage to the next, so it’s best to complete them in sequence unless you’re having difficulties and wish to skip past a certain level. Eventually you’ll open up levels 8-14, as well as a hard mode. The hard mode sends you into mirror versions of the regular levels without any checkpoints, so this is reserved for players wishing to truly challenge their skills.

Read More

 2012, Do Better Games, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Platformance: Temple Death

A game by Magiko Gaming for Xbox 360 and WP7, originally released in 2011.

Platformance: Temple Death is a game that is very much like its predecessor, Platformance: Castle Pain, which was also released on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. Rather than putting out monthly installments as might be expected from a single-level game, a year has passed between these two entries in the series, and this is far from a slapdash effort on the part of Magiko Gaming. That’s probably for the best, because we may have been up to Platformance: Gazebo Hangnail by now.
The basic mechanics are the same, and all of the controls (move, jump, zoom) are spelled out for you on the starting screen. You have a low non-variable jump, no health bar, and you are required to make pixel-perfect movements to avoid loads of insta-death traps that will cause your character to explode humorously into a pixelated blood spray.

Read More

 2011, Magiko Gaming, PC, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Hypership Out of Control

A game by Fun Infused Games for Xbox 360, iOS, and WP7, originally released in 2010.

CONTEXT
Hypership Out of Control is an old-school arcade-style action game that could well have been developed in the early 80’s and sat alongside games like Galaga during the arcade heyday. It has an incredibly simple premise: you’re piloting a spaceship that can’t slow down; you’re hurtling through space, avoiding obstacles, and collecting coins. The game embraces its arcade-ness with nice chunky sprite art, a high score table (with online leaderboards), and a fun sense of humor. Hypership Out of Control was made for people who would never question why there are coins floating about in space, or why you would need to collect them.

Read More

 2010, Fun Infused, iOS, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Platformance: Castle Pain

A game by Magiko Gaming for Xbox 360, originally released in 2010.

While some kids spent their off-time in school doodling army men and tanks blowing the hell out of each other with oversized artillery (an act that can actually get you arrested these days… yeesh), some of us were instead drawing out huge imaginary video game levels. Actually, some of us older gamers were sketching out huge Dungeons & Dragons maps… but it’s the same basic idea. We’d toss in all manner of fantastic creatures, sword-wielding skeletons, pits of water full of deadly aquatic life, and towering creatures blocking the way to fortune and glory.
Platformance: Castle Pain basically is that sketch sheet come to life and fully-realized in an actual game world. The world is presented as a singe gigantic level, one which you can zoom out and view all at once, and you’ll actually see the ornate frame holding the whole thing together. The game features 3 levels of zoom, which are toggled with the press of a button, operating in the same manner as Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, which Platformance beat to market by a couple of weeks.

You may need to zoom out to get a look at your surroundings, but often you’ll be too busy with what’s right in front of you to do so. The entire game is going on at all times, with fire rising up from a volcano, spikes constantly jutting out and retracting, and moving platforms sliding back and forth. You can play the game on any zoom level, but the fully zoomed in mode is the one of choice. The second zoom level lets you check out your immediate surroundings, while the fully zoomed out mode lets you see how far along you are in the game as a whole.

Read More

 2010, Magiko Gaming, PC, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360

Max and the Magic Marker

A game by Press Play for PC, Mac, PS3, Wii, DS, iOS, and WP7, originally released in 2010.

Max and the Magic Marker started off as a Flash demo, illustrating the core concepts and game mechanics. The small Copenhagen-based dev house, Press Play, used the prototype to secure 114,000 Euros worth of grants from New Danish Screen and Nordic Game Program, which they used to support development of a full-fledged game. In 2009, with a 6-level demo in (virtual) hand, they began shopping the game around to publishers… but no one would bite. Finally, pursuing the route of many other indie developers, they opted to self-publish, and 2010 saw the release of the game on WiiWare and as a PC download. The game was subsequently released on Mac and Windows Phone 7 platforms. It was also ported to the iPhone in 2011, courtesy of EA Mobile, and eventually released to retail as a full-blown packaged Wii and DS release later in the same year. In the Fall of 2011, it was re-released on the Playstation 3 via PSN in full 1080p with Playstation Move support.

Read More

 2010, DS, iOS, Mac, PC, Press Play, PS3, Wii, WP7

Shoot 1UP / Shoot 1UP DX

A game by Mommy's Best Games for PC, Xbox 360, WP7, Switch, PS4, and PS5, originally released in 2010, with the DX version released in 2020.

Before continuing, you may wish to learn more about the Hidden Agenda behind 8 Bit Horse. Or don’t. You can always eat candy instead.

The second title from Mommy’s Best Games has arrived on the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel (dig deep into your Xbox 360 dashboard… the channel is down there somewhere). Mommy’s Best Games is responsible for the award-winning Weapon of Choice. While Weapon of Choice is a side-scrolling shooter, Shoot 1UP is a shmup with an interesting take on the traditional 1UP formula.

Read More

 2010, 2020, Mommy's Best Games, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, WP7, XBLIG, Xbox 360