Updated Impressions on XNA Games

Culture: It's sort of 3 games in 1 in that it has a puzzle mode ( Bloom), a paint by numbers (Paint with Flowers), and a garden sim not unlike Harvest Moon. Bloom pits you against weeds by having to plant your flowers around them to sort of choke them. Paint with Flowers is a basic paint by numbers/light bright style game but with colored flowers. Finally, Flower Garden allows you to plant the flowers you have collected in your own virtual garden. Overall Culture is a fun little game but for me the parts don't add up to a great game, but a decent game nonetheless.

Jellycar: It is a twist of a physics-based, side-scrolling, puzzle game with a car made of jello. The point is to get to the finish line by any means possible. Right trigger accelerates, left decel and reverses, left joystick lets you steer the car up and and down, and 'A' lets you grow or shrink your car for a limited amount of time. The shrinking affects not only size but also inertia and mass. The game has a few bugs that deal with collisions and physical properties but otherwise it is well made and very enjoyable.

Little Gamers: It's a class cartoon side-scroller, beat 'em up that reminds me of the Madness flash series. You are a kid that goes around killing other kids, zombies, agents, robots, and even ninjas! The weapons you use range through stabbing, slashing, and shooting. each have their range and speed qualities much like the Castlevania games. I found the default controls to be a bit annoying in that the movement and aim were both on the same stick (left) and you could hold the left trigger to stand in place and aim. So I went into the menu and chose the B setup which is the standard left stick move - right stick aim. The game is pretty great while it lasts and I think the demo was well designed and makes you want more.

UPDATE:
Proximity HD: From what I could tell it is basically a port of the good-old Proximity flash game found here. It's a pretty good port of the game in that it has multi-player support now and it's HD, which really doesn't seem to be a huge thing. Overall its a great game and would recommend it to any puzzle game player out there.

Rocket Ball: Basically its a dodgeball game that isn't that great. The movement in the game didn't really feel cohesive, almost like your person moves around with a jagged motion. The catching and deflecting works pretty well and so does the throwing so I guess it's okay in that sense. There is a mini-game that pops up on screen when you have been hit too many times sort of like a God of War button press thing but it doesn't require timing. There are power-ups that give you more points per tag and make your throws faster. I didn't really see an affect on the points when I had these power-ups, oh well. It's by no means a bad game but it's just very simple and probably one of the weakest of the bunch.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai: Is by far the best of all the release XNA's and if you have XBL then you NEED to download it. Beware though that it is heavy on the blood and gore and should probably not be played by the youngens. The game is an artistically drawn story of a lonely dishwasher who gets his heart ripped out and he seeks vengeance. It's a 2D side-scrolling, action beat 'em up with great comic book-like story sequences to push the plot ahead not unlike Max Payne. You chop your way with your cleavers using awesome combos and cool finishers. The great thing is there is a currency system that allows you to buy things including upgrades for weapons. And did I mention the weapons! The sword you receive in the story mode allows you to teleport short distances so you can set up some sweet combos. The arcade a mash of mini-games where you need to slaughter stuff with some strategy involved. I will definitely buy, if needed, when it becomes available. Below is the trailer from last November but I had to link it because it looks so damn amazing.


Trilinea: Is a puzzle game sort of like a mix of dominoes and Doctor Mario. It also has cool feature where you can assign spells to the face button that help your fight, much like Puzzle Quest. It's a solid game but I would really only recommend it to people who enjoy puzzle games because I would much rather play Puzzle Quest or Poker Smash than this. It's a decent puzzle game, so don't get me wrong there but it just has come when there are just better puzzle games out there. Hopefully the game will officially come out when there is a drought for puzzlers.