Xbox Live Indie Games Round-Up 10/11/09

By Sonny Jones

Don’t own a Wii but do have the mini-game craving? The Xbox Live Indie Marketplace has just the thing…

//Headshot 2
Silver Dollar Games [link]
Anyone who’s ever played Find Mii on Wii Play will be familiar with the idea of spotting a face in the crowd. They’ll also be familiar with how quickly this becomes a bit of a dull non-gamer’s game, something to play with the family over Christmas that doesn’t see the light of day at any other time of the year.

But give it a little bit more oomph and you can turn out something like Headshot 2, where spotting someone in the crowd is made more engaging through having to shoot them in the face. The first version of Headshot left a lot to be desired and was a far more frustrating, homemade affair, so if you ever played that and are expecting more of the same, think again.

The scope-only view has been replaced, so now you can slip into it only when you’re ready to. Instead of having to wait until your target has produced a shooter, you’re now told who the target is and given a short space of time to identify and nullify the threat. The random bodies mooching around in the line of fire are far more defined. In the previous instalment they were faceless gingerbread types, only distinguished by the colour of their all-in-one romper suits. Now they have hair, clothes, hats, glasses; everything you’d expect a dead man walking to dress in. And now, instead of just a single coloured background, you have buildings, moving cars and levels. It seems Silver Dollar Games have learned a lot about coding since their last effort and brought all that to the table.

It’s a good, fun, enjoyable single-player game that has a decent level of professionalism. The question is, does it have enough to warrant smashing your piggy bank for? Well, yes, just about. It’s certainly got enough going for it to see you playing ’til the end, but does it have enough to drag you away from your full-priced, international developer titles? Maybe not. But a game like this deserves to be seen. If ever Microsoft consider allowing users of Xbox Live to be able to play indie titles direct from their PC, then Headshot 2 would be a perfect way to while away a lunch hour or two. And that in itself would more than justify the cost of downloading.

//SFG Soccer
Stir Fry Games [link]
Another title that has something of the Nintendo Wii about it, this time graphically (your squad look like kidnapped Wii avatars), SFG Soccer is definitely going to become one of the most downloaded indie games on Xbox Live to date.

Really, there are only two words needed to describe the quality of this title: Sensible Soccer. Remember the first time you saw it? It looked pretty crap. Especially if you were used to EA’s FIFA franchise. But all that changed the moment you started playing because the gameplay was so spot on that for a while, Sensible was up there with the best.

SFG Soccer doesn’t look half as naff as Sensible did, but in comparison to the current FIFA and PES games, it’s a million miles behind. And, like Sensible Soccer, it’s all in the gameplay. Ridiculously easy to pick up and play, it uses only the four face buttons and offers you little more than tackle, shoot, pass, change player and bicycle kick – but you won’t be needing any more than that.

Six-a-side short games, with no throw-ins or corners, just a wall to bounce the ball off, means the action is thick and fast. Passing is fluid, shooting is easy and rarely frustrating, and the skill levels of the AI teams vary so much that you can be thrashing a team one minute and being punished the next.

There’s a choice of camera angles, four player multiplay, customisable avatars and even the ability to boost your players’ abilities after every game. SFG Soccer definitely has a lot of repeat play value and might even make you take that FIFA 10 back to the store.

//Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!
Loafjaw [link]
Is it a squid? Is it an octopus? Or is it just a bloody annoying Asteroids style shooter? It’s the last one, to be blunt.

You’ll be familiar with the idea – the screen is awash with flying enemies, weak on their own, but in a gang, malicious. You have but one ship, and with that, you must blast them all to kingdom come. No doubt you’ll be familiar with the reality of games like this – that death is only a moment away and switching it off seconds later.

Squid Yes! Not So Octopus! suffers from being not so bad it’s a total waste of time but not so good it’s actually worth playing. So while it’s nicely put together, while graphically it looks okay and your ship’s movement is fluid, there’s nothing about it that makes you want to play it again.

It’s got that same vibe about it that makes you look but not touch when you’re prowling round an arcade, looking for something worth pumping pounds into. You know that in a couple of weeks the Squid Yes cabinet is going to be rehoused in the damp corner that everyone avoids and nobody ever talks about. And you don’t even care.