Yay

Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess - 240 MS points. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess was first released as a PSP/PSN Mini a few months back and instantly become one of the top Minis available. Now it brings its parody and charm to the Xbox 360 as an Xbox indie game, and is every bit as wonderful as the original. You play as the Duke, a vampire whose princess was stolen by monsters, probably. He's not quite sure, but lack of evidence be damned as he fights every monster he comes across to find her. Each monster you encounter tries to run, so the Duke must climb tower and double jump into the monster three times to take it down. If you just play the game through, it'll all be over pretty fast. You'll also be missing out on a lot of the game's fun and levels of depth. For starters, each platform you land on adds to your combo score, with your combo set back to zero again if you land on a platform you've already used. The only way to get silver and gold medals on each of the levels is by perfecting your combo score, adding a lot of replay value for completionists. You're also rewarded with more elaborate cutscenes at the end of a level if you have a high enough combo, as well as humorous bios to unlock for each of the monsters and a slew of trophies. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess is easily one of the most polished and fun games you'll find on the Xbox indie channel, and is an easy title to recommend. Probably.

Gravitron360 - 80 MS points. Though it may borrow the popular neon-retro look of games like Geometry Wars, Gravitron360 is closer to games like PixelJunk Shooter than a twin-stick shooter. At it's most basic, Gravitron360 has you piloting your small ship to destroy a planet's reactor and escape before the whole plays blows. Of course, even on the early levels it's never that simple, as you'll also be blasting enemy turrets, rescuing passengers, and navigating twisting caverns. As the game's title suggests, gravity effects all aspects of the game as your ship will slowly drift toward the planet if left alone, which doesn't always mean falling down. You can also use this loose interpretation of gravity to your advantage by landing on any flat surface, whether it be horizontal, vertical, or any odd angle, so long as your ship's landing gear is facing toward that surface. There are two control options, so you can either play with the traditional Asteroids style of pressing left and right to rotate your ship, or you can opt for a more modern control scheme where your ship points wherever you aim the left stick. As a gamer who absolutely hates the rotation controls many games force on you, the alternate control scheme is a huge plus for the game. Gravitron360 has a slower pace than most of the indie shooters I come across, but that also allows the gameplay to be more thoughtful and deliberate, which for many gamers out there will be a welcome breath of fresh air.

Codex - 240 MS points. Codex is a puzzle game where you slide tiles to match the tile layout given in the top right corner of the screen. There's a goal number of moves to complete each level in, but it's usually some ridiculously low number that I honestly don't see how it's possible to attain. But I know that it must be possible, and that's what keeps me coming back to Codex time and time again. There is a limited number of moves that you can use on each level, which often for me leads to getting frustrated and giving up, but when I later come back to the game and solve one of those particularly challenging puzzles the feeling of accomplishment is that much greater. Most puzzle games let you mostly zone out as you get into a zen-like groove. Codex isn't anything like that, and will genuinely challenge you each step of the way. But with each challenge there is an even greater feeling of accomplishment, which is what makes Codex truly special to play.

Magnetic Wars - 80 MS points. There's no question that there are a lot of twin-stick shooters on the 360, and I usually give them a hard time in these indie reviews. But don't blame me; blame games like Magnetic Wars that help to evolve the genre in new and fun ways that generic shooters just can't live up to. The gimmick for Magnetic Wars is the polarity system, allowing you to surround your ship with either a blue or orange aura to repel enemy fire of the same color. However, this also attracts fire of the opposing color, which adds a level of frantic energy to the game when swarms of both colors are on screen together. There are only a handful of levels to play through, but each one is quite long and culminates in a challenging boss battle. There are also multiple difficulty levels to conquer for added replay value, which change up the game in more ways than simply making your ship take more damage from each shot. Magnetic Wars is easy to recommend for shooter fans looking for something new.

Ay?

Jump'n Bounce - 80 MS points. Jump'n Bounce is a platformer where you play as a bouncing ball collecting points, avoiding enemies, and making your way to the exit. The emphasis there is on the bouncing, which adds a new challenge to the game. To help you navigate your way through the game you can press A in midair to perform a double jump, or B to come crashing down to break certain cracked blocks. All of the levels take place on a single screen. On the one hand, that means that you can see the whole level and plan your route accordingly. On the other hand, it also means that all of the sprites are pretty small. I wouldn't recommend even trying this game if you don't have an HD screen to play it on, and even then some of the smaller enemies might be hard to make out. But if you have an HD setup then Jump'n Bounce is an above average platformer with some truly creative level designs to take advantage of the bouncing controls.

Avatar Orbitroid - 80 MS points. Avatar Orbitroid is a game that I would normally hate. Not because it's a bad game, it's actually quite a good one, but because it's a direct copy of the game Orbitroid already released on the 360 by the same developer. All that has changed is that the word Avatar is added to the title and that you'll see your Avatar in the game. Normally, I hate this kind of double dipping by releasing the game twice, but the addition of Avatars actually improves on the original game. One of my few gripes with the original Orbitroid was that the space man you controlled was too small, which has now been fixed by putting the much larger Avatar in the cockpit. The Avatars do look slightly out of place against the fantastically detailed 3D levels of planet cracking gameplay, but it's a small price to pay for being able to more easily see your character to dodge incoming fire.

G! - 80 MS points. G! is a game of avoidance. You're in space and need to avoid the gravity-bending black holes that frequently pop up. You have your own gravity manipulation powers to repel objects close to you, but its effectiveness is limited once you're within a black hole's reach. You get points by using your gravity push to knock black holes and comets into each other. Comets can be dangerous though, because when a comet hits a black hole the hole grows both in size and power, making it tougher to avoid.

THE ZOMBIE SHOTGUN MASSACRE - 80 MS points. Honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to make a game like this for Xbox indie games. Zombies and girls in bikinis with shotguns. Oh, and you also collect trading cards of anime girls in suggestive poses. I believe gratuitous would be the right word to describe it. It turns out that the gameplay is actually decent, though a seeming lack of power-ups or alternate weapons means that there isn't a whole lot of gameplay variety .

Bloop! - 80 MS points. Bloop is the surprisingly fun combination of soccer and Bust-A-Move. It's a two player game, with each player controlling an oddly adorable creature that shoots bubbles from its mouth. By shooting and matching same-colored bubbles, your goal is to destroy the rock blocking your opponent's goal and then crawl inside. To add to the game's competitive nature, you can also shoot bubbles, as well as small rocks around the playfield, at your opponent to temporarily stun them. It's a fun game, but make sure you have another person to play with, because it's significantly better to play against a live opponent than the game's AI.

Fish Squid Time Machine - 80 MS points. Fish Squid Time Machine is a game made as part of indie kombat: a competition for bragging rights that pits two indie developers against each other to each create a game that combines both developers' graphics and gameplay styles. Fish Squid Time Machine is the entry from developer Farbs, and combines this friendly one-button game Fishie Fishie with the hectic neon shooter Squid Yes Not So Octopus. The results are predictably bizarre and seizure educing, and if I had left with my initial impressions I would have thought it was unplayable. But for those brave enough to stick with it (and only play using one fish at a time) Fish Squid Time Machine can at times appear to not just be a multicolored mess, but merely an almost impossibly difficult game. Then a donkey flies across the screen.

Astro Taxi 2 - 80 MS points. Astro Taxi 2 is of course the sequel to the Xbox indie game Astro Taxi. The sequel brings a ton of new levels to ferry passengers around, and finally adds a background color other than black to make the game much easier on the eyes. Like the original Astro Taxi, I found myself fighting the controls for quite a bit, since I just can't seem to get the hang of losing all control of the taxi whenever I have the landing gear activated. Though I must admit that the controls are growing on me the more I play, and the game is great fun once you overcome that hurdle, but I'll still occasionally have my taxi crash and feel like it could have been easily avoided.

The Endless Abyss - 80 MS points. It's not often that we see action adventure games on the Xbox 360, not to mention in the Xbox indie game section, but that's exactly what The Endless Abyss is. It's quite a long adventure, so fans of retro adventure games should definitely check it out. The way it handles random encounters is a bit odd though. The game world is split into tons of single-screen tiles, and when you trigger a random encounter the enemies will roam freely around that single screen until they are defeated. Unfortunately, this often means that at the end of a battle you're farther from the side of the screen you want to exit than when you began, and run the risk of triggering another random encounter and doing it all again before leaving the screen. I actually don't normally have a problem with random encounters in RPGs, but I shouldn't have my progress punished because of them.

Little Green Men - 80 MS points. Have you played Lemmings? If you have, I can save you some reading: Little Green Men is exactly like Lemmings but with aliens. If you haven't played Lemmings, then allow me to explain. The little green men will march constantly forward, and you're goal is to guide them safely to the exit at the end of the level. You do this by assigning them jobs, like a blocker to stop them from marching off a cliff or a stair builder to climb over obstacles and chasms. The radial menu for selecting jobs is a nice solution for bringing this style of play to a console, but the icons for each job aren't self-explanatory and my require some trial and error to figure out which icon corresponds with each job. It doesn't have quite the personality and charm of the original Lemmings, but it certainly nails the gameplay.

Run Rectangle! Jump! Shoot! - 80 MS points. Run Rectangle should be the posterchild for why some indie developers should invest in hiring an artist rather than trying to do the graphics themselves. The game plays great, with solid controls, challenging levels, and creative boss battles. Unfortunately, it's an absolutely hideous game. But if you're the type of gamer that can push past bad graphics for the sake of gameplay, then there's a lot to like.

King Spray - 240 MS points. King Spray is a graffiti painting tool with a robust feature set. There are dozens of colors, stencils, and paint styles ranging from spray paint cans to rollers. If you want to leave your mark on city buildings and train cars, King Spray makes it much easier than trying to do it in your real neighborhood.

StormGate - 80 MS points. StormGate is a tower defense game with a persistent leveling up system. As you complete levels you can unlock new buildings to place in a town of your own. The city building aspect is a nice addition on its own, but the game takes it even further by having each building give stat bonuses to your towers in the main levels. The customization from your town lets you tailor the game to your own style of play more than most games in the genre, making StormGate a good choice for tower defense fans.

Sword of Rapier -ソード オブ レイピア - 400 MS points. Sword of Rapier is an action RPG entirely in Japanese. As such, I can't really comment much on the story of the game. As far as I can tell, you play as a girl in a red dress and high heels who happens to be excellent at fencing. You can perform either thrust or slash attacks, as well as a handful of spells to dispatch soldiers, wildlife, and rampaging fungus as you level up and make your way through the game. It has an art style reminiscent of the early 3D Harvest Moon games, which admittedly looks dated but still has a lot of charm to it. Unfortunately, the lack of language options means that Sword of Rapier can only really be recommended to those who understand Japanese since the gameplay alone, while decent fun, isn't enough to justify the premium price.

Nay

Stick Massage - 80 MS points.

Avatar Man - 80 MS points.

Bigger And/Or Better - 80 MS points.

Extreme Ball - 80 MS points.

When Zombies Met Avatars - 80 MS points.

Balloon Boy - 80 MS points.

KALM - 80 MS points.

Avatar Slam Dunk - 80 MS points.

Fork Lift - 80 MS points.

Castle Ninja - 240 MS points.

Sidewalk Sally - 80 MS points.

Got Balls? - 80 MS points.

Tap Training - 80 MS points.

Super Tricky - 240 MS points.

Hideout! - 80 MS points.

Snake Death - 80 MS points.

Avatar Grand Prix - 80 MS points.

Updated Games

Stack of Bricks
IncaBlocks
Amoeba Generator
YASS
Prismatic Solid
Jet Pack War
MAKIVA
Killa Hurtz
AvaGlide