Some fine Indie Games have gained more spotlight by the recent update of the Kotaku's Favorites list such as the highly addictive, hilarious platformer Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, which was also featured on Episode 3 of GamePro's IndieWatch series on the Inside Xbox channel of the german dashboard. Episode 5 resumed highlighting quality XBLIG this week with the following lineup:
At first glance, 2D puzzle platformer Along Came A Spider might look a little bland as all of its 20 levels are made up of simple, mostly white lines representing spider's silk. The main character consists of a black circle with white eyes surrounded by dangling, fuzzy legs, only remotely resembling a real spider. But as soon as you start playing, this rather basic presentation will draw you in nevertheless. Complemented by a superb, electronic ambient soundtrack, the constantly swaying gameworld is almost hypnotizing, focusing the player on the obstacles ahead while he is figuring out how to overcome them.
Marcin Draszczuk, creator of recently released platformer Oozi: Earth Adventure Episode 1, is not quite satisfied with his title's sales, which he revealed last week in the XNA forums.
In the UK, there's currently a dashboard promotion for a deodorant that will make hot angel chicks fall from the sky. Why am I telling you this? Well, as I don't intend to ever review a game by Silver Dollar Games, I assumed this would be a good chance to mention hot babes in my blog at least once. Also, there are no such super model angels to be found on the german Xbox LIVE dashboard (no, they don't even have the IGN Strategize babe), but someone came up with a really good idea instead (yes, I'm finally getting to the point of this post). The german GamePro magazine now has a bi-weekly series called 'IndieWatch' on the Inside Xbox channel with videos promoting selected XBL Indie Games.
At first glance, Elysia looks pretty much like a standard platformer. The main character Quiff, a little furball who could quite possibly be a remote relative of Kirby, can hop from platform to platform, run, kick and jump on enemies' heads while collecting hundreds of orbs. But developer Whisper Game Studios has spiced up the classic formula by adding a sidekick called Whisp, a flying cloud that serves as a platform to help Quiff get to out-of-reach places. The fun part about this is that the player can take control over Whisp at any time and will even be able to control both characters at the same time, probably via a dual stick control scheme. This partnership will not make things too easy though, as Quiff is a rather heavy furball and can only be carried by Whisp for a limited time. Also, Whisp will not be available in all sections of the levels, but a lot of puzzles will require his cooperation and special abilities. For example, he can be "charged" with fire which enables him to melt away icy blocks that obstruct the path.
Inertia! is a rather short platformer offering only 9 levels but features some interesting novel gameplay. The player must escape a space station filled with traps like flames and broken power supply lines, and can defy gravity by activating inertia, letting the character float into the direction in which he had been moving before. While floating the character will bounce off walls, reaching locations he couldn't have gotten to otherwise. All levels can be played in time trial or reverse mode, the latter making you start at the end of each level and backtracking to the beginning. This may sound like a cheap way to extend the amount of content, but some levels are actually a little harder and require a different approach in reverse, which makes this mode a nice addition.