Thimbleweed Park (Xbox One, 2017)

Thimbleweed Park
Developed by Terrible Toybox
Released for Xbox One (3/2017)
Also on Android/iOS/Linux/Mac/PC/PS4/Switch

Thimbleweed Park is a true love-letter to the old LucasArts point & click adventures of the '90's. If you're a fan of games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion then Thimbleweed Park was made for you. It's hard to say how the younger generation of gamers will feel about this game as this gameplay style is something of a relic compared to what you're used to in video games these days, but there is a lot to love about Thimbleweed Park even if you've never played any of the games it pays homage to.

The game features a list of actions you can select from at the bottom left corner of the screen and displays your inventory on the right. You basically use the cursor to point your character where you'd like them to go and use the inventory/command options to interact with people/objects around you. It's a simple formula and quite easy to pick up, though is obviously best experienced using a mouse. That being said, I still feel the game played quite well on the Xbox One and at no point did I feel like the controls became an issue. It also helps that the game doesn't have any parts where you have to react quickly, making the somewhat clunky controls a lot more forgivable.

Croc's World - Xbox Edition (Xbox One, 2017 | XBLIG, 2014)

Croc's World (Xbox-Edition)
Developed by Sprakelsoft
Released for Xbox One (10/2017) | Xbox Live Indie Games (5/17/2014)
Also on iOS/PC

Croc's World (Xbox-Edition) is a release for the somewhat obscure section on the Xbox One's game store called the Creators Collection. This was originally released for the iOS and the Xbox 360 indie games store, but according the developer this version adds two new worlds with thirty additional levels. I am unable to confirm if this is true as the free version they have up for download only lets you play two levels and then promptly asks the player to pay $1.99 to continue on. Before I get into why I had no desire to pay the fee, let's quickly talk about the gameplay.

State of Decay (XBLA, 2013)

State of Decay
Developed by Undead Labs
Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Released for Xbox Live Arcade (6/2013)
Also on PC

State of Decay is an open-world zombie survival game. The premise and gameplay are both incredibly ambitious, perhaps a bit too much for the (at the time) aging 360 hardware. The game has a whole host of technical issues, all of which we'll delve into in this review, but despite this I still had a great time playing it. You rarely see open-world titles like this on Xbox Live Arcade, and State of Decay is one of the more in-depth zombie survival titles that I've played on a console.

Let's start off with the positive aspects of State of Decay. The premise is awesome and the game has a scope that no other zombie title (at least on the 360) had reached at the time of release. You're given a massive sandbox to explore and are able to setup a base, recruiting new survivors along the way. The character you play as has a stamina and life bar, and these will drain after a while forcing you to switch survivors in order for the current one to rest. Each survivor have their own individual stats which are leveled up as you use the affected ability and certain characters have unique stats to build up and will be able to unlock specific abilities.

It's important to stay stocked up on medicine and snacks, as these will help temporarily replenish your stamina and health. There are, of course, zombies scattered about the map everywhere, and I was quite surprised to see that throughout my entire playthrough that the undead were the only things I was killing (typically anything with zombies seems to have the survivors going at it with the zombies as fodder). Taking a cue from Left 4 Dead, there are special zombie types you'll have to watch for as they are tougher than your average undead. There are, of course, the big overweight zombies that are absolute damage sponges, feral zombies that can pounce on the player (very deadly!), bloaters that explode and leave a nasty fume that damages the player and armored zombies that are immune to bullets.

State of Decay features a perma-death system, so you need to be careful about playing as a single survivor for too long. When a survivor is murdered, you're treated to a gruesome death animation getting torn in half and your character will drop their belongings in a rucksack where they were slain, allowing you to reclaim your old possessions with a different survivor. I can't tell you how bad some of my character deaths pissed me off as they come unexpectedly sometimes, but let's just say I shut the game off a couple times in pure frustration. Typically when you go down, you'll be put into a downed state and are given ample time to mash the A button to recover and you'll initially think that your character going down is no big deal at all. It seems that if one of the "special" zombie types is anywhere near your character when they go down then you can kiss them goodbye as they killed me without even giving me an opportunity to recover on a few occasions.

Open-world games rely heavily on missions to keep the player occupied, and State of Decay is no exception. Typically your quests will involve fetch quests where you'll assist an ally and then escort them home, but there are a few variations on mission types. Aside from the missions, there are tons of places to scavenge for necessities like food, ammo and building materials. Your base will consume so much of each resource each day and it's up to you to make sure everything stays stocked up. With the building materials you can add specialized rooms to your base, such as a medical bay or workshop, that can give you certain perks. Basically, State of Decay has no shortage of things for you to do within its large open-world. I found myself annoyed initially by the way State of Decay bombards the player with quests, many of which will expire if not completed within a certain amount of time (similar to Dead Rising). The completionist side of me hated seeing these timed quests fail. At first I found very little time to actually go scavenge, but eventually you'll become familiar with which quests are important and which ones you can let expire. The zombie hunting missions, for example, are pretty much worthless unless you just need a little XP boost.

The combat in State of Decay isn't the games strongest point and when surrounded by a group of zombies you'll quickly realize how clunky it is, but this is not a game where you want to allow yourself to be surrounded as you will get overwhelmed quick. Every time you perform an action, a chunk of your stamina meter is depleted and this plays heavily into the melee combat. It's very hard to choose which target you wish to strike with your attack, and as a result it's a bit random who you will hit next some times, which can be a pain when you need to focus on a tough enemy in a group. The dodging mechanic is also a bit unreliable and your stamina meter will really inflate the difficulty of the melee gameplay. You'll need to constantly stop attacking to run away and recuperate or eat a snack before continuing to pound away on your enemies. The combat system is serviceable once you get accommodated with it and after you start leveling your attack stats up you can become quite the force to be reckoned with.

The game engine in State of Decay really struggles to keep up with everything sometimes, with rampant framerate stutters and graphic pop-in all over the place. The pop-in is especially noticeable while driving at top speed, and I even had one occasion where my car slammed into another vehicle I couldn't see because it hadn't loaded in yet. It promptly popped up after stopping my truck dead in its tracks. The framerate issue becomes prevalent whenever you're in an area with a high population of zombies. There was one occurrence where the framerate got bogged down so bad that the game froze, but other than this instance I was still able to enjoy the game despite the framerate issues however it definitely does take a bit away from the overall experience. There are also some pretty ugly low-res textures that look quite out of place.

The car handling is a bit off, particularly the braking. Your car can go from 60 to 0 on a dime and you'll notice very quick that fences and several other objects about will stop you as well. It's a bit ridiculous seeing a picket fence stop a pickup truck ramming it at full speed. There's also some pretty severe clipping issues going on, with zombies popping through walls quite frequently. Again, not a game-breaker but it is quite obvious and does detract from the immersion. Also, be cautious using the exit game feature on the main menu as this would lead to a black screen and would never load back to the dashboard. Instead, exit the game using your Xbox button to go directly to the dashboard.

While State of Decay does host quite a few technical issues, the good outweigh the bad and none of it stopped me from having a good time while playing through this one. If you're able overlook the games flaws then you should enjoy this one. The developers are obvious fans of classic horror films and there's tons of references to classic icons of the genre to be found. It's a good game that could have been a great game if some of the technical problems were ironed out. After completing the game and seeing how small the development crew was, it became much easier to understand why the game had as many technical problems as it did, as the game is huge as far as Xbox Live Arcade titles go and easily provides enough content to compete with many retail titles. In 2015, Undead Labs would release a revamped version of the game for Xbox One & PC, titled State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition. I'm looking forward to revisiting the game at some point on the One and see if the developers were able to work out some of the kinks.

Final Verdict: State of Decay does contain a fair share of technical problems, but the game still remains a very playable and fun open-world zombie survival action title.

Related Links:
Buy State of Decay - Microsoft Store
Undead Labs - Official Site
State of Decay - Metacritic
State of Decay - GameFAQs
State of Decay Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
State of Decay - True Achievements

Breakdown
DLC Released on 11/2013

Breakdown was the first batch of downloadable-content for State of Decay that was released five months after the games initial release. This mode takes place on the same map as the main campaign, but adds a few wrinkles in the formula. New to this mode you'll be able to find an RV, which after you fix and get it running can be used to leave the map and will start a new scenario. With each new scenario you enter, the game ramps up the difficulty by spawning more zombies, hordes and freaks while also providing fewer resources and vehicles. For anybody that felt like the initial campaign was too easy, this mode will definitely ramp up the challenge in the later scenarios and will provide a much tougher challenge than the vanilla campaign.

Breakdown features a host of challenges that the player can tackle as they play. There's a batch of things to do for each scenario level up until five, and some of these will eat up a lot of your time. Each time a challenge is finished, a hero will spawn on the map who can be picked up and recruited to your home base. These were characters from the main campaign story and will often have a handy special skill unlocked already. Any heroes you've unlocked can be selected as your starting survivor when you start up a new game which is a nice bonus. The challenges are fun to unlock for the most part with only a few that stand out as requiring too much grinding.

That's basically Breakdown in a nutshell. It omits the story-driven missions of the original campaign but does still have several types of quests you can embark on if you need to gain influence. These usually involve helping random survivors who can be recruited if you earn their trust, hunting a particular type of zed freak, clearing out an infested building or assisting an ally in trouble. These missions will spawn consistently until you've repaired your RV and decide to move on to the next scenario.

While I enjoyed my time with Breakdown for the most part, I found little motivation to come back after completing all the challenges. There's also an exploit that allows you to load your entire party on the RV and bring everyone to the next scenario rather than the limited amount the game intended you to have. Of course you can use restraint and not use the exploit, but it does grant the player a distinct advantage when moving onto the next scenario (I've read that this was patched in the Xbox One version). I'm not certain if this was an issue in the main campaign, but some of the survivors' voice actors are just plain wrong. Several of the characters ethnicities just don't match up with their voices which can end up being funny actually but is yet another oversight. The bugs I encountered were mostly superficial, and Breakdown is worth getting if you've completed the main campaign and want some more mileage out of State of Decay.

Lifeline
DLC Released on 5/2014

Eleven months after the games official release we received Lifeline, and this time Undead Labs delivers a new map for you to survive in. This time around the story involves the military, so typically you'll be much better equipped for action. The map, while smaller than the original, is a welcome addition and makes up for Breakdown taking place in the same map as the initial campaign.

The map consists of a highway, with the exit out of town conveniently blocked off. There are several off-ramps you can use to access little parts of the city, but overall you're a lot more restricted than the original map. There's a story this time around, you need to require important people to try and continue the research of doctor who died early on.

Overall I found Lifeline to be an excellent addition to State of Decay, even better than the original campaign in some respects as it is a much more focused experience, and definitely worth the purchase if you enjoyed the vanilla game. If you only get one DLC for State of Decay, skip Breakdown and get Lifeline.

RISK: Factions (XBLA, 2010)

RISK: Factions
Developed by Stainless Games
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox Live Arcade (6/2010)
Also on PC/PS3

RISK: Factions is, of course, based on the classic board game. It's a turn-based strategy game where your objective is to capture as many territories as possible. RISK is one of those board games that I'd often see in peoples stacks of board games, but rarely got the opportunity to play it due to the fact it takes many hours to complete a game. It's fun, just very time consuming. RISK: Factions contains much of what made the board game fun, while adding some new touches and speeding the whole process up quite a bit, allowing you to complete a game in a fraction of the time it would take on the board version. The game was developed by Stainless Games, who have done numerous games but are most notable for their Carmageddon and Magic: The Gathering titles.

In addition to having the standard RISK game rules, the game introduces the Factions mode which aims to speed things up a bit in addition to some new features. There are five factions: the humans, cats, yetis, robots and zombies. You can setup the game to randomize the starting territories or have the players select them at the beginning. After this each player will choose which territory to place their capital and then the proper game begins. At the start of each turn, players are granted troops and are allowed to place them on whichever territory they wish. The amount of troops given depends on how many territories that player holds among other bonuses, such as controlling an entire continent. The more troops you have on a territory, the greater your chance of victory will be. Once an attack is initiated, if you choose to watch the battle you'll see the dice roll out with some animated versions of your armies attacking each other. It's amusing for a while, but before long you'll find yourself using the fast-attack option to speed things up.

RISK: Factions does have a few new additions to the gameplay as well. Certain maps have special features, such as a missile silo or a dam, that when corresponding territories are controlled give that player a nice advantage. There are bonuses you can earn for meeting certain objectives, such as capturing a certain number of territories in a turn or controlling a certain continent. Completing these objectives can earn bonus perks such as additional troops at the start of each turn. In quick game mode the winner is determined by who can accomplish a certain amount of objectives first.

The biggest difference between the ruleset of the original game and this console port is that the player has quite a few opportunities to gain a distinct advantage over the opposition. The gameplay in RISK: Factions is good for what it is, so if you're a fan of turn-based strategy games or the original board game, it's a game that's worth a look. Unfortunately, the game would be removed from the Xbox Live Arcade store in 2014, making this a tough one to check out these days. This is considered by many to be superior to the RISK game that would come out for the Xbox One, though I haven't had the opportunity to check that one out so I can't say for myself.

Final Verdict: RISK: Factions is a fun port of the turn-based strategy board game. It has quite a few new additions while maintaining much of what made the original good to begin with.

Related Links:
Electronic Arts - Official Website
Stainless Games - Official Website
RISK: Factions - Metacritic
RISK: Factions - GameFAQs
RISK: Factions Achievement Guide
RISK: Factions - True Achievements

Walking Dead: The Complete Telltale Series (XBLA, 2012/Xbox One, 2014)

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series
Developed by Telltale Games
Released for XBLA (4/2012) Xbox One (10/2014)
Also on Android/iOS/Mac/Ouya/PC/PS3/PS4/Switch/Vita

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series is based on the hit television/comic series of the same name. While I definitely feel that the horror genre has been over-saturated with zombies in general, I'm always willing to spend some time on one that does something to set itself apart. In the case of the Walking Dead, the thing that got most of us really invested into the game was the character Clementine. You'll stumble across Clementine, a young girl, at the very beginning of the game. She's hiding out in her treehouse, hoping for her parents to come back home. You end up taking her along with you as your companion and honestly, unless you've got a cold heart, you'll end up caring very much for her as the story progresses. I'm not very familiar with the source material, having only seen the first season of the series and never read any of the comics, so I came into this title with a neutral stance and it doesn't matter as these characters were created originally for the game.

When the Walking Dead was originally released, it was done so in episodic format, with an episode releasing every other month. Personally, I don't like that big of a gap between gaming sessions, especially in a game so story driven. Being the kind of gamer who rarely pays full price for games anymore,  I waited for the entire game to be released and go on sale before playing it. At the beginning of each episode you receive a refresher on previous events though so it really wasn't a big deal if you played them as they came out. The X-Box One release contains the entire game from the get-go while you'll have to individually download the episodes if you're playing on the 360.

The Walking Dead features a graphic style similar to cel-shading, giving a comic book style to the visuals that works quite well. There are a few instances where the characters move a bit robotic, and it's a bit cheesy how the tears from a character look painted on, but for the most part the graphics look good. The zombies look pretty horrifying with lots of decay and there's a good variety in their designs. Of course, the zombies are just a sub-plot to the living who usually end up being their own worst enemy, as how it usually works out in zombie stories ever since Night of the Living Dead came out back in the late '60's. There's a good diversity of characters throughout the game, and there are several different outcomes depending on how you interact with them. The dialogue and voice acting is very well executed and the game does a good job of making it seem like your decisions hold real weight to them, which is important considering some of them are life and death scenarios. While the game does a good job making it seem like your choices are impactful, most of the major events in the game are fixed. There are some ways your choices will affect the story, it's just not as drastic as Telltale would like you to believe.

The first episode starts off with a bang, which is a must as this was the one that would draw you in. The introduction of Clementine is very well done and when the chapter ends you'll be anxious to see where the story goes from there. There are of course dips and dives throughout, with the middle section of the game dragging on a bit with some forgettable parts, but for the most part the story is well done and often to the point. The finale in chapter five is quite tragic and will stir some emotions in players who got invested in the game. I won't provide much for details because if you somehow haven't played the Walking Dead I'm not going to be the one to spoil it for you. There was also a bonus episode, 400 Days, that tells five different stories of survivors and then connects the dots at the end. It's not bad and is worth a look, but the stories are too short to accomplish much.

There's not a whole lot of gameplay involved in the Walking Dead, and when there is it usually involves walking around a small area and using the cursor to highlight/interact with people/objects. It's really one of those games you need to be in the mood to do a lot of observing, as the game will frequently take control away from the player for a dialogue or action scene. The developers did a good job of giving the player control at key spots, and it is possible to die if you don't react fast enough, though none of it is really difficult and you'll come back from a recent checkpoint. It's definitely a game that will be appreciated by those who like some good storytelling, but players requiring constant interaction in their video games may be put off.

In the X-Box 360 version of The Walking Dead I was able to complete the game without any glitches, which is bit surprising in retrospect considering how much trouble I've had with certain Telltale Games products in the past. It should be noted that I downloaded the game so all my experience is based on the digital version. I've read there are some issues with retail disc copy of the game, so that's something to consider if you're intending to play the game on your 360, particularly if you have one of the systems with a 4 GB hard drive. The X-Box One version contains much more acceptable load times and some slightly improved visuals. I only ran into one glitch on the One, where I would suddenly die for no reason at a certain point even upon restart, but using the game's rewind feature I was able to start the chapter over and finish it out.

Overall, the Walking Dead tells a gripping story of survival and is definitely worth visiting at least once for a playthrough. The game allows you to make some heavy decisions and there are some variations on the story based on your choices, which can provide a little replay incentive to go back and try some other options. Telltale Games did a great job creating their own story based on the source material and the game would be a smash hit for the company, and of course they would eventually follow up with a sequel...

Final Verdict: The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series is an excellent story-driven game, which has various outcomes based on your decisions. If you've somehow managed to not play this game, it's definitely worth a look.

Purchase Links:
Buy Walking Dead (Xbox One Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Walking Dead (Xbox 360 Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Search Walking Dead (Xbox One Disc) - eBay
Search Walking Dead (Xbox 360 Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Point & Click Adventures - Xbox Overview
The Walking Dead - Metacritic
The Walking Dead on Xbox 360 - GameFAQs
The Walking Dead on Xbox One - GameFAQs
The Walking Dead Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
The Walking Dead - True Achievements

Article | X-Box One = One Big Letdown?

Click here for the article

One look at the comments section of any YouTube video featuring modern gaming consoles would have you think the common consensus is that the X-Box One flat-out sucks. While I don't think the system is near as bad as people make it out to be, it's definitely not without its share of flaws. Let's delve into what it is about the X-Box One that's so disappointing (much of this applies to this console generation as a whole and are not all exclusive issues to the One).

Dead by Daylight (Xbox One, 2017)

Dead by Daylight
Developed by Behaviour Interactive
Published by Starbreeze & 505 Games
Released for Xbox One (6/2017)
Also on PC & PlayStation 4

Dead by Daylight is a game I really wanted to like. It's a multiplayer title that pits four survivors against one ruthless killer. On the mission I played, the survivors were tasked with starting up several generators, which I'm assuming if we'd succeeded we would have escaped alive. Unfortunately, the killer took us down one-by-one, despite all of our best efforts to help each other out. After losing while playing as a survivor, I was ready to try my hand as the killer. Here's where the major issues with this title begin, as the game froze while loading the match. I figured maybe it was just a freak occurrence, so I restarted the game and attempted to join another game as the killer, only to have the game freeze on the loading screen once again. Tried a hard reboot of the system in order to clear the memory cache, still froze at the loading screen. Deleted and re-installed the game, still froze at the killer loading screen. The fact that this game was cleared for release absolutely blows my mind! Half of the game doesn't even work and it's the half that most gamers would be interested in playing.

The fact that the game has two publishers involved makes it even more confusing and makes me wonder if anybody even play-tested the X-Box version of this port! It looks like it could be a fun game if it functions properly on PC or PlayStation 4, but I recommend to stay far away from the Xbox One version. It also makes me wonder why Microsoft is letting broken games like this make it to the store. I always liked Starbreeze as a developer but this doesn't bode well for the efforts as a publisher. It was well after two months since the game had been released when I tried to play it, and if the developers can't get their product even halfway working by that point then perhaps they should try making a more simple type of game. If you've somehow managed to play as the villain on the Xbox One port of Dead by Daylight, leave a comment below as I'm interested in hearing if this ever gets fixed.

Final Verdict: Dead by Daylight is a broken product that should have never made it to the digital store in this shape. Don't waste your money on this one!

Related Links:
Dead by Daylight - GameFAQs
Behaviour Interactive - Official Site
Starbreeze Studios - Official Site
505 Games - Official Site
Dead by Daylight - Microsoft Store

Cancelled X-Box One Games

Click here for the article!

Just a quick look at a handful of titles that were slated for release on the X-Box One but were cancelled before development was complete. There are some big ones in here, including console exclusives from Platinum Games and Obsidian Entertainment, two high-profile companies whose games would have greatly benefited Microsoft in their battle with Sony. Click the above link and check it out!

JUJU (Xbox 360, 2014)

JUJU (Xbox 360, 2014)

Journey with the shaman panda, Juju, and his lizard sidekick, Peyo, as they embark upon a dangerous and mystical journey to save Juju's father and the world from an ancient evil. Run, bounce, chant, and battle humongous bosses with a friendor family member in this beautifully animated, lighthearted adventure.

Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage (XBLA, 2012)

Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
Developed by M2
Published by Sega
Released for XBLA (5/2012)
Backwards Compatible with Xbox One

The Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage contains all three of the titles that were released for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Streets of Rage 2 was released previously on the 360 by itself on XBLA, but was pulled from the marketplace as Sega put the Sega Vintage Collection out. The entire trilogy is also  available on the retail title from Sega, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, however there is one reason in particular this version may still be of interest even if you already own the disc or the original cartridges. Read on and we'll get to that, but let's start with a look at the first game...

The original Streets of Rage, released way back in 1991 and while it hasn't aged quite as well as its sequels but is still a respectable beat 'em up. Everything is a bit simple, with your character having just a basic attack combo, jump attack, throw and a special maneuver. When being thrown, you can press up and jump to land on your feet. You also have a move to break out of a hold if grabbed from behind. The graphics are detailed, but the sprites are a bit smaller than the later games. The enemies don't display health bars except for the bosses. There are three fighters to select from and the character designs are all well done, despite the fact that Axel is pretty much a blatant copy of Cody from Final Fight. The balance between the three characters is nice, with you standard slow/strong, fast/weak and balanced character traits. The game features eight levels and there's a decent amount of variety in locations. The level designs are very well done for the most part, with the city, beachfront and ship stages being standouts. It does drag a little towards the end with the somewhat boring factory and elevator stages, but they're short enough that it's not that big of a problem. Overall, the first game is still solid and is still a very playable beat 'em up.

Streets of Rage II would release the following year in 1992 and improves vastly upon its predecessor. One of the characters from the original has been omitted, but you have two new ones for a total of four selectable fighters. The sprites are all bigger and more detailed this time around, in addition to more interesting backdrops to beat up thugs in front of. All of the characters have two unique super moves that will deplete a bit of your health bar with each use in addition to a special move. While the special moves make the game a bit easier than your typical beat 'em up of the time, it doesn't make the game any less fun for it, especially in two-player mode with a friend. Streets of Rage II is considered by most to the finest of the trilogy, and I have a hard time arguing against that.

One of the many nice features of this compilation is that you are able to select the region for each cart, allowing you to play the highly-coveted Japanese Bare Knuckle III, which is universally accepted to be a far superior game to the butchered Western port that was Streets of Rage 3. For some reason Streets of Rage 3 was one of those games that Sega decided to tweak the difficulty when porting it to the West, making the game unreasonably difficult for a beat 'em up with less health pickups, faster enemies and a gimped special move system, just to name a few of the changes. The Japanese version of the game has a difficulty more on par with the second game, and is overall a much less frustrating game to play because of this. Some of the boss battles are bit cheap to the point of not being very fun to play, but overall the third entry is still a very good game and does sport some improvements. The action is a bit faster overall, which definitely helps with the pacing of the game, and the new special system is very different, boosting your power the longer you can stay alive and rack up a high score.

All three games feature two-player simultaneous action, with both local and online support making it easy to play with buddies near and far. The emulation is spot-on as far as I could tell and I didn't notice anything with audio or visuals looking off. The options menu is plentiful, allowing you to stretch the image to fill the screen or keep the aspect ration, smooth the pixels or add scan lines. There's a jukebox available in the settings menu as well, which is a good thing when you have a game with a soundtrack as good as these games. Often cited as composer Yuzo Koshiro's finest work, the Streets of Rage trilogy has definitely produced some of the best music I've heard from the Sega Genesis sound chips! The first and third games have alternate endings, adding a little incentive to go back and beat it again. The game also has very generous save states, allowing you to save & load the game at anytime. Overall, this is a great collection of beat 'em up classics and I'd recommend anybody who likes video games to play them if you haven't yet!

Final Verdict: A trilogy of some of the most iconic beat 'em up titles ever created, Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage is worth the download for beat 'em up fans, whether revisiting the series or playing it for the first time!

Related Links:
Buy Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage - Xbox Marketplace
Beat 'em Ups - Xbox Overview
Sega - Official Site
M2 - Official Site
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage -  Metacritic
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage - GameFAQs
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage - True Achievements

Trine 2 (XBLA, 2011)

Trine 2
Developed by Frozenbyte, Inc.
Published by Atlus
Released for XBLA (12/2011)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS3/WiiU
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Trine 2 is an interesting hybrid of puzzle/platformer/action that actually works quite well. Similar to The Lost Vikings (originally released for the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis in 1992), you have three characters at your disposal each with different abilities, and you'll have to use their abilities combined to overcome the various puzzles you'll encounter throughout. One of the characters uses magic to levitate objects, one can fire arrows and the other uses melee attacks with his sword. In single player mode, you can switch between the three characters on the fly, and the game also supports up to three players local or online. I wasn't able to find any players online in my time with the game but I could see how this would be a fun title with three players. The game controls like a 2D platformer, but features fully-rendered 3D environments. The graphics are quite beautiful, with lush details and vibrant colors all over the place. Controlling the characters is simple, the jumping is bit floaty but none of the platforming is demanding enough to make it much of a problem. The problem-solving aspect of the game is very well done, with multiple ways to get past many of the sections. The game features twenty levels and when coupled with the fact the game features co-op play makes Trine 2 a pretty sweet package, especially for those who like solving puzzles.

The original Trine was released for PC and PlayStation 3 in 2009, later being ported also to Mac & Linux operating systems and would later see a re-release titled Trine: Enchanted Edition, as well as Trine 3, neither of which would see a release to an X-Box system. Considering how many other platforms the original and third entries were released on, it's a bit odd that these weren't ported over to the Xbox One as I believe the sales would have easily exceeded whatever profits were gained from the Wii U release.

Final Verdict: Trine 2 is a fun 2.5D puzzle-platform-action game that features local or online co-op for up to three players. Recommended for those who enjoy a good puzzle to solve!

External Links:
Buy Trine 2 - Xbox Marketplace
Frozenbyte Inc - Official Website
Atlus - Official Website

qrth-phyl (XBLIG, 2012)

qrth-phyl
Developed by hermitgames
Released for XBLIG (9/2012)
Also on PC

qrth-phyl is a strange 3D version of snake (the game that was always included with old cellphones) combined with dot-munching mechanics of old classics like Pac-Man. Levels will switch between a 2D plane and full open 3D environments. On the 2D stages, you'll be able to go off the edge and around to the other side of the board. Once you've finished the level you'll go into a hole in the center which will then take you to a 3D level where the same rules apply (don't run into yourself) but you can freely move in all directions. The 3D visuals look nice, on par with the other efforts from the developer. The camera can be a bit problematic on some of the 3D stages as sometimes your snake can obstruct your view. Power-ups can be picked up, including one that turns all of your segments into dots you can munch up for points. One strike against the game is that even though it does keep track of your score, there is no high score table anywhere to be found, which would've provided further incentive to come back to the game. Levels are procedurally-generated so this does help the game feel a bit different each time you play. qrth-phyl is definitely an unique take on the classic "snake" games and is worth a look for anybody who wants to see the genre make the jump into 3D.

Final Verdict: If you take gameplay elements from the "snake" games and mix in some dot-munching from old maze games, you end with qrth-phyl. Definitely a unique title.

radiangames Ballistic (XBLIG, 2011)

radiangames Ballistic
Developed by Radiangames
Released for XBLIG (1/2011)
Also on iOS/Macintosh/Ouya/PC

radiangames Ballistic is the seventh and final release from the developer on XBLIG. Ballistic plays like your traditional arena twin-stick shooter. The main game features an infinite number of waves filled with frenetic blasting action. If you've played any of Radiangames previous entries then the presentation will be familiar. The menu designs, sounds and in-game graphics are very consistent throughout the whole series. The enemy design is definitely the weakest aspect of the game, as you'll be shooting at circular enemies of varying shapes and colors. Once the shooting action begins you'll hardly have time to care about what you're shooting and the core gameplay delivers the goods in Ballistic.

The controls are extremely responsive and you're given a few weapons you can choose from, plus a power-shot modifier activated by hold the right trigger. This shot is limited so you'll want to save it for when you really need it. Every ten rounds, you're given another upgrade point which you can use to power-up one of nine different enhancements to your ship. In addition to the waves mode, there are also five challenges where you have a time limit to rack up your highest possible score. This title supports two-players and is a good time, but of course multiplayer is local only. radiangames Ballistic gives you a lot of bang for your buck and is a very polished twin-stick shooter.

Final Verdict: radiangames Ballistic is an excellent twin-stick shooter featuring excellent controls and some decent replay value.

Weapon of Choice (XBLIG, 2008)

Weapon of Choice
Developed by Mommy's Best Games
Released for XBLIG (11/2008)
Also on PC

Weapon of Choice was the first release from Mommy's Best Games and it's a 2D run & gunner. The graphics consist of high-res detailed art and it looks fantastic, easily one of the best looking XBLIG titles of its time. There are three characters to select from at the start, each equipped with a different primary weapon. You're given a quick rundown on the controls and allowed to try them out after selecting your character. The first thing I noticed when dropped into the game was that the frame-rate is not the smoothest and everything just seems to move a bit clunky. I warmed up to it quick, but at first it is a bit jarring. The controls work well and the everything is quite responsive despite the frame-rate issue. 

The enemy designs are absolutely nuts and you'll find yourself wanting to keep playing just to see what insanity lies in store for the next boss battle. Levels branch off at the end allowing you to see different levels on each playthrough and contains four different endings, adding some nice replay value. There's also a feature called death-brushing, where time will slow down if you're close to hitting something fatal allowing you a chance to save yourself, making this a friendly experience for those new to the run & gun genre. Two-player simultaneous action is available locally. For more experienced players, there are six varying degrees of difficulty to ensure you feel challenged. Weapon of Choice is a solid first effort from Mommy's Best Games, and would plant the seeds for their future run & gun title Serious Sam: Double D which plays quite similar.

Final Verdict: Weapon of Choice is a crazy 2D run & gun that will mostly cater to fans of the genre but is quite accessible to novice players as well.

Star Crisis (XBLIG, 2010)

Star Crisis
Developed by Excalibur Studios
Released for XBLIG (8/2010)

Star Crisis is a horizontal shmup released exclusively for XBLIG. Rather than piloting a ship like the majority of these types of shooters, in this game you play as an astronaut, floating about in space. The big difference in gameplay here is that your character is constantly floating downwards, and the player must use the thrusters to keep afloat, similar to Lunar Lander. This makes something as simple as lining up your shots or grabbing a power-up a lot harder than your typical shmup. The title features retro-styled pixel graphics and they are well above-average. The chiptune music on the first level was quite catchy. After playing through the trial for Star Crisis, I was impressed by the overall look of the game however I found myself really wishing the game had a standard control scheme for the movement as I just really couldn't get a feel for the thrusters in a horizontal shooter like this one. Star Crisis has a neat idea that just didn't necessarily translate to additional fun.

Final Verdict: Star Crisis is a horizontal shmup where you must thrust to move about. Those who love the thruster controls of Lunar Lander might enjoy this one.

Unholy Heights (XBLIG, 2013)

Unholy Heights
Developed by chiclo
Released for XBLIG (9/2013)
Also on 3DS, PC & PlayStation 4

Unholy Heights is an interesting hybrid of apartment management and tower defense. Your tenants will consist of various cutely designed monsters. As the building manager (also the devil), you'll need to keep an eye on the satisfaction level of your tenants and do whatever you can to keep them happy. You'll be able to expand your building so you can have more rooms for additional tenants as well. For a big cash bonus, you can take on quests. The quest I saw while playing the trial involved two heroes, each attacking separately, show up to attack you. You character lacks the ability to attack himself, however you can summon your tenants to do the fighting for you. Each different type of monster has an attack type specific to them, such as melee or long-range attacks. The graphics are well-drawn high-res sprites and it's all very easy on the eyes. Unholy Heights is recommended to anybody who loves the idea of an apartment management and tower defense hybrid, as it's pretty well executed here. The release for PlayStation 4 has trophies and the PC release for Steam has achievement support, so if you have those platforms available you may want to buy the game there.

Final Verdict: Unholy Heights is a unique blend of managing an apartment complex and tower defense that's easy to play and great at killing time.

Cthulhu Saves the World (XBLIG, 2010)

Cthulhu Saves the World
Developed by Zeboyd Games
Released for XBLIG (12/2010)
Also on Android, iOS, Macintosh & PC

Cthulhu Saves the World is a tribute to old-school JRPGs and is similar to their previous effort, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, but the game overall has a bit more polish this time. The overall graphics have been improved and the battle screens look much better in this title. The main quest will last you rougly 6-10 hours, which is an incredible value for a game that's selling for a dollar. You now have save notebooks that allow you to save whenever you want as opposed to having designated save areas in their previous game. Also, there are 1ups available that will let you retry a battle if you fail. There are seven playable characters, one of them being Cthulhu from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. The humor from Breath of Death VII is still intact and the character interactions are well written. There are multiple difficulties and post-game modes for some extra replay value for those who want more after finishing the main quest. Cthulhu Saves the World retailed for $3 when it came out, but the developer has since dropped the price to $1 making this one a must-buy for old-school RPG fans!

Final Verdict: Cthulhu Saves the World is an excellent tribute to old-school JRPGs that any fan of the genre should give a look.