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Best Of The Xbox Indies - 25th May 2011

Features

Our pick of the best and worst new games on the indie Xbox Live community.

Posted 25th May 2011, 9:04am in Games / By Michael J Fax
Here at DIY, it'd be a crime if we didn't look into independent developers and so we're committed to trawling through the good and the bad on Xbox Live's Indie Community so you don't have to.

Here's our pick of the latest bunch of indie software you can download now!

Bumblepig - 80 Points




Cute and inventive scroller in which you manoeuvre your bee/pig thing around fields collecting pollen to pollinate flowers and retrieve money from them to buy new clothes – which emulates the natural world flawlessly. It's endearing and enjoyable, becoming a more frantic button basher as levels progress.
Download it!

Sky Ninja War - 240 Points




Does exactly what it says on the tin. You're a ninja. You're in the sky. There's a war. Bingo, we have our title. You find yourself throwing ninja stars at other flying ninjas in a cutesy and colourful old school scrolling shoot 'em up kind of way and not at all as violent and impossible as it sounds. This is great trigger happy fun!
Download it!

INDIE GAME TOP PICK - Hedge Wizard - 80 Points




Ignore the elongated prologue story – this curious and cutesey gem sees you control peasants around a landscape collecting cold for some goatee wearing wizard then return it to his tower. Interestingly, you can manipulate time to travel back to certain points when you find yourself stuck, which you will often. Casting spells with the right thumbstick to aid your path and altering the face of the landscape give the game an intriguing and imaginative edge. And all the while you're ordered around by an equally amiable and irritating voice-over fella. Awesome stuff.
Download it!

WTF WAS THAT AWARD - Dragon Forge - 80 Points




Only one letter away from the soundtrack this game should've had, this is an impressive, if overly dramatic, shooter that sees you fly around in the form of a dragon-man-beast-hybrid. It truly is a creepy looking bastard and swooping over battlements blasting enemy soldiers with fireballs is pretty heavy duty stuff. Oddly, you'll find yourself trapped between battlements a lot, but this game looks and handles brilliantly otherwise. Its angry sincerity is a lot to take in, but its lack of self-awareness is mesmerising stuff! Get fireballing those evil re-appearing soldier shitheads now!
Download it!

AVOID LIKE RABIES - Avatar's Rock Paper Scissors - 80 Points




Regular readers will know only too well about our often unfair but obligatory hatred for avatar games. Particularly those with the unnecessary usage of said avatars. Well, welcome to the KING of those games. Play rock, paper, scissors with your avatar and other avatars by selecting which of the rock, paper, scissors selection you want to try and beat your opponent's selection of rock, paper, or scissors. You know how to play it, so shut up. This is a game nobody even wants to play in person faithfully re-created digitally for your gaming displeasure. Not only is it completely pointless, but it has avatars. AVATARS! It also plays host to the worst music ever made and a disgusting use of an apostrophe in the title. Take it away, I don't want to look at its face.
Download it!

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