XBLIG News, Reviews & Previews

Bumblicity is a unique take on word games. In this game, your group of bumble bees must spell the most words in the time allotted. This task is made harder by the fact that you are sometimes given junk tiles or bombs that must be disposed of. You also get chances to earn bonus points for your words as well.

The graphics here are quite well done. The bees carry the tiles across the screen for you to place and create your words either horizontally or vertically. There is also a scorekeeper in the middle of the screen so you can see what you have earned so far.

The music, I found, was very low. However this was made up by the other sounds. Such as the tiles dropping and the tone when you create a word.

This game can be played either against the computer or against an opponent and is a great game for all ages. From children just learning to spell to adults who may or may not be into games such as Scrabble or Boggle. The only thing that would make this game better would be the option for online play against another opponent. This one rates 4 thumbs up from me.

The world has changed. The magic crystal has been broken into shards and it’s up to you to defend them from the rampaging monsters. In this latest tower defence type game, you are tasked with defending the group of wizards in each area protecting that areas crystal. To do this, you build towers to defend the route to the wizards. Once all the wizards have been wiped out by the monsters, you have lost the crystal and its game over for you.

The graphics in this game are pretty good for 8 bit. You can clearly see the route that the monsters should take to get to the wizards and your charts for placing the towers are well done. My only problem here is that the wizards all look like the characters from the old Wizard of Oz cartoon back in the 80’s. Do some research, you’ll see what I mean.

The audio is pretty decent as well. With a good mixture of music and sound effects, you can’t go wrong.

This tower game does offer something that the others don’t though. Multiple endings. What with my busy schedule, I have yet to get to the first ending but I am looking forward to testing the game out in a number of different ways to see what the difference in the endings is.

For those that like the tower defence type of gameplay, I highly recommend this one to you all. At only 80 ms points for the game, this one’s a real steal. 4 thumbs up from me.

Avatar Karate is a fairly straightforward and fun game, so this review is most likely going to be quite short.

As the name might suggest, the game is about Avatars doing Karate, but to be honest, Karate is probably the wrong word as from what I recall, in Karate points are awarded for a successful hit and then you reset to your starting positions, but hey maybe my style is just some dodgy Southern African style Karate??? I'm sure Kelly will correct me if I'm wrong as if memory serves, he does a fair bit of Karate.

Anways, I wasn't actually intending to be slating the game, so I had better get back to the actual review...

Avatar Karate has both single player and multiplayer across local, Live and system link. Unfortunately, I wasn't given the chance to try the multiplayer as there appeared to be no available online games every time I tried.

In the single player, you fight through each of the 20 increasingly difficult celebrity look alike avatar opponents such Hairy Hothead and Mike El Jack Sun in order to unlock the next. Additionally have a choice of four different fight sceneries, three of which need to be unlocked.

I found the graphics and audio to be fairly faultless and the controls too were pretty good, except that I found there seemed to be a bit unresponsive at times, but maybe that was just me.....

One really cool thing about Avatar Karate is the inclusion of "anaglyph stereo" or 3D to us mere mortals. This add just that little bit extra to the game, which unfortunately is mostly wasted on me as I tend to suffer from headaches when I don a pair of 3D glasses... Maybe because I have to remove my own glass, maybe because my 3D glasses are a really cheap pair from the 2009 Guinness World Records - Who knows??? However for those of you who like 3D games, why not check it out?

To surmise, I felt Avatar Karate was a great bit of fun - simple and entertaining and have no hesitation in rating it a

Buuuuuurp!!! The American Hot Dog Race deals with a traditional staple of the July 4th holiday. Hot dog eating contests. In this game you, as your avatar, must defeat either the computer or other players in a hot dog eating contest. Eat the hot dogs by pressing A, B, Y or X in the order that they come up on the screen. The faster you are, the more hot dogs you will eat.

The graphics are pretty good in this game. You have a plate of ‘dogs’, yourself and your opponent(s) as well as the crowd cheering you on.

The sound is really good in this one. Great music and the cheering sounds as you go really add to the atmosphere.

This is a great game for 1 – 4 button mashers. Sorry, no online play here. A fun game for a short period of time (about one day – Monday in fact, lol). I do recommend it though. If only for the fact that you don’t have to worry about calories and it is not filling at all. Go on, see how many you can stuff into your face. 4 thumbs up here.

Nomis: Legacy Islands is a 2D shooter where you must race to beat the robot general before he can resurrect a weapon hidden long ago. In the game you start on a ship with one weapon and must make your way off it to get to the next level. Continue on with weapon upgrades and boss battles throughout the game. Over 20 levels to explore and learn.

The graphics in this game are very good. With bridges and chasms to navigate and bad guys to defeat, it is really quite pleasing on the eyes. My only wish is that you could shoot and blow everything up if necessary.

The sound is alright here. Good music but the gunshots probably could have used a little more oomph to the sound.

This game offers both single and coop play available locally and is well worth the price. Definitely a game for everyone that provides fun, excitement and at least a few hours of play before you get to the end. Watch out for some of the tougher baddies though if you make the mistake I did and just run forward shooting. Some won’t go down with just one shot. Definitely a must have to play on this one. Four thumbs up from me.