Yay!

Radiangames Crossfire - 240 MS points. Radiangames Crossfire might just be the best arcade style game on the 360 yet. The name Crossfire isn't a reference to the 90's marble launching board game, but instead a reference to your ability to cross the playfield from the top to the bottom of the screen. Enemies float back and forth in the center with certain enemies reacting to you in different ways. Some enemies will alternate between aiming at the floor or ceiling while others will follow the player's movements. As the game progresses, new enemies are introduced that mix up the gameplay even more by unleashing a wave of bullets upon destruction, reflecting your own bullets, and even shielding any nearby enemies. Each enemy destroyed results in a spray of pixels that, when collected, allow you to unleash a more powerful spread shot for a short time. Everything about the gameplay seems balanced to the point of perfection, right down to the time it takes to respawn after losing a life. It's fast-paced, challenging, and most importantly, fun. Radiangames Crossfire is this year's Pac Man Championship Edition.

Lumi - 400 MS points. Lumi is a game about an adorable cat traversing nine gorgeously painted levels to restore light to the world. And though Lumi can run and jump like any conventional platformer character, you'll find the main mode of transportation revolves around alternating magnetic polarities. Yeah, I bet you didn't see that one coming. Using the 360's shoulder triggers, you can attract Lumi toward either red or blue nodes around the world. Once attracted to a node, Lumi will orbit it until you release the trigger, sending Lumi flying. Each polarity, red and blue, also pushes you away from its opposite, allowing you to get a little extra boost in Lumi's jumps. Did I mention that the world is overrun by darkness? Scattered throughout each level are pieces of light to collect, which help to restore light to the world when deposited into certain plants. As you deposit more pieces of light, the entire level begins to glow, creating a tremendous emotionally uplifting feeling that is reminiscent of the effect from games like Okami, Flower, and Kaleidoscope. Lumi isn't a perfect game, running a bit on the short side and with an odd difficulty spike about halfway through (the fourth level is far more frustrating than it should be). Even with those issues, I absolutely adored Lumi and would not hesitate in urging anyone with even the faintest shred of emotion to give it a try. There's a reason that Lumi came out of last year's Dream Build Play competition as the winner. On the Xbox Live marketplace, compared to either indie or XBLA games, Lumi truly shines.

Aphelion - 240 MS points. It's rare that an RPG comes along in the Xbox indie game marketplace, so when one does I tend to stand up and take notice. Aphelion is a sci-fi RPG, taking place in a future of colonized planets and alien invaders. You play as Savion, a soldier who, even in a future full of robots and laser guns, insists on using a sword. And he'll be using that sword a lot in the game's turn-based battle system. The battle system isn't too out of the ordinary as far as turn-based RPGs go, so RPG newcomers will learn quickly and veterans should have no trouble getting used to it. The one caveat that sets Apehlion's battle system apart is how the turn order plays into battles. Characters get their turns in battle according to their speed stat, called initiative in Apehlion, and if their initiative is significantly higher then that turn will allow them to attack twice in a single turn. This can make the battles quite easy for most of the game depending on how you allocate your character's stats. Speaking of allocating stats, there are a ton of options for how to customize your character that range from new special attacks to simple stat boosts, and even passive abilities that effect your whole party like regenerating health. There is also a robust crafting system for creating more powerful weapons from items found throughout your adventure. Aphelion is really packed to the brim and feels like a full-fledged retail RPG. However, this also presents a problem for Aphelion. While I feel that it is probably unfair to criticize a $3 game with "5+ hours" of content (it took me 9 hours to complete the adventure), that's exactly what I'm going to do. See, Aphelion is actually the episode one of a story that will hopefully be continued in many more episodes to come. Unfortunately, that means that this game's story cuts off just when things are getting interesting, like it's only the first disc of a 4 disc game. And though it may seem like I'm being overly negative in this review, I can't wait until episode 2 is released. There is a high level of polish throughout Aphelion, from the large detailed characters to excellent soundtrack and small touches like data files you can find to help flesh out the world and draw you in. Aphelion has me hooked, and is one of the few RPGs where I'm actually going to use the New Game+ feature to play through multiple times.

Decay - Part 2 - 240 MS points. Decay Part 1 was a surprisingly good horror adventure game, and Part 2 doesn't disappoint in continuing that story. Like the first game, Decay Part 2 plays out as a point-and-click adventure game with a deeply haunting atmosphere and some of the more mature themes found in a videogame. It's longer than the first game, though that may be more a function of the more challenging puzzles that are found in Part 2. Most importantly though, Part 2 shows that this developer was serious about supporting an episodic game to completion, and with that knowledge I can without any doubt say that Decay Part 2, and Part 1, are well worth checking out for horror fans.

Jurassic - 240 MS points. Blending game genres seems to be the "in" thing right now, which leads to some interesting games. Jurassic is one such game that makes good use of it's genre bending to produce a game that is one part puzzler, and one part strategy game. It's the age old struggle of cave men versus dinosaurs, with the game letting you take either side across 35 stages. On the left side of the screen is your falling block puzzle where you need to match colored rocks to clear them from the board. Cleared rocks in the puzzle become your soldiers in the strategy game taking place on the right side of the screen, with strings of four or more rocks producing stronger units. The strategy portion plays out with several lanes that the enemies will come from, and you choosing which lane to deploy soldiers to with the right analog stick. It's not a particularly complex strategy game, which helps to keep the game from feeling cluttered as you juggle both clearing colored rocks and deploying units to defend and attack. As a point of reference, imagine if Plants vs Zombies and Puyo Puyo had a baby. This is all without mentioning the 2 player versus mode and a handful of surprisingly well made minigames. Puzzle and strategy fans alike should definitely give Jurassic a try.

Sleepwalker - 80 MS points. Sleepwalker tells the misadventures of a man who can't seem to wake up. If you let him, he'll continue walking blindly into any danger, with your only control over him being the ability to make him change direction. This limited control though is enough to guide him through the game's physics-based obstacle course levels, and have a lot of fun while doing it. It's a short game, but the levels are very well designed and definitely worth experiencing for as long as it lasts.

Leximo - 80 MS points. Games that combine Scrabble and falling-blocks puzzles have been on the rise as of late, and thankfully Leximo shows that there's still plenty of room for innovation in falling letter games. Letters fall individually into a hexagonal grid, allowing you to spell words vertically, horizontally, or on any diagonal. Once you've spelled a word on the board you can press a button to clear it, but if you want to shoot for the high score leaderboards then you might want to hold back. When you press the button to clear completed words from the board, it clears all completed words from the board. This can create some huge combos if you plan it right, especially when you factor in that the same letter can be used in multiple words. Of course, this opens the game up to the possibility of a player randomly placing letters and getting a giant combo with little effort, so some balance had to be put into the game. And to help add some order to the game, objectives are handed to the player three at a time. The player may be asked to spell a specific word, or to spell a certain number of four letter words, or spell a word backwards that uses a G, or any number of other tasks. So while it's possible to use random placement to get by in Leximo, you'll need careful planning to complete objectives to really excel.

Ay?

Comet! - 80 MS points. Comet! is an arcade puzzle game with one of the most unique control schemes I've seen in a while. You control a flying saucer collecting colored comets that fall from the sky. Sounds simple enough, but the way you control the flying saucer adds whole new layers of depth. Instead of using the analog stick or D-pad to move around, you simply press one of the face buttons on the 360 controller and your ship flies toward the closest comet of that color. If there are any other comets between you and whichever color you press, then you'll also collect those along the way. What makes this game tricky is that you'll be tasked with a certain color sequence to collect, so you'll need to maneuver your ship and dodge unwanted comets with this bizarre control scheme. If you're familiar with the 360 controller, and know instinctively which color corresponds with which button, then it's possible to get into a zen-like groove while playing Comet. But for those gamers who don't automatically think A for green and X for blue, the learning curve might be a bit too steep.

7strains: The Infectious - 80 MS points. 7strains is an multiplayer action game from a top-down perspective with randomly generated levels. Viruses pop up and infect the level, and your only way of fighting back is to throw rocks at them. Rocks must be collected from around the level, and you can only hold 5 at a time, making things very difficult if you don't have other players with you. Aiming and throwing rocks can also be difficult since it requires you to stop moving, leaving you wide open to viral attack. As the game progresses, new virus types are introduced, each with their own behavior to keep the gameplay exciting and fresh. Unfortunately, due to the game's difficulty I fear that most players won't see many of those interesting enemies from later in the game unless they're playing with friends.

UFO Commando - 240 MS points. UFO Commando is a side-scrolling action game that lets you control a range of vehicles, including UFOs. The goal is to pilot your UFO, tank, bat suit, or other vehicle to the enemy's base and destroy it, then return to your own base safely. The controls are spot on, and this game almost made the cut for the Yay category this week, but it was not meant to be. Many of the levels feel like exact copies of eachother, with simply more enemies added. With a little more level variety, UFO Commando would have been very easy to recommend. However, even in its current form its still well worth checking out.

Stack of Bricks - 240 MS points. It's been a few weeks since the last Breakout clone hit the Xbox indie marketplace, so I suppose it's about time for another one. Stack of Bricks has a nice 3D presentation to it, though the gameplay is entirely familiar if you've played any of the dozens of other Breakout clones on the service. Stack of Bricks also includes a Pong clone as a bonus.

Nay :(

Bomb's Away - 80 MS points. Based on the Atari 2600 game Kaboom, Bomb's Away has you catching bombs that an alien throws from the roof of buildings. There are power-ups to collect, like a speed boost to more easily collect bombs or the ability to detonate bombs in midair, if you become overwhelmed. But even with the power-ups, there's just not a lot going on in Bomb's Away with the bombs and characters moving slowly and gameplay that basically consists of moving back and forth without any real variation.

Helico Hero - 240 MS points. Helico Hero puts you in control of a rescue helicopter bringing people from the roofs of buildings to the hospital. The helicopter controls are extremely loose though, and make piloting the helicopter a chore. It's apparent that the developer was going for a more realistic feel to the helicopter controls, but there's a fine line between realism and fun.

MetaElectric Guitar - 80 MS points. MetaElectric Guitar lets you play a wide range of guitar sounds on your 360. The interface isn't very intuitive though, and it doesn't seem to let you record your jam sessions or play with friends, which other similar indie apps have no trouble with.

MusicNow! - 80 MS points. MusicNow! is and alternative way to play your music that is stored on your Xbox 360 hard drive. It claims to make navigating your music library easier and quicker than ever, but I found the interface far more clunky and cumbersome than the standard 360 media player.

Updated Games

10 Seconds or Less
Newton Vs The Horde
Bumblicity
MyBand
Avatar Paintball
BrainBox360 (Physics Edition)
Concept Car Series 2010
Avatar Insane Race 3D
Muvizzle
Strategy Soccer
Drum Studio - added support for velocity sensitive drum kits