Were you ever one of those people who enjoyed Warcraft or Starcraft where you spent all your time building up an epic base with fully upgraded squads only to become annoyed when a group of invaders would come by and disturb your perfect little kingdom? Well, if so, then A World of Keflingsmay be the perfect title for you. And there is no pesky Zerg rush to worry about.
Gameplay:
A World of Keflings brings together the charm of the original Kingdom for Keflings title using a player’s dashboard Avatar to manage resources, build structures and assign tasks to three different locations of the Kefling world. A player begins their career as a hulking giant amongst a world of pintsized Keflings which they can interact with by either emoting, assigning to jobs or kicking. While the kicking can be entertaining at times, anyone with a heart will begin to feel bad for mistreating their miniature friends, especially once they have begun giving them names.
Instead, most of the time is spent either assigning jobs to Keflings like mining ice, transporting ore or sheering sheep. A player can also perform any of these actions themselves with the added benefit of their size. While a smaller Kefling may only carry a few of an item, the player can carry larger amounts. This becomes a great benefit when massive undertakings like new buildings must be completed.
Both the player and Keflings can be upgraded during the course of play, with witch’s potions improving the player’s attributes and Keflings leveling up over time by repetition of the same task. These upgrades become beneficial as structures begin requiring more advanced materials to complete. And of course, if a Kefling isn’t working hard or fast enough, there is always the option of kicking them into shape.
Players are also given a group of special larger Keflings who act as personal assistants. As a player progresses, more of this family is unlocked. These Keflings will help carry building components and stockpiles of resources behind a player, allowing for faster construction. Once a player has completed a structure, the helpers will be able to complete buildings on their own by mimicking what they saw a player do based on the blueprints at hand.
Last week, Microsoft Games Studios revealed their big holiday push for XBox Live Arcade with three unique, quirky titles. The three games, World of Keflings (December 22nd), Raskulls (December 29th) and ilomilo (January 5th) will not only be coming out in the heart of the holiday season, but they will all be tied together, a first for the downloadable platform.
As you will see in the trailer below, all the titles will feature cameos from characters from the other games. In ilomilo, characters can be dressed up as Keflings while the Raskulls can be invited to live in the Keflings world.
Check out all of the new trailers for XBox Live’s upcoming holiday games after the jump.
Dead Rising 2was easily one of the most fun games of the past year to come out. Aside from the series’ signature creative violence, part of what helped hype the game was the XBox Live exclusive Dead Rising: Case Zero. The prequel to the events of Dead Rising 2, Case Zero help set the stage for the unique father / infected daughter relationship that would drive the events of Fortune City.
Dead Rising 2: Case West looks to continue the downloadable trend by filling in the events that take place after Dead Rising 2 but also letting players catch up with their favorite war covering and zombie invasion surviving photo journalist Frank West. Frank, the protagonist from the first Dead Rising, will fight alongside DR2′s Chuck Green. There will apparantly be some cameos from survivors of Dead Rising which will also help explain the events that happened in between the two games further.
Returning to the DR fold will be Frank’s signature camera (as well as a disposable for Chuck). Just like capturing PP in the first DR with awkwardly posed zombies and rampaging psychopaths, we hope Dead Rising: Case West gives us that same photogenic eye.
Dead Rising 2: Case West won’t strictly be a co-op experience though. Capcom has revealed that if a player wants to go through the game solo, Frank will be controlled by computer AI. And while AI of survivors has been the leading cause of their deaths in the past, Frank won’t be able to be killed as long as he is under computer control.
Stick to the Flickcast for more coverage on Dead Rising 2: Case West when it comes out next month on XBox Live Arcade.
Games have just gotten too easy. It’s a fact. Back in the NES days, players were given limited health alongside limited lives in an effort to have players spend more time playing levels over and over again due to the limited amount of space available on the game cartridges.
Now, gamers seem to be all about instant gratification. They want to race through levels in record time so they can move on to the next game. Super Meat Boy bucks that trend by providing one of the most challenging and entertaining games to come to the XBox Live Arcade since N+ or Braid.
Gameplay:
When talking about Super Meat Boy, it is impossible to mention it without discussing the game’s unusually high level of difficulty. In many games, it could be said that difficult stages or areas are unfairly created to hinder a player’s progress, such as the trials during Dante’s Inferno that required unrealistic combo scores and other such tasks. Super Meat Boy on the other hand is a rewardingly challenging experience.
Literally only being able to run and jump, players must traverse levels as Super Meat Boy (or various other unlockable indy characters) to reach their girlfriend Band-Aid Girl. When playing Super Meat Boy, you will die. A lot. There is no health and one wrong move on your part spells splattered meat being rained across the level. It is just how the game is designed. Luckily, most levels can be beaten with a perfect run through in roughly thirty seconds. So while it may take ten minutes to make it through a level, the levels themselves are not long at all.
The controls are basic but very right. Holding jump longer makes Meat Boy jump further while adding in a run first extends the distance even more. Meat Boy can slide down walls and wall jump due to his sticky composition. But our squishy friend has no natural defenses to the buzzsaws, lava, jelly-like creatures or walls of salt and hypodermic needles that cover the maps. One touch and he’s gone. But the way the game controls, it never feels like it isn’t your fault when you die.
A player knows they are to blame for their own demise and as a result, completion of these levels feels increasingly rewarding instead of cripplingly painful. Even more rewarding is watching a replay of all your little Meat Boys traversing the level after completing one letting you see just what mistakes you made during your play through and seeing just what your perfect run looked like.
Hydrophobia is one of the most ambitious new titles for XBox 360′s XBox Live Arcade. Using the HydroEngine to power the game, Dark Energy Studios creates a dark future with some of the most impressive water technology ever seen in gaming. Taking a third person shooter and adding it to this new environment, Hydrophobia attempts to reach new levels of a download only title both visually and in terms of technology.
Gameplay:
Hydrophobia isn’t a standard third person action shooter. Employing a cover system similar to that of Kane & Lynch 2 or Alpha Protocol, Hydrophobia is a thinking man’s shooter. Fans of running in guns blazing will quickly feel how fast they can be gunned down in a flicker of glory.
Starting off with a pistol that shoots non-lethal stun rounds, Kate must navigate the halls of her hijacked vessel using the environment as her weapon. She can ignite gas canisters and venting pipes, break glass walls holding back gallons of water and unleash electrical surges on her unsuspecting opponents.
The controls for this system haven’t been perfectly honed yet and players will find times where they cannot properly move will in the cover system despite an enemy flanking them in to a corner. More times than naught, certain gameplay aspects like the actual cover provided by a cover object or a jump in an opposing direction don’t work as well as one would hope which leads to a string of repeated deaths.
There are also times the gameplay can hit dead ends when certain objectives either aren’t explained thoroughly enough. The difficulty can be somewhat reminiscent of titles from the NES days that the difficulty became more frustrating than rewarding for beating certain areas of games.
It started 19 years ago. A little blue rodent ran his way on to the Sega Genesis system and into our hearts with Sonic the Hedgehog. Since, he has gone through some ups, like Sonic 2 and 3, and some downs, like SonicUnleashed.
But still, everyone has hope for the little guy who went toe to toe with Mario during the early console wars and just missed. Recently, Sega has been referring to a project under the codename Needlemouse which was revealed yesterday as Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.
With a recently launched site, Sonic 4 will make its ways to all the major systems as a downloadable game in episodic format from the XBox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare… and according to the ellipsis on the website, possibly another format as well.
Sonic 4′s website features a variety of countdown clocks, some specific to character reveals and various content like concept art, that will reveal more about the upcoming downloadable title in the following days. But, for now, take a peak at the teaser trailer that brings Sonic back to his 2D sidescrolling glory, the way he was meant to be seen.
Stay tuned to The Flickcast for more information on our favorite Sega mascot and his new game as it becomes available.
Score: 6.5 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
The name Diner Dash is nothing new to casual game players as this downloadable Flash game has been floating around for some time. Unfortunately this game has been stuck in the purchase to play sector of the casual games market, not letting players try before they buy. But now, coming to XBox Live Arcade, Diner Dash has been given a second chance to capture a new market of players.
Gameplay:
The basic premise behind Diner Dash is something any food server must deal with on a regular workday. Keep the customers happy. The longer they wait, the less happy they will be. As Flo, the player must seat customers, take orders, deliver food, bring bills and bus tables as quickly as possible to keep everyone happy.
In the early stages, the game quickly adds new elements such as changing party size so that certain parties can only fit at certain tables (much like real life). By placing customers in special seating arrangements by color, players earn bonuses. They can also earn further bonus points by doing multiple table actions at once, like picking up one tables order while busing another at the same time.
Players are also given the option to bring coffee to tables that have been waiting a long time for food or to be seated for a quick boost in their happiness factor. All of these add extra dimension and actual strategy to what could have been a simple button masher and take it to the next level.
Score: 6.0 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
Twenty years ago, a little system called the TurboGrafx-16 entered the console wars with Nintendo and Sega. Though it ultimately didn’t survive the long haul, it did produce a few games that have been remembered by its faithful followers. One of these was Military Madness. One of the original turn based strategy games released, it would go on to eventually be rereleased on the PSone years later before going dormant once again. That is, until this week’s XBLA release of Military Madness: Nectaris from Hudson on the XBox 360.
Gameplay:
Military Madness: Nectaris is a futuristic military Turn Based Strategy game on a hexagon based grid. Units consist of various Infantry, Artillery, Tanks, Planes, Mechs and other specialized units each with their unique playstyle and abilities. A new unit, the Commander, has also been introduced to multiplayer component of the series. The Commander is based on customizing its abilities in order to boost attack and defense of other units, attack air unit or various other tactical uses. Units cannot be produced at any time butthe player can “capture” enemy units if they were in wait in factories. Units can be repaired by returning them to factories present on the map.
Score: 7.0 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
If you’ve been following weekly XBLA announcements on XBox Community Manager Major Nelson’s site you’d know that on a weekly basis he has been plagued by requests for when Bubble Bobble would come to XBox Live Arcade since the game’s announcement. The anticipation was palpable for the re-release of the classic 1986 NES game where two little dinosaurs Bub and Bob jumped through levels catching their enemies in bubbles and popping them all while eating fruit and bubblegum. In addition to updated graphics, Bubble Bobble Neo also came with new play styles, new dinosaurs and four player multiplayer for the first time.
As we had done with the Summer of Arcade, TheFlickcast has done its best to keep you abreast of the latest downloadable releases for XBox Live Arcade. (Keep an eye out for special download code giveaways for XBLA games in the near future). To help with that, we recently got some time with today’s XBLA release, Defense Grid: The Awakening. By the time of this posting, it should be available for download with a trial and the full game for 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00) on the XBox Marketplace.
For those who are unfamiliar with the title, Defense Grid: The Awakening is originally a PC tower defense game. With the popularity of the up and coming genre from simple Flash-based games, it has recently made its way to handhelds and consoles with titles like Pixel Junk Monsters and Crystal Defenders. Developer Hidden Path set out with the goal to make the definitive tower defense game by looking at what they considered the 84 best tower defense games, such as like Vector TD .
For their efforts, Defense Grid: The Awakening received numerous PC game awards such as PC Gamer Editor’s Choice, one of IGN’s Top 10 “2008 Games You May Have Overlooked”, and Gameindustry.com’s 2008 Game of the Year: Puzzle. We got the chance to sit down with Hidden Path developer Jeff Pobst who talked with us about the process of creating a tower defense game. In their research they found out there were two main types of tower games.
As we reported last week, XBox Live got an update this week featuring the Avatar Marketplace, Games on Demand and Ratings. We’ve decided to put together a list of the newest features, and show you some of the things added with this update.
Avatar Marketplace
The most anticipated addition is undoubtedly the Avatar Marketplace. Instead of waiting for small incremental additions to the Avatar clothing options, XBox Live subscribers will be able to purchase clothing, costumes, accessories and props for their Avatar to wear and show off to their friend’s list and appearing in games likes 1 vs. 100 or Bomberman Live.
For day one, Avatar Marketplace came with a large variety of items from eight different games like Gears of War 2, Halo 3 and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, three different clothing brands like Adidas, and two clothing styles, Steampunk and Recessionista. While there is a large variety to choose from, some items feel very expensive and may be overpriced since this Marketplace is still trying to learn its pricing structure.
After nine years, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is still one of the most popular fighting games around. This past week with XBox’s Summer of Arcade, it became available for the first time for download to XBox Live members through XBox Live Arcade and is coming in a few weeks to the Playstation 3 through the Playstation Store. Even after almost a decade, it is still one of the best fighting games out there.
The game consists of 3 on 3, tag in and out single round fighting with a 56 character roster from both Marvel and Capcom. This retro title release, if a game under 10 years old can actually be considered retro, most resembles the Dreamcast port of the Arcade release.
Were you ever one of those people who enjoyed Warcraft or Starcraft where you spent all your time building up an epic base with fully upgraded squads only to become annoyed when a group of invaders would come by and disturb your perfect little kingdom? Well, if so, then A World of Keflings may be the perfect title for you. And there is no pesky Zerg rush to worry about.
Score: 6.5 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
Score: 6.0 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
Score: 7.0 – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00)
As we had done with the Summer of Arcade, The Flickcast has done its best to keep you abreast of the latest downloadable releases for XBox Live Arcade. (Keep an eye out for special download code giveaways for XBLA games in the near future). To help with that, we recently got some time with today’s XBLA release, 
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