I'm going to be moving this week, so I wont be posting many updates until early next week. This weekend I went to Gamestop during their buy 2 get 1 deal and was able to do pretty well. I picked up 6 games for $60.

Resonance of Fate -

I've already played through the game, but my original copy was ruined. I could see myself playing it again down the road so I picked it as the freebie. Extremely difficult, yet rewarding. One of my favorite JRPG's this gen.

Alan Wake -

A game I've been dying to play. I was planning to grab it on release day, but I've been distracted with a large backlog of games. I can't believe this much time has passed that it has now hit the bargain bin.

Raiden 4 -

I've been looking to add this one to my collection for a while now. Had a hard time finding it cheaper than $40. Will definitely be leaving feedback for it at some point. My library of 360 Shmups that I still need to play is getting crazy. I keep getting distracted with XBLA and XBL Indie games.

Raiden Fighters Aces -

I was able to grab this one for $9.99

Includes the three Raiden Fighters games that were previously only avaialable on Arcade.

Castle of Shikigami III -

Another $9.99 pickup, I have always enjoyed the Shikigami series. Really looking forward to spending some time with this one.

Ultimate Shooting Collection -

3 solid Shmups for $9.99. This one includes Karous, Radio Allergy, and Chaos Field. Only Chaos Field was released here in the states. I love shoot em up compilations, especially ones that feature games that were import only.

That's all for now...6 for $60, that's a lot of gaming value for the price of one new release. I'll definitely be leaving some impressions when I get back next week.

Shmup release day! These don't happen often, so naturally I had to put down everything that I was working on, and dive right in.

Jamestown

I've been tracking this shoot em' up since it entered the Indie Games Festival. Last night it was released on Steam, D2D and Gamersgate, so I finally got my chance to take it for a spin.

I put about 4+ hours in with the game last night and I am hooked. The game mechanics are relatively simple which keeps you immersed in the gameplay and fantastic visuals. You have a normal attack, A charged attack and a shield known as Vaunt Mode.

When you fill your meter up by collecting Ducats (The gold that falls from defeated enemies.) you can unleash Vaunt Mode which gives you a temporary shield, increases your damage and gives you a 2x score multiplier. Extending Vaunt Mode by collecting more Ducats plays a huge part in achieving high scores. The longer you keep your chain going, the higher your bonus will be.

Jamestown offers great variety in it's enemies, bosses and level designs. The 4th level ranks as one of my favorites from the genre in recent memory. On a less positive note, the 5th level features some dreaded "Shmup Platforming" sure to enrage the 1cc dedicated.

There are 6 difficulty levels, 5 playable levels and 4 ships to choose from. The game also supports local co-op. There are also 20 bonus challenge missions. Although short, these will definitely test your skill and serve as a nice break from the main modes.

The difficulty levels are great and allow for the Casual/Hardcore and anyone in between to tweak the game to their own skill level. As with all Shmups though, this game is short so I'm not sure that a more casual gamer in this genre would get their 9$ worth unless they either: A) havefriends locally or B) the game manages to sink it's hooks into you.

For fans of the genre, this game is- without a doubt - worth throwing down your $9 on.

Final Verdict - 9/10

So my brain is a little exhausted right now from memorizing Ikaruga. To take a break I started looking at the impressive list of shooters on the XBL Indie game marketplace. Some of my favorites are Shoot1up, Score Rush, Decimation X3 and Crossfire 2. Any one of these games is an absolute steal with a $1 price tag. I'm sure I will post about each game individually in the future. For now, I'm going to talk about Crossfire 2 developed by a great Indie developer, Radiangames.

Crossfire 2 definitely takes some notes from Space Invaders. You move your ship left to right along the bottom to shoot down wave after wave of enemies. The twist is that you can hit a button to warp between the top and bottom of the screen at any time.

This feature is put to great use and is immensely satisfying. Some enemies will have a shield on the top or bottom, forcing you to only be able to land hits from one direction. You can also tackle these enemies by upgrading your Anti-Shield Superfire, multiple strategies add a surprising amount of depth to this Indie Gem. Other groups of enemies will have green "Cores"which make the entire pack invulnerable until the "Core" is destroyed.

Another thing that keeps the game fresh is an upgrade system. After a few waves you will get points to put towards upgrading your ship. You can work on the Health/Speed of your ship, the damage/efficiency of your normal attack, or you can build up your special attack "Superfire." Depending on the game mode (type/difficulty) you will also gain back some of your health in a set amount of waves.

The visuals are definitely impressive, especially at this price point. Explosions and bullets will be flying everywhere. The game features 3 game modes, Conquest and Conquest Plus are there to hone your skills. After that you are ready to lay your assault on the leaderboards in Score Attack. Crossfire 2 also supports local co-op.

$1 just doesn't go that far these days, so to get nearly 10+ hours out of an Indie game makes it hard for me not to give this game the 10/10 it deserves. Well done Radiangames.

Final Score - 10/10

Go pick this one up. Support these great developers who are using the Indie Marketplace as it was intended. Tonight I'll be taking on Score Attack. Look out leaderboards, I'm gunning for you.

Next up on the 1cc list is Ikaruga. Ikaruga isn't as highly regarded in my own personal ranks as it is among others.

The "Innovation" of Ikaruga, while good in theory, goes in the opposite direction of why I love Shmups. I don't want to be a "Bullet Eater" I want to recognize the patterns and dodge them.Being able to play the game without shooting sounds pretty boring, especially...in a shooter. The chain scoring system is one of my least favorites among the genre.

My goals are to 1cc the game and to get the A rank achievements on the 360 version for a full 200/200. I don'tenjoy this game enough to go for the S+ or S++ ranks. Currently I have a 1cc going into stage4, but I still have some work to put in on stages 4 and 5.

I think this is one of the easiest SHMUPs to 1cc and the S++ (while difficult to learn) comes down to step-by-step memorization. As usual I will post a video when I reach my goal.

Anybody looking for a great laugh, an extremely catchy song that you'll be singing for weeks, and great Geometry Wars like gameplay is in for a treat. Did I mention it's only 80ms points ($1!!!) All the zombie killing you can handle. It's on the Indie marketplace right now, made by the developer of Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.