Alien Swarm
Alien Swarm has been released for free on Steam. In this top-down shooter, players team up with friends to take on a (surprise) swarm of alien enemies. Create a unique squad of space marines, outfitted with weapons unlocked during play. The graphics are slick and dark, and the matchmaking is through Steam, which means no worries about getting connected. The full code and SDK have been released right along with it, and everyone who gives it a try gets a free Alien Swarm hat for Team Fortress 2. Sounds like there is no reason that everyone shouldn’t be at least giving this one a shot. I’m downloading it right now. If you see me online later, send me a note, and we can shoot some aliens.
Happy Birthday Mart
Happy Birthday Mart is a bussiness sim in which the player runs a store that specifically carries birthday presents. Keep the store well-stocked and learn how to properly deal with each customer type to make the store a success. Each customer is represented by a different animal, and players must learn, for example, that the cat likes to be treated like a princess, while the dog likes to play, and the rabbit gets angry very easily if everything is not just right for him. It’s difficult to make every customer happy all the time, but real life customer service would be so much easier if people fit in such nice categories. The game also features a series of mini-games, which take place in and around the store.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a new themed gem-matching game. The wicked witch is dead, but the munchkins are all trapped inside of colorful gems. Dorothy must travel toward the emerald city with her three friends, along the way completing puzzles on differently shaped boards, and matching gems to release the poor munchkins. Unfortunately, the Wizard of Oz theming is just that, a stuck-on theme, and there is no real story or role-playing elements here, just the completion of one puzzle after another, without even any success-based rewards or changes.
LIMBO
The Icrontic Spotlight this week attempts to illuminate the depths of LIMBO. This platformer is another attempt to create a platformer with a deeper story that the simple rescue of a princess or defeat of a great evil. A young boy, attempting to discover the fate of his sister must navigate a dark and desolate landscape. Okay, so maybe the plot doesn’t sound like much, but apparently it’s going to deal, literarily, with concepts like loss and grief. The real selling point is the art, for which the game has won the award for Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence at the 12th annual Independent Games Festival this year.
Following is a list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- Alien Swarm
- Hunting Unlimited 2011
- Mumbo Jumbo 6 Pack 2nd Edition
- Need for Speed World
- Rig’n’Roll
- Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Wii
- AquaSpace
- ATV Quad Kings with Racing Wheel
- Chrysler Classic Racing with Racing Wheel
- Furry Legends
- HoopWorld
- Monster Trucks Mayhem (Wheel Bundle)
- Zany Golf
DS
- Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
- Crazy Sudoku
- Happy Birthday Mart
- Hidden Objects: Mystery Stories
- Hospital Havoc
- Petz Kittens
- Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena
- Scrabble Tools
- TrackMania Turbo
Xbox 360
- LIMBO
PS3
- Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
Articles RSS