This episode of the Indie Zone has reviews for Battle For Venga Islands, Hoardzz and The Last Pod Fighter.
Another great edition of The Indie Zone here on Gamergeddon, but today is a special day as I’d like to welcome our newest writer Matt “redx370” who’s a friend of mine (Kyle) and yeah, I love him quite a bit. Now onto the indie games!
Battle For Venga Islands – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace – Review by Kyle
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Venga Islands, your prime holiday resort held together by the hands of a mythical beast where the sun is shining, and the drinks are endless. Okay, the game doesn’t take place on that kind of Island, but what if it did? Now, Battle For Venga Islands is a twin-stick shooter combined with the elements of a strategy game, where you fight Hoardzz (bad joke, I know) of mythical enemies ranging from elemental beasts, to skeleton bowmen, all the way to sword-wielding trolls.
Gameplay is simple enough from anyone to pick up and play, but can be surprisingly hard even at the easiest of territories (or I am just bad at it) choosing from the four different magical abilities of Fireball, Ice Mist, Earth Cannon or Electricity and controlling the aiming with the right stick, moving with the left stick. First when you start the game you have the option to choose either the red faction, lead by Queen Allison the Wise, or the blue side lead by King Burr the Little by using the “Change Factions” option at the opening menu, where you’re defaulted at red. The faction elements plays a huge role in the gameplay for Xbox LIVE gold members where the playing field is being constantly updated with the conquests for both sides showing the amount of territory either team has, and who captured it. The premise to capturing is simple, you fight off a wave of enemies that depending on how many territories the player captured will make it “Easy” all the way up to “Legendary” or all open territory will be defaulted at the “Easy” setting. NOTE: The battles that take place are against AI, not the players themselves. So once you capture an area AI for your team will guard it.
Graphically, this isn’t too impressive but the game works fine with the simple 2D graphics offered, with nothing popping out visually too much except for the effects when using your magic abilities. Same goes for the musical side too, a few medieval-inspired tunes fit well with the theme of the game but don’t stand out in the long-run.
Overall, this is a fine game showing how a ton of players can battle each other via Xbox LIVE for territory and conquest, and pulls it off well enough for it to be an enjoyable, albeit difficult game. And for 80 :MSPoints: this is a great example of what the Indie Games can do with their online features.
Hoardzz – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace – Review by Matthieu
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The Indie title Hoardzz, developed by gamemakersanonymous is an RTS inspired strategy game where you as a single bug are tasked to dominate other enemy AI bugs in a frenzied battle. However, you aren’t alone in this bug war. You must utilize the bug nests scattered around the map by converting the neutral bugs (blue) to your respected team. Sounds simple right? Now add three more players to that and you have a competition. But, while playing with friends or family may be a challenging and fun experience, playing alone is no walk in the park either. The game presents a surprisingly aggressive AI that keeps you on your toes.
Hoardzz is relatively simple, and gamemakersanonymous made sure not to make this into something it isn’t. Players, as explained before have the main objective of gathering neutral bugs to your hoard mainly as a source of defense against other attacking bugs especially in the beginning seconds of a match. However, in–game the best defense is the best offense. You must use the number of bugs to your advantage in the form of attack methods. Gathering a single bug allows you to use it as a torpedo which is the common form of attack. While gathering five bugs allows you to convert them into a homing missile which is pretty effective against defenseless targets. The most effective attack though, is the homing bug bomb which combs in and explodes taking out any bugs your opponent may having covering him and hopefully your opponent himself.
On a graphical level Hoardzz is a very unimpressive game both visually and creatively. Level designs are limited to a rectangular arena which boasts stale environments and textures. There are very few attractive colors on the screen, none of which are admirable; I would of enjoyed different sceneries like tree leaves, sidewalks, or even sand. Also, the game has no real incentive to play other than a time-killer with people at home. It has no unlocks, no collectibles, or other modes for any replay value.Hoardzz is game you can pick up and play on those rainy summer days after that, it won’t draw your attention away from more appealing titles.
For 80 :MSPoints: Hoardzz is a great deal for those into an interesting take on insect strategy and warfare. With seven “levels” and four difficulty settings to adjust your buggy conquest you can hope to enjoy this for a quick pick up with friends or the entire family. If you aren’t quite sure if this is a game to pick, you can always try it out by downloading the trial version to try it for a spin. Who would pass up a simple game with bugs fighting it out to the finish?
The Last Pod Fighter – 80 :MSPoints: – Marketplace – Review by Josh
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Its been nearly 20 years since the original Star Wars Tie-Fighter game was released, and its interesting to see that even today similar games are being developed. In The Last Pod Fighter you control a fighter ship through space, destroying enemy ships as you progress through levels.
The main aim of the game is to destroy all other enemy ships. At the start of each level, a countdown timer appears. When the clock reaches zero, a tough boss (or Capital ship) appears, which must be destroyed in order to progress. To help players, as well as the standard laser weapons, the game features several power-ups, including speed boosts, rockets, health and shields. Though movement feels fairly limited, players can move 360 degrees in any direction, and perform barrel rolls using the bumper buttons.
Beyond the fairly repetitive gameplay however, there really isn’t a great deal to do in the game. Sure there are a few bosses, but most of the game is spent fighting the same enemies with the same weapons, and it doesn’t take long to get tiresome. Even the colourful game graphics tend to look dull quickly.
The Last Pod Fighter begins with premise, but all-in-all fails to entertain players for little more than twenty minutes. That said, it’s cheap price of 80 :MSPoints: might make it appeal to fans of space shooter classics.
