So lately I’ve been pretty busy – this week especially since I’ve been sick, tests are coming up, and I’ve gotten a healthy dose of X-Box live gaming. One of my housemates has moved his X-box 360 downstairs to the living room, where we have a 52” HDTV setup. So I retrieved my gamertag and introduced them to the few games I actually own on X-box live. These include Castle Crashers and Ikaruga. Another one of my friends here has convinced me to buy Geometry Wars 2, which is also thoroughly awesome. So let’s sum up what me and my housemates been playing for hours on end the past week.
What we first started playing a lot is Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved. This game is fun by yourself, or with others. You will find yourselves taking turns most of the time though, in single player since all anyone wants to do is try to beat the high scores that everyone else has posted. The only controls involve the left analog to steer, the right analog to shoot, and the triggers for bombs. There are 6 modes, which are more than enough to provide hours of competitive fun with. Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifist, Waves, and Sequence. Each one is a very different style of play, but all of them require a mastery of the basic controls. The game is easy enough to pick up and play, but becomes very hard once you start playing competitively. Especially when you look at some of the top scores on the leaderboards. They’re ridiculous.
I’m pretty everyone with an X-box live account should be familiar with Castle Crashers. The game that was created by the same guys who created Newgrounds, this game is a side scrolling multiplayer platformer for tons of fon. You and up to 3 other friends can play along. You’re basically one of the characters you see above (there are more too, as well as unlockable ones). You have a weapon to melee people with, magic attacks, pets that help with different things, and a few items. The game is easy – you walk to the right and kill everything in your path. It’s actually pretty challenging at some parts without the right preparation, but isn’t so much where it’s not fun. As a few of my housemates have been showing me, it definitely has replay value as well; despite the fact they’ve already beaten it 3 times over, they want to keep playing.
And last but not least, is Ikaruga. I’m sure every gamer has heard of this notorious one as well. This one hasn’t been as popular with my housemates and that’s understandable. Shoot-em ups appeal to a select crowd. Especially ones of this caliber. A top-down shooter where you’re a ship that can absorb orbs of the same color and get destroyed by ones of the opposite. You can change the color orientation of your ship but clicking B, but this doesn’t make the game any less challenging. I can’t say this is the hardest shoot-em up I’ve ever played (see Perfect Cherry Blossom on Insane), but it’s still pretty challenging. Especially since I’m by no means a serious shmup gamer.
Kicking back with a few arcade style games for a week has actually been pretty nice. Getting away from serious games such Batman, Resident Evil 5, and the like, has probably been pretty healthy for my gamer mentality. Not to mention much more enjoyable with a lot of people around one system too. Playing the games over the internet is a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong; but there’s something more personal about sitting next to the person you’re trying to destroy (or help out) on the screen. Just my two cents at least.
