Arrow Diamond (XBLIG, 2013)

Arrow Diamond
Developed/Published by Hitmark Brothers
Released for XBLIG (9/19/2013)

If you've read through any number of the XBLIG reviews here, you know that I've described many of those games as weird or strange (which they are), but I think this game might take the cake for the most mysterious piece of software that I've encountered on the service. Rather than just simply giving the game a proper name composed of letters like everything else, the Hitmark Brothers decided that this title would be named using symbols. GameFAQs has it listed as Arrow Diamond, but in the game library and back when it was sold it was simply listed as ->♦, which I suppose could be directly translated to Arrow Diamond. Naming your game with symbols is a sure-fire way to make sure that your game is nigh impossible to find, so its doubtful that many were even aware of this game's existence. This is just the beginning of the weirdness that lies within the game that will be referred to as Arrow Diamond...

After starting up a new game, you'll take control of a giant green hand that belongs to presumably a god, looming down from the sky above. Everything is viewed from a 2D perspective and the first thing you'll notice are the little green seed things walking around on the ground level. Some of the seeds will grow a sprout which can pushed down into the ground using your finger. You can also flick them to quickly move them or pick them up to manually relocate them. Once a seed has been planted, you'll need to nourish it with water. There's water on either side of the little island you have to work with, so using your giant hand you'll need to cup a handful of water and dump it on the plant.

XBLIG De-Listed Games

XBLIG De-Listed Games

Technically, all XBLIG are de-listed at this point, but back when the service was live there were several titles that were taken down. While sifting through and trying to find some gems there were a few titles I was very interested in checking out, only to later find out that they no longer exist in the game marketplace. For some reason or another, the developer felt the need to remove these games. Others were removed at the request of Microsoft. This is by no means a complete list, just a few titles I noticed firsthand during the years XBLIG was still a service. If you happen to know of any other games that were de-listed from XBLIG, leave a comment or send me a message and I'll update the list.

Shutshimi
Developed by awppy
Released for XBLIG (5/7/2014)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS4/Vita/WiiU

Shutshimi just kind of vanished from the marketplace at some point with little notice, presumably around August of 2015 when the game was ported over to several platforms by Neon Deity Games, while the original on the 360 was just credited to awppy, so it was possibly some sort of licensing issue that caused its removal. The game has wound up on several other platforms, with ports released for the Vita, Linux, Macintosh, PC, PlayStation 4 and the Wii U. The game was a 2D horizontal shmup with some pretty cool aquatic themed graphics.

Tobe's Vertical Adventure
Developed by rayteoactive
Released for XBLIG (1/5/2010)
Also on PC

Tobe's Vertical Adventure was a nice looking 2D platformer that was developed by rayteoactive and released for XBLIG in January 2010. The game was ported to PC later the following year and I'm not really sure why this one was removed from XBLIG at this point.

Ninja Chop
Developed by zerozerozero
Released for XBLIG (3/2010)

I'm not proud to admit it, but out of the de-listed titles we've covered here, Ninja Chop is the only one I actually owned and had the opportunity to play. It's quite obvious why this one was removed from XBLIG, as the game features female ninjas chopping milk bottles and getting soaked in the milk afterwards. The graphics aren't good enough for it to really be that offensive, but it's still a game you'll no doubt feel ashamed playing if somebody walks in on you. Check out the review here.

The Undead Syndrome (XBLIG, 2012)

The Undead Syndrome
Developed by MukagoSoftware Development
Released for XBLIG (7/2012)
Also on PC

The Undead Syndrome feels kind of like a B-horror movie turned into a video game, where the low-budget aspect of it really shows in the overall gameplay and presentation. It's hard to deny that there is a sort of charm to the sloppiness that is The Undead Syndrome, and I found myself wanting more whenever the trial expiration screen came popping up. The game is obviously inspired by Japanese horror classic Silent Hill and it retailed for just a buck (or 80 Microsoft Points). As a fan of horror games, this was a no-brainer for me and I must say this is easily Mukagosoftware Development's best work for XBLIG that I've played.

The Undead Syndrome opens with a cinema of a female character getting stabbed by a mysterious man. You then wake up in a sort of nightmare world playing as the same female you just saw get murdered. As you navigate the strange environment, which appears to be a Japanese-style house with many rooms, you'll end up having to backtrack quite a bit and regardless if you've cleared a room of enemies previously they'll respawn every time you re-enter the room. This isn't as bad as it sounds due to the fact that the game has a leveling system, so you'll be rewarded with XP for killing enemies. The objective of the game is to kill three boss monsters, but in order to reach them you'll need to do some exploring in order to find the keys to access the areas they reside in. You'll learn a bit more about your character's story as you progress, but the game leaves the ending on a "to be continued..." note. Thankfully the sequel was released and we'll cover that here in the near future.

After starting you'll soon unlock your offensive ability, which allows you to use ki to blast energy orbs from your hands. Using the attack will consume a meter and when it empties out you can't shoot anymore. Your ki meter will slowly recharge on its own and can be sped up by using ki recovery items. In addition to these, you have an inventory where you can store items to replenish health, antidotes, keys and stones. Your character has five slots where you can place these stones into implants, one in each hand, two in the chest and one in the head. Placing various stones in certain spots unlocks certain benefits and it's fun to change these around as you pick up more of them throughout the game. Some of them can give you a 25% protection from being cursed or poisoned and there's one that will increase your character's movement speed (a must use!).

You'd think with a title like the Undead Syndrome that you'd be facing off against flesh-eating zombies, but instead you'll encounter strange monsters that look as if they're from a feverish nightmare or another dimension. The enemy AI isn't the smartest, nor do they come in many varieties, but what's here decent and they're strange enough to make the game at least a bit unsettling. Similar to the Silent Hill games, whenever you enter a room with enemy presence it will be indicated by an eerie ambient sound. Your attack takes quite some time as it has to charge before you can aim it, making it a problem when the developers pack multiple enemies into a small space. There are safe rooms containing shops and beds you can use to save your game and replenish your meters which you'll want to use often as death can come quite swift and unexpectedly at times in the Undead Syndrome. There are also shops where you can purchase stuff like health and ki recovery items. The inventory space provided for your character is a bit small, which means you'll frequently have to mess with your inventory to make space for new items.

The graphics in the Undead Syndrome may not look so hot considering the console generation, but compared to your average 3D XBLIG game they're quite adequate. On the plus side, with the simplistic visuals the game loads up very fast, but the downside is that your character looks a bit like an action figure moving about. The inventory system, controls and combat are a tad clunky, but the game is short enough that it didn't have much of a chance to irritate me. While obviously low-budget, the Undead Syndrome can be fun if you don't mind a short and flawed game.

Final Verdict: The Undead Syndrome is a short but enjoyable horror title with a low-budget feel and strange environments that has quite a few problems, but horror fanatics might still want to give it a look.

Related Links:
Mukagosoftware Development - Xbox Overview
The Undead Syndrome - GameFAQs
The Undead Syndrome Review - TheXBLIG.com
The Undead Syndrome Review - Mash Those Buttons
Mukagosoftware Development - Official Site
The Undead Syndrome: Low-Budget Horror - YouTube

Insanity X (XBLIG, 2011)

Insanity X
Developed by Aetherbyte
Released for XBLIG (6/2011)

Insanity X plays similar to Atari's arcade classic Berserk. This is a port of Insanity, which was originally a homebrew game released for the PC-Engine/Turbo Grafx-16 Super CD-ROM. Insanity X features responsive controls and Berserk veterans will instantly feel at home with the gameplay. You must navigate from room to room while killing enemies and if you touch any of the walls you die instantly. The soundtrack here is awesome and the game allows you to choose between synth or chip-tune music at the title screen.

While obviously inspired by Berserk, Insanity X isn't exactly the same. While Berzerk basically went on until you died, as there were thousands of rooms, Insanity X actually has a boss battle. After blasting through a few dozen levels, you'll face off against a boss in the form of the robot master. Insanity X comes recommended for fans of retro games, particularly Berserk. Unfortunately, at the time I wrote the review the above was the best image I could find for the title card, which featured some sweet artwork.

Final Verdict: Insanity X is an excellent Berserk inspired game that plays competently and will be enjoyed by those who loved the original or just retro games in general.

Related Links:
Insanity X - GameFAQs
Insanity Turbografx-CD Review - Honest Gamers

Fist Puncher (XBLIG, 2013)

Fist Puncher
Developed by Team2Bit
Released for XBLIG (8/2013)
Also on Linux, Macintosh, Ouya, PC

Let's take a look at the trial for Fist Puncher, which is a beat 'em up title where you walk to the right beating up anybody in your path. Fist Puncher features heavily pixelated graphics, which do sport a considerable amount of detail considering how blocky they are. The environments are nice-looking and varied enough to keep the setting interesting. You have several characters to choose from and you can spend your points on upgrading your character after completing a stage, similar to Castle Crashers. The controls are responsive enough, giving the player a kick, punch, jump and grab at their disposal. Holding the right trigger will modify your moves into more damaging variants while draining your special meter.

The problem I had with Fist Puncher was simple: the game was way too easy. I may have sustained a couple hits in my playtime, but enemies occasionally dropping food made sure my health stayed at pretty much 100%. A beat 'em up without any sort of engaging enemies or challenge is a recipe for boredom. I think the developer(s) had their heart in the right place and had the best intentions of making a cool beat 'em up since some of the character design isn't too shabby and the environments are well done, but ultimately the lack of any challenge in the gameplay really killed my interest in the title. Oh, and the game retailed for five times as much as your average indie game retailing at $4.99. Fist Puncher does support up to four-players local, and even with the issues the game has I could see this being a fun time with four buddies.

Final Verdict: I really wanted to like Fist Puncher, but the lack of difficulty and high price tag kept that from happening. There's at least a dozen or so better beat 'em up titles on the 360 you should play instead of this one.

The Impossible Game (XBLIG, 2009)

The Impossible Game
Developed by FlukeDude
Released for XBLIG (11/23/2009)
Also on iOS/Linux/Macintosh/PC/PS3/PSP/Windows Phone

The Impossible Game is a platformer that pretty much boils the genre down to its simplest form, with gameplay that consists entirely of timing your jumps. The game contains only a single level, but as the title implies this level is quite challenging. This single stage can be cleared in about a minute and a half on a perfect run, but you'll spend much, much longer than that attempting to get through it.

In the Impossible Game, you'll take control of a square that scrolls along a 2D plane automatically, similar to many games in the runner genre, where your character is always moving forward with no input required from the player. Since you don't have to worry about movement, your priority will be timing your jumps to make it over the pits and spikes littered throughout the stage. It's simple, but it's far from easy. The speed at which your square auto-scrolls is quite fast and making some of the jumps will take very precise timing of your jumps. There's also quite a bit of memorization required, but this will come naturally as you play through the stage hundreds if not thousands of times trying to complete it.

The graphics complement the simple gameplay, consisting of solid squares and triangles placed upon a gradient background. While the visual presentation is simple, the music is awesome and makes dying a bit less painful knowing you'll get to hear the soundtrack. The level must be completed in a single run, but there is a practice mode that allows you place checkpoints anywhere along the path. After dying, you'll spawn back at the last checkpoint you've placed, making completing the level much easier but a lot less satisfying. There is a penalty for using practice mode, where the excellent music is replaced by a lame track. Finishing practice mode will end with a message telling you complete the stage legit.

The Impossible Game was one of the more successful titles on XBLIG and could regularly be found in the best-sellers section of the store. The game definitely earned its spot with easy controls coupled with a stiff challenge all to the tune of an excellent soundtrack. If you're a fan of brutal platformers you'll likely enjoy this one. If you're easily frustrated or just don't like hard games, you'd probably do your controller a favor to stay away from this one.

The Impossible Game Level Pack released for XBLIG in November 2010. This level pack added 2 new levels that ramp up the challenge compared to the original stage. While the pack started with only 2 levels, the developer diligently updated it over the course of time to include 2 more, for a total of 4 new levels, each with a new song to enjoy while you inevitably die thousands of times trying to complete these. These additional levels can be selected in any order, giving you some options if you get hung up on a particular level. The level pack was a great deal for those who enjoyed the original game, offering quite a bit of extra content which sold for the reasonable price of 80 Microsoft Points (or $1).

The Impossible Game was initially released on XBLIG in November 2009, was next released for iOS devices in April 2010 and even saw a release for the PlayStation Portable in September 2011. At the time of this writing, the game's final releases would come in May 2014 for PC, Linux and Macintosh. All versions of the game from the PSP onward include the bonus stages from the level pack.

Final Verdict: The Impossible Game is a short, simple platformer with a stiff challenge. If you like your games tough, give this one a look as it's still available on a number of platforms.

Related Links
The Impossible Game - Official Site
The Impossible Game Trailer - YouTube
Rage Quit: The Impossible Game - YouTube
The Impossible Game - GameFAQs
The Impossible Game Level Pack - GameFAQs

XBLIG Origins | Xbox Overview

XBLIG Origins
Originally Published March 5, 2020

The origins of Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) goes back as far as 2006, one year after the system's launch, when Microsoft reached out to developers to make them aware of the upcoming indie games program. Microsoft introduced the XNA Framework, a tool that aimed to simplify game programming and make it easier to realize your creations. In late  November 2008, the indie games storefront debuted as "Xbox Live Community Games" and was later renamed to XBLIG. 

While I never had first-hand experience using the XNA Development tools, which allowed you to program in either C# or Visual Basic .NET. While I never had first-hand experience using XNA, I've read from several developers that the platform was intuitive and made designing quick and simple. Support for the XNA Development tools would be discontinued in 2013 and the service would not carry over to the Xbox One. The Microsoft Indie Outreach program would eventually be replaced with the ID@Xbox initiative, which is still active today.

There were well over 3,000 titles released by the time XBLIG wrapped up, an impressive number even if well over half of those titles are crap. This massive amount of games is one of the things that made it so hard for the good games to stand out, as they would tend to get buried under heaps of garbage and would require some digging to find. Of course, Microsoft's placement of the XBLIG storefront made matters worse and by even by the last update you still had to scroll through several layers of menu to find it. Microsoft offered up an awesome service with XBLIG but in the long run didn't do enough to really help it succeed.

If you were releasing a game onto the XBLIG service, you had a number of things working against your game finding success. In addition to a store crowded with sub-par games and a storefront that's a bit tough to find, none of the titles sold on XBLIG were allowed to contain any achievements or gamerscore. Achievements took off in a big way during the Xbox 360 era and there's no doubt one of the several reasons these games didn't get much play is due to the lack of them.

There were several limits when releasing a game on XBLIG when compared to your standard Xbox Live Arcade game. Developers could sell their games for 3 different price ranges: 80, 240 or 400 Microsoft points, which equals out to $1, $2.50 or $5. The titles priced at $1 were obviously the most tempting, but there were also the most duds at this price range. When XBLIG first launched, a strict 150 MB file-size limit was imposed, but was later upgraded to 500 MB. Leaderboards and online play weren't officially supported by Microsoft, but there were some clever developers that managed to get around this and included these features in their games using workarounds

In conclusion, XBLIG was a great idea and helped spur the indie games movement on home consoles, but was filled with a ton of potential that was never fully realized. Despite the numerous issues with XBLIG, there were still some awesome titles released that were definitely worth playing. There was an excellent write-up back in March 2011 on Gamasutra, which talks about and interviews several of the more prominent developers for the XBLIG platform. It's a good read and worth a look if you're interested in hearing first-hand accounts from some of the developers.

Related Links:
XBLIG - Xbox Overview
The Shutdown of XBLIG - Xbox Overview
ID@Xbox - Xbox
Xbox Live Creators Program - Xbox
XNA Development - Official Site
XBLIG Developers at a Crossroads - Gamasutra 
XBLIG - Wikipedia

Pacific Wings (Xbox One, 2019 | XBLIG, 2012)

Pacific Wings
Developed/Published by Sprakelsoft GmbH
Released for Xbox One (6/25/2019) | Xbox Live Indie Games (8/2/2012)
Also on Android/iOS/PS4/Switch

Pacific Wings is a rather blatant clone of the old Capcom arcade classic 1942. The player flies an American P-38 blasting down waves of Japanese planes, exactly like the old arcade classic. Looking at screenshots or footage of the game shows some promise, with pixel-graphics that invoke a nice retro vibe. Here we'll take a look at the trial for Pacific Wings on the Xbox One and see how it holds up when compared to the original that inspired it or if it's even worth playing at all.

The Tempura of the Dead (XBLIG, 2010)

The Tempura of the Dead
Developed by JPN 8bits fanatics
Released for XBLIG (11/2010)

The Tempura of the Dead is a 2D action-platformer released in late 2010 exclusively for XBLIG. The game has you playing as two different characters that you can switch between on the fly. The main character is Thompson, who is the President of the United States and uses firearms to take matters into his own hands. Accompanying Thompson is a samurai wielding a sword named Sugimoto. Thompson looks like a cross between former US President Barack Obama and anime legend Lupin the Third.

Each stage in Tempura of the Dead will feature a certain number of larger creatures and once all have been destroyed you will progress to the next stage. Stages are selected via an overworld map which also features shops where you can buy upgrades/health for your characters. Items can be purchased with your points which are gained by juggling zombie heads. After the zombies take enough damage, their head will go flying up in the air and if you can juggle it a couple times you'll initiate "tempura fever," and every head you hit in the air after will give you bonus points. Decapitated heads can be juggled with either your sword or bullets depending on which character you're using. There are four boss battles you'll encounter through the game, with the last one having you face off against a possessed Statue of Liberty!

The Tempura of the Dead features an 8-bit pixel style that feels very true to form, very similar to the developers' other effort Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes. You can see the developer took a lot of care in presenting this game in a retro aesthetic. The controls are solid and the only complaint I can find is that jumping doesn't work while moving near an edge sometimes, which becomes a bit of an issue in later stages with very narrow platforms. It's extremely frustrating to see your character simply walk over the edge of a platform to his death when you know you pressed the jump button. You'll have to adjust to jumping before pressing over in the direction you're trying to move, which is a shame but I've found this is a common issue with several of the more challenging XBLIG platformers. It's not totally game-breaking though and you'll adapt to it if you play the game enough, but it's definitely worth mentioning. Also, while the music is decent and has the appropriate chip-tune sound, the game would have benefited from a bit more variety as the tracks are quite short and they tend to loop fast.

Tempura of the Dead features 24 levels with a few boss battles sprinkled throughout and it never feels like it drags on too long. It feels about the perfect length for the original $3 asking price. The currency/upgrade system pads the game out a tad but I found it enjoyable enough that it didn't feel like much of a grind. A playthrough of the game will probably last around 5 hours, which isn't bad for the cheap price. Tempura of the Dead was a solid XBLIG title with a retro feel and it would be nice to see it released again on a future platform so it's not completely forgotten in the sands of time. If you're a fan of late '80's/early '90's retro gaming, The Tempura of the Dead is one you'll enjoy!

Final Verdict: The Tempura of the Dead is an excellent 2D action/platformer that looks, plays and sounds like a classic 8-bit title. Highly recommended!

Related Links:
8bits Fanatics - Xbox Overview
The Tempura of the Dead - GameFAQs
Tempura of the Dead on 8bits Fanatics - Official Site

Chronoblast (XBLIG, 2013)

Chronoblast
Developed by n0rtygames
Released for XBLIG (2/2013)

Chronoblast is a vertical shmup, meaning you view the action from a top-down perspective shooting everything coming at you while flying forward continuously. The game boasts that it's the first on XBLIG to support tate, meaning if you have a vertically-oriented monitor you can tilt the image on its side to take up the whole screen. On a normal horizontal monitor the screen will be heavily cropped on both sides, so having the option to tilt the image is very nice and is a feature often overlooked by developers. The game also included networked high scores which was another nice bonus. Chronoblast definitely takes a lot of inspiration from classic Cave arcade titles in pretty much every aspect of the game. You can really tell the developers love their shooters and they've done an admirable job capturing the Cave-style shmup.

There are four characters to choose from, each sporting a different ship, pilot and shot pattern. While selecting between your pilot (all females), you have the option to select between three different skill levels: autobomb, normal and hell. Autobomb will provide a safety cushion and will automatically use a bomb rather than kill you upon taking a hit.  Normal mode is exactly as it sounds and hell mode is for those who want a real challenge. In a nice little touch, the easier the difficulty the more attire you'll see her wearing in her profile pic. The ship you pilot will have two modes of fire: laser and shot. The ship's speed decreases a bit in laser mode to help with precision dodging. You're also equipped with bombs and can build up a super-meter to unleash a temporary power boost to your attacks. Your ship is represented by a large sprite, but the little circle in the center of it is your hitbox, making it manageable but far from easy to dodge the onslaught of projectiles the enemies will send your way. Enemies will also drop score coins as you mow them down and instinctively you will want to collect as many as possible.

Chronoblast offers ranked, unranked and practice modes at the main menu. In ranked mode you'll try to rack up the highest score possible on a single credit. High scores are saved locally and there's a table for each difficulty. Unranked mode allows you to continue while practice mode lets you select a particular stage or boss to play. The game allows up to two-players to play simultaneously and having a buddy always adds to the fun. There are five levels, each with a mid and final boss. Each level is well-paced and enemies are diverse enough to have you constantly alternating between laser and shot modes. For those who can master the game and clear it on a single credit there's a true final boss you'll encounter at the end. Chronoblast is very similar to many of Cave's offerings and in my opinion that's a good thing; you can never have enough quality shmups, especially when it comes to XBLIG. It's really a shame that Chronoblast apparently hasn't been released for anything outside of XBLIG, though I've seen some links that talk about a PC version of the game but never found a legit download link for the game so I'm not sure on this.

Final Verdict: As far as XBLIG shmups go, Chronoblast is a superb effort and has everything you could want from this style of game, especially if you love Cave shooters!

Related Links:
Chronoblast - GameFAQs
n0rtygames - Official Site

Shoot 1UP (XBLIG, 2010)

Shoot 1UP
Developed by Mommy's Best Games
Released for XBLIG (2/2010)
Also on PC/Windows Mobile

Shoot 1UP is a vertical shmup with an interesting mechanic: every time you collect a 1-up, rather than just add it to your livestock the ship appears next to yours and there seems to be no limit on how many you can gather. You can contract and expand your fleet of ships using the triggers, and the farther apart your ships are the more massive the laser beam they generate will be. They'll also be more prone to enemy fire of course, creating a nice risk/reward mechanic. The graphics are all done in high-res art that looks very good for the most part. The boss designs are unique and the levels themselves never really feel like they overstay their welcome. The stages have sections in them where the path branches off and you're given the choice to select between the regular path straight ahead or to veer off to the side for a more difficult route. These are very unique in that your ship will turn and the game will temporarily turn into a horizontal shooter until you eventually change course and revert back to vertical orientation. The game has its own built-in achievements you can unlock as you play. Overall Shoot 1UP is a very admirable effort to do something fresh with the shmup genre and is absolutely worth the dollar asking price.

Final Verdict: A fresh take on the vertical shmup, Shoot 1UP is definitely worth a look for fans of the genre.

Related Links:
XBLIG Shmups - Xbox Overview 
Mommy's Best Games - Xbox Overview
Shoot 1UP - GameFAQs
Shoot 1UP on PC - Steam
Shoot 1UP on Windows Mobile - Microsoft
Mommy's Best Games - Official Site
Shoot 1UP Review - XBLA Fans
Shoot 1UP Review - Indie Gamer Chick

Pester (XBLIG, 2013)

Pester
Developed by Flump Games
Released for XBLIG (1/2013)
Also on Ouya/PC

Pester is a vertical shoot 'em up with a retro-arcade feel. The graphics look like something from the early to mid-80's, the screen is cropped like it was natively a vertical game (though there is not tate option) and there are scanlines emulated to make it seem as though you're playing on a CRT monitor. While the action looks like an older arcade game, you have bullet patterns to dodge inspired by the more modern bullet-hell shooters. Your ship has the ability to toggle your movement speed holding the left trigger when precision dodging is needed. Coins are dropped by defeated enemies that when collected will help build up your hyper shot meter, which will give your firepower a temporary boost when activated.

The graphics in Pester are a mixed bag, with the ships looking like something out of Galaga while the backdrops look like something that would have come out a decade later. There seems to be a lack of sound effects, for example the coins don't even make a sound when picked up. The enemy explosions fail to impress both in graphics and sound. While Pester definitely isn't the prettiest shmup available on XBLIG, when it comes down to the gameplay there is still a fun and challenging shooter here. There are quite a few modes to unlock, the game keeps tabs on your high scores and there are some settings to customize as you play. You can select the background, music, overlay and ship design. This all helps add a nice amount of replay value. In arcade mode you can play classic mode or boss survival. There are also survival, asteroid belt and boss modes that can be unlocked for achieving certain scores on particular modes. There's also another mode called Tempus which is a timed mode. There's a number next to your ship that is constantly ticking away. Instead of lives, dying will take ten seconds off the clock. Enemies now drop clocks instead of coins, and each clock you pick up adds an additional second to your clock. It's a fun and unique mode and rounds out what was already a nice package.

Pester is definitely a good effort as far as shooters on XBLIG are concerned. The full version features an appearance from one of the ships from Chronoblast which is neat. There's thousands of worse ways you could spend a buck! The game was also ported over to PC and the Ouya. It's currently on Steam for $0.99 just like when it was up on XBLIG!

Final Verdict: Pester is an enjoyable and challenging vertical shooter. While not the best on the service, it retailed for only a buck on XBLIG and is worth a look for genre fans.

Related Links:
Pester - GameFAQs
Pester on PC - Steam

Streets of Fury (XBLIG, 2009)

Streets of Fury
Developed by Cyrille Lagarigue
Released for XBLIG (8/2009)
Also on PC

Streets of Fury is a beat 'em up title featuring digitized graphics. The game plays like a 2D beat 'em up with three different planes you can move between, much like the Sega Saturn classic Guardian Heroes (also available on XBLA). The controls are surprisingly responsive for a game using digitized actors. You have a punch, kick, special attack and jump mapped to the face buttons. Left trigger is used for blocking and the right trigger is used to switch planes. You have a "fury" meter that fills as you attack your enemies and once filled holding the triggers together and pressing an attack will unleash your fury move. The gameplay is actually pretty deep for a game of this nature, allowing for moves to be linked together to build massive combos.

Streets of Fury offers support for up to four players local. The digitized graphics are pretty detailed and the backdrops look sharp, but I know there are a lot of folks out there that don't like digitized graphics so it won't appeal to everybody, plus the game uses lots of palette swaps which is something of a staple of digitized fighters. There are two main scenarios to play through, in addition to survival and versus modes for extra replayability, plus there are a few hidden characters you can unlock for progressing through the game. Overall, Streets of Fury is easily the best beat 'em up title that would come out on XBLIG. The game would see an enhanced port, titled Streets of Fury EX, released for PC in 2015 and is considered to be the definitive version of this game.

Final Verdict: Streets of Fury is an excellent 2D brawler and shows a level of polish that you rarely see on XBLIG. Definitely recommended for beat 'em up fanatics.

Related Links:
Beat 'Em Ups - Xbox Overview 
Streets of Fury - GameFAQs
Streets of Fury EX on PC - Steam
Streets of Fury - Official Site

Rushing Punch<ラッシングパンチ> (XBLIG, 2011)

Rushing Punch<ラッシングパンチ>
Developed by Divider Games
Released for XBLIG (5/2011)

Rushing Punch is what you would call a kusoge game, meaning it's a bad game but holds some value in that it's so awful it's laughable. The graphics are odd in this one, looking like something that might have released as a budget title on the PS1. The characters are made up of strange textures and the environment just kind of ends at an invisible barrier as if the developer forgot to finish the map. The character animation is severely lacking, containing just a few frames for his walking animation. Same for the punch, which is animated so carelessly you can barely even tell when you're doing it. The kick is obviously way more effective than the punch therefore having two attacks is pointless. You also have a special move that drains your health where your character does a spin kick hitting anybody around you. Once you've defeated enough enemies, a group of skeletons come after you (which the game calls "Skeltons").

The trial for Rushing Punch only lets you play the first stage and once you finish it there's a splash screen informing you that there are six levels in total for you to conquer in the full version. I never bought the game, as even for $1 I feel I got about the most I'm going to get out of this game from the trial. The game is definitely a contender for worst beat 'em up ever! I almost forgot to mention your character's name is Haggar, not to be confused with the wrestling mayor who beat down the Mad Gear in Final Fight!

Final Verdict: Rushing Punch is an abysmal beat 'em up, probably one of the worst ever made. If you like "kusoge" or bad games it's worth a play or two but everybody else steer clear!

Related Links:
Beat 'Em Ups - Xbox Overview
Rushing Punch - GameFAQs