Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (Xbox 360, 2010)

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
Developed by Game Republic
Published by Namco Bandai Games
Released for Xbox 360 (11/23/2010)
Also on PS3

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is a single-player game, developed by Game Republic, in which you must work with a giant computer-controlled ally in order to navigate the various scenarios. You can definitely tell the game was made by Japanese developers, which in my book is a good thing as some variety is always welcome. The characters and story remind me of something you'd see in a Studio Ghibli film. The game appears kind of childish on the surface, with talking animals and some silly character animations, but the puzzles and combat will definitely be too complex for most kids under twelve I'd imagine.

Your sidekick, the Majin, is a big oaf who will constantly stumble around and his voice actor reminds me of the character Special Ed from the Crank Yankers television show. He can become a chore to deal with at times, sometimes falling behind when you're just trying to advance to the next area and he loves walking into sludge puddles even when there is a clear path around them, but overall as long as you have some patience he can be helpful and even enjoyable to have as a partner. You both start out rather weak and a big part of the game is powering up your characters to prepare for tougher battles.

The graphics are quite coloful and the game features a day & night cycle which doesn't really have any impact on the game-play outside of some collectibles that only show up at nighttime. You will need to gather all of those collectibles if you want the true ending, so be prepared to stand around at some points waiting for nightfall (the cycle takes around fifteen minutes). The controls are tad on the floaty side and precision platforming can be a struggle, but luckily the game never really throws anything too terrible at you in regards to that. The combat is interesting, as the majin is the only one with the power to actually vanquish the enemies, you'll have to work with him and coordinate attacks to take enemies down. It's a neat system and some of the tag-team finishers are quite satisfying to pull off.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom plays much like a 3D Metroidvania, where there's one large map separated out into areas, with new sections locked until you've explored existing regions. Overall it's still mostly linear, but there will be lots of back-tracking once you've gained new abilities. Luckily there are four fast-travel rooms scattered about that can help ease the pain of constant back-tracking, but there still is a lot of it.

The enemy design is interesting as they are all consumed by "shadows" resembling black blobs with various strange appendages and masks attached. I definitely enjoyed pulverizing them with my Majin buddy. Once you've defeated the four guardians (bosses) in the game world, you are granted access to the final castle for the big showdown. The boss battles are all varied and fun, my favorite probably being the shadow worm creature where you had to ignite bombs and throw them down its throat.

Overall I definitely feel like Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom was overlooked when it came out and is still a relatively obscure title. It's not perfect by any means, but it definitely delivers some fun and can provide you with somewhere between 15-20 hours of CPU co-op game-play. If you see this one around for cheap it's worth a look.

Final Verdict: Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is an action/adventure game with an enjoyable single-player campaign. Make sure to bring some extra patience with you as your partner can be a bit dumb at times.

Purchase Links:
Buy Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - eBay

Related Links:
Bandai Namco - Official Site
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - Metacritic
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - GameFAQs
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - True Achievements

Titan Attacks! (XBLIG, 2013)

Titan Attacks!
Developed by Puppy Games
Released for XBLIG (12/2013)
Also on 3DS/Linux/Mac/PC/PS3/PS4/Vita

Titan Attacks is a very competent shooter in the vein of the arcade classic Space Invaders. You are fixed to the bottom of the screen, only able to move left and right. The enemy formation starts at the top, slowly descending toward the bottom and will kill the player if not destroyed before making it all the way down. You are only able to fire one projectile at a time, so aiming your shots is very crucial and as the enemies get faster you'll have to lead your shots. Between stages you can use your points as currency to purchase upgrades to your shields, gun power, ammo, bombs and add-ons. The graphics are presented in that blocky-pixel style that is all the rage in these indie games, but they're done quite well in this game. Titan Attacks is good old-school fun and if you don't feel like shelling out the $5-10 Taito is likely asking for the Space Invaders titles this, this makes a nice alternative while delivering a similar experience.

Final Verdict: Fans of Space Invaders will definitely enjoy Titan Attacks! The game provides good, simple fun and is available on a wide variety of platforms.

Related Links:
Titan Attacks! - GameFAQs

Angry Barry (XBLIG, 2009)

Angry Barry
Developed by Arrogancy
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (5/2009)

The developer's description of Angry Barry states that it's "a side-scrolling, political parody, 1-2 player 2D beat-'em-up in the tradition of many classic arcade games." The game did remind me of Bad Dudes initially, an old classic coin-op game where you beat down ninjas to save the president. In this game, you play as a dude that looks like Obama who is apparently trying to take over as President. The idea sounded wacky enough so I gave the trial a look. The first thing I noticed is the game is priced higher than your average indie game and the developer tells you in the initial splash screen he had to price it that high because they went over the file-size limit, forcing the developer to price the game higher than your standard $1 indie title.

The first stage has you beating up a bunch of old ladies that try to use pepper spray on you. You have several kinds of attacks but they all pretty much produce the same effect and seem to inflict the same amount of damage so what's the point? If you hold the punch button you throw a fireball and the game makes some very obnoxious noises that will make you not want to use that move anymore. To pass the stage, you must reach a point threshold and in order to reach that you have to keep beating up the same old lady. Over and over again. I know beat-'em-ups are not renowned for their incredibly deep game-play, but this game really set my boredom levels on fire in a hurry. You're pretty much stuck to one little area of the stage, there is an upper platform you can jump to and that's it. This was the first level you wanted people to play when they downloaded your trial? There are little bits of humor thrown in here and there and while it's appreciated it's just not enough to save this game and I could not muster the motivation to proceed even to the end of the first stage. The premise had potential but the game-play is just simply nowhere near as fun as any of the arcade classics that it's trying to emulate. For a good 2D beat 'em up, do yourself a favor and play some Kung-Fu Master, Altered Beast or Bad Dudes and leave this one alone.

Final Verdict: Angry Barry definitely ranks up there as one of the worst examples of the 2D beat-'em-up genre that I've played. Don't bother with this one!

Hockey Fights (XBLIG, 2010)

Hockey Fights
Developed by Silver Dollar Games
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (2/2010)

Having enjoyed One Finger Death Punch by the same developer I decided to give some of their other titles a look. Hockey Fights intrigued me, with a cool premise that recalls classics like Blades of Steel on the Arcade/NES. The fights in that game are definitely its most fondly remembered feature. You will of course go into Hockey Fights expecting a fighting game, and it is, but not in the conventional sense you're used to. It plays more like paper, rock, scissor with an extra equation added in. You don't have to worry about character movement, both characters stand static within striking range. X and A are your high and low attacks; Y and B are your high and low blocks. If a player misses 3 blocks consistently, you earn a "jersey stun" where you can pull the opponents jersey over their head and get a few free shots in.

That's really all there is to Hockey Fights. It's incredibly simple, but what it does it executes pretty well. The artwork looks great, but every player has the same face with just a slightly different jersey on. Some graphic variety would have been nice. The animation is also limited to a couple frames, but in the heat of the action you won't notice that as much. The presentation is pretty solid overall with a professional-looking menu and good sound design. I had a few minutes of fun with this title, but really after you've beat down a few competitors you've seen all the game has to offer.

Final Verdict: If you need a few minutes of pummeling a hockey player, Hockey Fights can be somewhat cathartic I suppose but it wears thin in a hurry. There's worse ways you could spend a buck though, but there are certainly better games to play out there.

Related Links:
One Finger Death Punch - Xbox Overview
Hockey Fights - GameFAQs

Burning Fist of Rage (XBLIG, 2010)

Burning Fist of Rage
Developed by Darth Cheesiest
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (5/2010)

Burning Fist of Rage is a throwback to the beat-'em-ups of yesterday, mostly influenced by Streets of Rage and Final Fight. Just like the old games that influenced it, Burning Fist of Rage actually has an attract screen, which isn't a big deal but definitely something you don't see much anymore. If left idle on the title screen, it will alternate between showing a preview of the game-play footage and profiles of the various characters. Unfortunately, that's probably about the highest compliment I can give this game is its attract screen! It's all downhill from there.

The characters look very unnatural when they walk, sporting some goofy animation. This is one of those "3D" beat-'em-ups, where you can attack in any direction, rather than just left or right like the traditional games in the genre and it just feels a bit clunky. There's no way to lock on to your target, so it's on you to aim your attacks properly. This works better in theory than it does in actual execution. The game is limited to your regular attack, dash attack, jump attack and life draining special move. This is the most bare-bones attack move set I think I've seen in a while. I do believe the developer had good intentions with this title and really loves the genre, but they obviously lacked the required talent/skill to create something to hold up to the classics. Thanks for the effort anyways I guess since this is an often overlooked genre and I'll take whatever I can get these days. As far as I know this was only released on XBLIG, so the game is now lost with the service being shut down, but you're not really missing all that much in this case.

Final Verdict: Burning Fist of Rage may hold some appeal to beat-'em-up junkies and I can't imagine anybody else getting any enjoyment out of it. It's one of those games that borders on being so bad it's good, but not quite.

Related Links:
Burning Fist of Rage - GameFAQs

Uprising (XBLIG, 2010)

Uprising
Developed by Overclocked Games
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (5/2010)

Uprising is yet another entry into the crowded twin-stick shooter genre. I liked the overall presentation on this one; the menus and game interface all look good. In Uprising you play as a person rather than a ship, however it looks pretty silly as there's no animation to your player so they just kind of hover around. Enemies tend to consist of round hockey-puck looking things, and it didn't take more than a few rounds of shooting them before boredom began to settle in. There is an attempt to add a little enemy diversity, but nothing really stands out and I couldn't even tell what most of them were supposed to resemble. There are some squares thrown into the otherwise barren stages to add some cover potential. This is one of those twin-sticks where the left stick moves, right stick aims and you use the trigger to fire. You also have to reload in this game, which is done by hitting RB. There is a story which consists of something about fighting a CPU virus, presented by cheesy digitized character pics before your missions. Uprising is competently designed and playable, but in an ocean of twin-stick shooter games it gets swallowed up by bigger, badder fish. It does get points for the level that takes place on your computer desktop, that was a pretty cool idea I will admit.

Final Verdict: Uprising is by no means really a bad game, but there are better twin-stick shooters on XBLIG to invest your time into. If you feel like you've tried them all and still want more then give this one a go.

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Xbox 360, 2014)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
Developed by Vicious Cycle
Published by Namco Bandai Games
Released for Xbox 360 (10/14/2014)
Also on PS3/Wii U/3DS

Being a long-time fan of the old Pac-Man arcade games, I came in wanting to like the Ghostly Adventures series of games. Much like the first game, this one does not rank up with the best of them unfortunately. You can read the review of the original here and it pretty much all applies to this title since at a glance you can't tell one from the other. The game starts off in  a hub, which is one of the few areas this game actually improved on from the original. There's a bit more to see and explore, plus all of the games maps are accessed from this main hub. You're also able to view your stats on all levels which is a nice touch.

The levels themselves are pretty forgettable overall, but there are some pretty cool ideas here and there. Walking on the ceiling with the magnets can be pretty fun sometimes, but it's nothing that Lego Batman hasn't done better. The other power-ups are pretty standard fare, but I particularly hated Rubber Pac, whose intentionally bouncy controls led to quite a bit of frustration on a few stages. Trying to find all 3 of the fruits on each stage adds some replay value and is probably one of the better things going for the gameplay. It's hard to be precise with your chomping sometimes when trying to attack consecutive ghosts for a combo, which was also a problem encountered with the first game. I ran into some nasty technical issues on the Xbox 360 version, the worst of which was some really bad slowdown on a few stages in the "space world." Perhaps it runs smoothly on the Wii U, but here it seems like they hardly play-tested sections of this version. Much like the first game, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a decent 3D-platformer and despite the mostly uninspired level design and technical issues, there's still some fun to be had with this one if you can score it on the cheap.

Final Verdict: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a decent 3D-platformer that doesn't improve much from the first game, but provides more of the same. There are some technical issues with the framerate in sections, but it's still playable.

Purchase Links:
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - Xbox Overview
Bandai Namco Games - Official Site
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - Metacritic
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - GameFAQs
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - True Achievements

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (Xbox 360, 2013)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Developed by Monkey Bar Games
Published by Namco Bandai Games
Released for Xbox 360 (10/29/2013)
Also on 3DS/PC/PS3/Wii U

I've always liked the concept of Pac-Man expanding his adventures outside of the maze, which has been attempted many times over the decades of Pac's existence with success of varying degrees, but for the most part these titles are not the most fondly remembered entries of the franchise. So here we have Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, which is based off of the children's cartoon show. I've never seen this show so I will be unable to tell you how faithful this remains to the source material, however I have been playing Pac-Man games for quite a long time so I know enough about the most important character at least.

The game plays pretty much like your standard 3D-platformer; you have a hub world where you can talk to your pals and select your stage. The levels themselves are laid out in differently themed worlds each ending with a boss battle, and they all pretty much match up to the standard cliche worlds in these type of games (ice world included!). There are a few stages that play differently, such as a side-scroller shmup type stage and one where you drive down a tunnel kind of like the bonus stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. These play competently enough to add a little variety to the affair.

There are a couple hidden fruits within each stage for you to find if you're into searching for collectables. The platforming aspect is above average though I feel the combat could've used some polish. It can be hard to gauge when Pac is close enough to eat the ghosts; sometimes he'll fly across the screen to eat an enemy and other times he can't get to the guy a few feet in front of him, ruining the combo streak he had going. The game has a point system and there are high scores to try to beat for every stage which could potentially add some replay value if you enjoy the gameplay enough. There are also power-ups scattered about that will change Pac's form and these are required to get past certain parts of the stage. There's ice, fire, chameleon, metal and granite ball variants of Pac-Man. The ice and fire versions can throw projectiles, while chameleon uses his tongue to swing to platforms and metal pac and stick to magnetic platforms for some upside-down action. Granite ball Pac has you rolling about and controls a bit like a poor-man's version of Katamari Damacy. All-in-all these definitely help to keep things from getting too repetitive but some of the platforming segments can be a bit annoying, particularly when metal Pac won't stick to a surface or the chameleon won't lick a platform.

That's pretty much a summary of Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. As a fan of the Pac-Man character and the old-school arcade games, I'm not exactly crazy about some of the design choices in this one. I found Pac's voice a bit on the irritating side as he sounds like an overexcited child! There's no Ms. Pac-Man to be seen anywhere, which is a bit of a bummer considering she starred in one of the best titles of the franchise. While the game isn't bad and is an above average platformer, I didn't find anything about this game particularly memorable with exception to the multiplayer mode which has a 3D maze with one player controlling Pac-Man and up to three others playing the ghosts trying to catch him (complete with the overhead maze in the center!). I would say this game is not a bad choice for children 10 and under, though it will likely cause them some frustration and I'm not sure they'd see it through to the end without some help. The multiplayer mode can be a good time for kids and adults all the same however (Namco really should expand on this idea!). If you're itching for some old-school Pac-Man action, check out the XBLA store as there are several releases to scratch that itch.

The developer, Monkey Bar Games, was a division of the now defunct Vicious Cycle Software. They developed quite a few family-friendly games based on licensed properties for several different platforms, with Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures being considered one of their best efforts. The sequel, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 would be the final release from Monkey Bar Games. Vicious Cycle would continue to develop games up until 2015 and they would end up closing their doors in 2016.

Final Verdict: If you're looking for a decent platformer game for the kid, you could do worse than Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. For adults, even Pac-Man diehard fans, you won't find much to hold your interest past a single playthrough. The multiplayer mode is a surprising good time as a bonus.

Purchase Links:
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Monkey Bar Games - Wikipedia
Namco Bandai - Official Site
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - Metacritic
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - GameFAQs
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures -True Achievements

Unplugged (XBLIG, 2010)

Unplugged
Developed by Murudai
Released for Xbox Live Indie Games (8/2010)

Unplugged is a twin-stick shooter game released to the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace in August 2010. I was instantly reminded of the old Midway arcade Bubbles, where you play as a bubble and clean up the sink. This game does not bear much resemblance to that game other than taking place in a sink however. You play as a sink-plug that for some reason can shoot bullets. There is a constant current that affects both player movement and bullets, sucking them all in whatever direction the swirl is going for that stage. This sounds like a cool idea perhaps but in execution it really makes the game a chore to play. Lining up your bullets to kill an enemy seems more like luck than skill. Unplugged features some original enemy designs in the form of a giant cheese boss, soap bars and vegetables, but any charm is lost as the game-play is literally sucked down the drain.

Final Verdict: You can safely skip Unplugged as there are much better twin-stick shooters far more deserving of your dollar on the XBLIG marketplace.

Related Links:
Unplugged - GameFAQs
Bubbles Arcade Gameplay - YouTube

Gun (Xbox 360, 2005)

Gun
Developed by Neversoft Entertainment
Published by Activision
Released for Xbox 360 (11/16/2005) | Xbox (11/8/2005)
Also on Gamecube/PC/PS2/PSP

Before Red Dead Redemption, there was another open-world western game by the name of Gun, created by the designers of the earlier (and best) entries in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise. This is definitely an easy title to overlook thanks to an incredibly generic name, but it did manage to release on five different platforms. The Xbox 360 is the version played for this review, but the original Xbox release is the same game in every aspect but the visual department.

When you play Gun, it's best to bear in mind when the game came out,  which was very early in the lifespan of the 360, so it's just a slightly better looking version of the PS2/Xbox game pretty much. That being said, I thought the character models looked good and were detailed for the time but they look mechanical when they talk. The environments are also relatively good-looking for the time. Gun tries to give you a bit of variety in your missions, particularly in the side missions, where you can go hunting, run back and forth for the pony express, ranching and even a little Texas hold 'em. Most of the other missions feel like you're just shooting dudes, which is luckily pretty fun but can start to feel a bit repetitive quick. Still, some of these are pretty fun and a few of them are quite memorable. The missions also tend to be short so it's easy to pop the game on for quick sessions and play just a mission or two.

The story in Gun does a good job setting up all kinds of nasty revenge scenarios, plus the voice acting is superb, featuring the incredible talents of Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henriksen and Tom Skerritt to name a few. Towards the beginning there's shootout at a bordello, complete with hookers and johns running down the halls to escape the gunfire! There's a few cool little moments like this sprinkled throughout the campaign.

The controls aren't too bad and the game is very generous with where you're aiming in regards to getting a hit, just shoot somewhere kind of near the enemy and you're good. You get a nice assortment of weapons as you progress through the campaign and you can upgrade them via shopkeepers found at the various towns. There is a quick shot feature, not unlike the bullet-time in Max Payne, where you can unload on a group of bad guys in slow-motion. There is a meter for this that you can refill by killing enemies. You eventually gain the ability to scalp your enemies after you down them, which doesn't do anything as far as I can tell besides raise the brutality up a notch which is cool I guess. Graphic violence is definitely here in bulk as heads explode when shot and body parts will go flying from explosions.

Remember that this is an early title for the 360, so the control schemes for genres were still being standardized. That being said there are some issues with the controls in that there is no run or sprint, changing weapons is clunky and unreliable sometimes (hold down B and select with the d-pad) and you have to use the d-pad to lean (essential for the harder difficulties). Grenades are mapped to left trigger so I found myself frequently throwing those on accident trying to aim down your sights (which is actually done by clicking the right stick).

During my play-through there were a few instances where after talking to an NPC or completing a mission where my horse would disappear and the game wouldn't spawn any around me, forcing me to either slowly walk to my next destination or reset the game. Also be aware the game doesn't auto-save, so remember to save frequently (learned this the hard way after a power spike erased several missions progress). It's also worth noting that apart from the side-missions, once you've completed the game there's really nothing to do other than start the game over from another difficulty, hurting the replay value a bit. Gun is obviously not as good as Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, but for a game that came out five years before it I think it holds up pretty well. Red Dead Redemption would borrow and expand upon a lot of what Gun did, so if nothing else it definitely helped pave the way for Rockstar's future hit.

Final Verdict: If you're one of the many who loved and played Red Dead Redemption to death and overlooked Gun, this one's worth a play-through to see some of the inspiration for that title while also still being a fun game. Recommended for western fans in general as this is a genre we don't see a ton of games in.

Purchase Links:
Buy Gun (Xbox 360 - Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Gun (Xbox 360 - Disc) - eBay
Buy Gun (Xbox - Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Activision - Official Site
Gun - Metacritic
Gun - GameFAQs
Gun Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Gun - True Achievements

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Xbox 360, 2009)

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection
Developed by Backbone Entertainment
Published by Sega
Released for Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC (2/2009)

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is one of those instances where Sega really didn't hold back and gave you a ton of content for your money. The collection features 40 games from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. There are also 9 unlockable games, 7 of them are arcade games and 2 from the Master System. If you're a young gamer and would like to check out some of the classics, this disc is definitely a good starting point. Older gamers who fondly remember the Genesis will be filled with nostalgia going back and playing some of these titles. 

Sega covers a wide variety of genres with platformers (Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Dynamite Heady, Ristar and the Sonic trilogy are among them), beat-em ups (Golden Axe trilogy, Streets of Rage trilogy), run & gun (Shinobi III plus Vectorman 1 & 2 but sadly no Gunstar Heroes), adventure (Beyond Oasis and the Ecco games), puzzlers (Columns & Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) and RPG (Phantasy Star 2, 3 & 4 and the Shining Force trilogy). Many of the titles I felt were glaring omissions were likely due to licensing issues (such as Castle of Illusion). The bonus games are a pretty good bunch for the most part, featuring unlockable arcade ports of Altered Beast, Alien Syndrome, Congo Bongo, Fantasy Zone, Shinobi, Space Harrier and Zaxxon. The Master System games you can unlock are Golden Axe Warrior and the original Phantasy Star. These unlockable games are truly an awesome bonus to an already impressive roster!

Backbone Entertainment delivered some solid emulation of these old classics and to amass all these games in their original cartridge format would cost a small fortune today. I'd highly recommend buying Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for your old-school Sega fix. While some of these games were released individually on the Xbox Live Arcade, this one gives so much more in one package. You can also use save states on your games to come back whenever you want. Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is definitely a good example of how to properly do a compilation disc!

Final Verdict: Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection comes highly recommended for retro-gaming enthusiasts and younger players who wish to see what gaming was like back in the day. There's tons of value for your buck with this collection!

Purchase Links:
Buy Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection - eBay

Related Links:
Sega - Official Site
List of Included Games - Wikipedia
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection - Metacritic
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection - GameFAQs
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection - True Achievements

Sam & Max: Beyond Time & Space (XBLA, 2009)

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space
Developed by Telltale Games
Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Released for XBLA (10/2009)
Also on iOS/Mac/PC/PS3/Wii
Backwards Compatible with Xbox One

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space is the second and final set of episodes starring Sam & Max that was released for the Xbox 360, four months after the first episodes. If you haven't read the review for the first one, I'd recommend checking that out here as it all pretty much applies to this review as well. This game has several characters from the previous entry making their return as well as a bunch of new faces. The humor and absolutely absurd plots have remained intact and this game is every bit as amusing as the first entry. This time around the developers added in quite a few additional mini-games in an attempt to add variety. Some of these are far more frustrating than fun and definitely brought the game down a notch for me, but it wasn't enough to spoil the overall experience. The driving mini-games in particular are especially irritating, due to some bad input lag on the controls and a pretty choppy frame-rate. The driving games all have three tiers progressing in difficulty and luckily you don't have to do them all if you don't want to in order to complete the story, unless you want the achievement for getting all the decals. As with the previous game, if you like point & click games that don't take themselves seriously at all you will find something to appreciate here.

Final Verdict: Fans of adventure games and/or Sam & Max will definitely enjoy Sam & Max: Beyond Space and Time. If you're unable to play this on a PC, then the Xbox 360 version will get the job done.

Related Links:
Buy Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time - Xbox Marketplace
Telltale Games - Xbox Overview
Telltale Games - Official Site
Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time -  Metacritic
Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time - GameFAQs
Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time - True Achievements

Sam & Max: Save the World (XBLA, 2009)

Sam & Max: Save the World
Developed by Telltale Games
Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Released for Xbox Live Arcade (6/2009)
Also on PC/Wii
Backwards compatible on Xbox One

The Sam & Max characters go back quite a ways and I have a huge amount of personal nostalgia for the PC title Sam & Max: Hit the Road from LucasArts. It was one of my favorite PC games back in the day and I loved the wackiness of the characters & the insane situations they'd get in. It was awesome to see that Telltale Games was going to bring the franchise back and in the end, fans of the old game won't be disappointed.

Sam & Max have made the jump to 3D, and while I would have personally preferred 2D art, it all looks good and keeps the spirit of the original. The characters are very true to their old selves and are still just as funny now as they were back in the day. If you've never played before, Sam & Max is a very silly game. I really can't do any justice trying to explain any of the crazy plots or characters in this game and I'd rather not spoil any of that for those that decide to play the game.

Sam & Max plays more like the old-school point-and-click games where you don't take direct control of your character, rather you aim your cursor, press the A button where you want him to go and he'll follow. Right off the bat this means that the game will feel the most natural with a mouse as your controller, but it does still work okay when mapped out to a 360 controller. There are five episodes, each having its own story. If you've played any of Telltales' newer games (Walking Dead onward) you know that the puzzles are never too hard and usually the object you need to progress is near you and pretty obvious. Don't expect any of that with Sam & Max! These game will have you scratching your head at every turn (unless you cheat with a walk-through), but it is very rewarding when you finally figure out what needs to be done. Sam & Max Save the World will be best enjoyed by older gamers who have experience with the old LucasArts PC adventure titles, but I believe anybody who loves an absurdly silly game can have some fun with this title as well. Props to Microsoft Game Studios for making the moves to bring this over to XBLA, and while not as good as the PC original it's definitely an awesome addition to the large digital library.

Final Verdict: The PC of Same & Max Save the World is the best route to go for optimal controls, but regardless it's still fun on the 360 and an excellent option for those who'd rather play while chilling on the sofa or recliner. Sam & Max is an extremely silly game and if you're in the right mood for its wacky humor it can be a blast to play, but it is definitely not for everybody.

Related Links:
Buy Sam & Max Save the World - Xbox Marketplace
Telltale Games - Xbox Overview
Telltale Games - Official Site
Sam & Max Save the World  - Metacritic
Sam & Max Save the World - GameFAQs
Sam & Max Save the World Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Sam & Max Save the World - True Achievements