Xbox Live Community Watch 4/10/09

Another round of community games graces the Xbox Live marketplace bringing you a weekly helping of indie gaming goodness. Ok, so it isn't always good, but this week saw the release of some awesome new ideas and interesting twists on classic games that are worth your attention.

Yay

• Halfbrick Blast Off - 400 MS points. In Halfbrick Blast Off you must guide a rocket ship to collect floating astronauts and escaping through the warpgate at the end of the level. Planets will get in your way, and with limited fuel you need to take advantage of their gravitational field to slingshot your ship around the level. It has great physics puzzles and a level of professional polish seldom seen from these XNA games.
• Hieronymus Bash - 200 MS points. It's Angles vs Devils dodgeball in this excellent multiplayer game. Hit an opponent three times and your next shot will be a killer shot. But watch out, because with each successful hit your character grows bigger making you an easy target. A very well balanced game, just make sure you have someone else to play it with since there is no single player mode at all.
• A Bomb's Way - 200 MS poinst. An arcade style game where you guide a bomb around a stage collecting clocks. Collecting more clocks extends the bomb's fuse, which gives you more time to collect more clocks. You can also rotate the entire stage on its side to help navigate the levels, giving this community game a surprising level of depth.
• Break In - 200 MS points. A Breakout clone with a twist, instead of bouncing a ball to destroy blocks, you need to use the ball to make them appear. Later on sprites that don't quite seem to fit start appearing, like race cars and dragons, and you may start to wonder exactly what is going on in this game. But that's half of the experience in this bizarre, creative, and most of all fun videogame amalgamation.

Ay?

• Awesome Tank - 400 MS points. You control a tank making your way through a maze destroying every other tank in your way. Single player mode isn't much to write home about, but multiplayer has a fun Bomberman feel to it. The multiplayer also supports Xbox Live, which is a nice bonus, although I haven't been able to find anyone else online to play it with yet.
• MothBallz - 200 MS points. Shoot balls out of a cannon to kill moths that swarm around light bulbs, without hitting the light bulbs themselves. There are also 14 different balls that can be unlocked - such as beach balls, basketballs, and tiny bouncy balls - each with its own size and physics so it's important to choose the right ball for the right situation.

Nay

• Easter Bunneh - 400 MS points. A very basic Easter egg decorating game. The most fun part is definitely choosing the over-the-top method for destroying your egg, ranging from a hammer or chainsaw to a laser gun. It's also worth a trial download if only for the amazingly epic introduction for the game, but unfortunately these factors can't save the fact that decorating the virtual egg just isn't all that fun.
• Charlie's Blast Factory - 400 MS points. Hey look, it's Bubble Bobble. Yup, Charlie's Blast Factory is a poor man's Bubble Bobble clone. The controls are a bit looser than they should be, but not enough to take away from the fact that Bubble Bobble is still a really fun game. But the fact that the real deal is available for the same price on Wii makes this a hard sell.