Xbox Indie Games Review - Poker Stacker 2

The description describes the game pretty well but the general idea of the game here is that cards drop from the top, Tetris style, but instead of making a full line of blocks you need to make a valid poker hand. This includes 2 of a kind, full house, royal flush, etc. If you have no idea what any of that meant then there's a helpful instructions screen that shows examples of each combo you can make.

The game gets more difficult by increasing the difficulty of the hand you need to make. It starts with asking you to make any pair (2's or higher) and it gets harder by jumping to 8's or higher, 10's or higher, etc. It seemed to jump up the difficulty every 2/3 levels (with 3/4 pairs in each level).

I enjoyed the game but after 2/3 playthroughs it started to get pretty repetitive. You have a local highscore table, showing the top 3 scores, but there's not much incentive to beat my previous scores. One thing I could see improving the replayability is awards (aka achievements but indie games can't use the word 'achievements'). Having some awards like 'Make 5 royal flushes' and the like would give me incentive to try and build the better hands instead of just matching the lowest mark.

The game gives you hints when you can make a higher combo. If you have 2 aces in a line and another one pops up it'll say 'Try making 3 of a kind' or something similar so I would start scanning the cards to see where I had 2 aces in one line. I thought that was really helpful but it was almost like cheating. I have a flush and royal flush opportunity that I never would've caught if it wasn't for the hints. I got about one hint per level which wasn't nearly enough to be over the top so that was a cool feature.

If you're looking for a Tetris fix or you're a poker fan (even though it's not really a 'poker' game) I'd recommend it for a quick fix.

Rating - 7/10

Xbox Indie Games Review - Magnetic Wars

Magnetic Wars is a twin stick shooter at it's core but you can also attract/repel enemies and bullets using the left/right triggers.

The game comes with 10 levels and 4 difficulty levels so that's a total of 40 levels (even though there's only 10 different ones) for you to conquer. The level select screen shows which levels on which shows you all 40 levels and highlights the ones that you've completed. For those that like to play 100% through their games it's a nice feature so you can keep track of what you've already done. You don't get access to the Impossible levels until you beat all 10 levels on Hard. I've played through all 10 Easy levels and levels 8/9/10 on Hard so far. The Impossible levels might be different from the other since I don't have access to them but I'm guessing they just increase the amount of damage you take. On Easy bullets to 0.25 damage and on Hard they did 1.0 damage.



You've got a standard weapon to start with that shoots a steady stream of bullets in a single line. Powerups include homing missiles, rate of fire, damage, multiplier, speed and health increases. They all seem to disappear after you shoot enough or they may be on a timer I couldn't exactly tell.

Each level ends with a boss battle that you need to kill before you complete the level and they're all different so that adds some variety. There's also plenty of different enemies and patterns in the levels so each level is completely different from the others.

There's high scores but I'm not sure if they're global or not. I was the only one on the list but it's also possible nobody else was playing at the time.

I have a couple minor complaints that could've improved my experience. I found it a little hard to be accurate with the weapons, probably because the bullets you shoot are pretty small. The controls also felt like they could've been tighter. Your ship will always be moving slightly even if you aren't moving him around which I found annoying because I couldn't sit still and shoot if I wanted to.

If you have a $1 or 80 MSP laying around and are a fan of shooters I'd recommend checking out the trial and buy it if it entices you.

Rating - 8/10

Xbox Indie Games Review - Isagoras

To be honest, it's a pretty cool game and it has some cool bullet patterns but sometimes stuff just blends in too much that puts a strain on my ability to keep track of everything.

The gameplay is a top-down shooter with what looks like 3D models. You have to dodge mass amounts of bullets (sometimes called a 'bullet hell' game) while destroying lots of little enemies and occasional boss battles.

One really cool feature is the ability to slow down time to make dodging between the bullet patterns a lot easier.

If you're a fan of bullet hell style games, you should give it a try to see if it's your cup of tea.

Rating - 7/10

Xbox Indie Games Review - Breeze

This is kind of similar to Blow since you're blowing something around and gravity and other factors are in the game to hurt/help you. You control a fan that rotates around a flower and you blow it around the level to collect sun orbs and reach the exit. The closer your fan is to the flower, the quicker you can blow it around. If you touch anything around the level though it's gameover! Some levels you need to collect a certain amount of sun orbs before the exit opens up and some levels you just need to get to the exit before time runs out and without hitting anything in the level. I've played through 25 out of the 60 levels so far and there's only been 1 level that I died 15+ times on.

There are 2 things that I dislike about the game though. You can move the fan in any direction around your flower but if you come in contact with it you lose! It rarely happens on the less difficult levels but I noticed it happening a lot more often on harder levels because I had to stay close so I could move my flower on a moments notice. The second problem I had is when you collect a sun orb you get a bright glow about 4 times the size of the orb itself, which covers your flower and/or fan. When you're navigating tight spaces and you collect one of these it's anyone's guess where you'll end up with the bright burst fades away. Making it more transparent so you can see through the burst or moving the flower/fan on top of the burst would've helped out.

In general, if you enjoyed Blow or you're a fan of puzzle games (that you need to take your time on) then check out Breeze.

Rating - 8/10