Microsoft launched the Community Games channel for the Xbox 360 in November. In three months, developers have released more than 180 games for the service, with over 30 featuring co-op play. It’s been hard to keep track of all the releases even for those of us highly interested in them. But in the last couple of weeks, my lady Tamra and I played through all of the demos available and picked five to spend some quality time with.
We've also compiled a a Master List of All Community Games with Co-Op.
A Wizard’s Odyssey
Developer: SaratogaHC
Genre: Action & Adventure
Players: 1-4
Co-op: 2-4
System Link: Yes
Online Co-op: 2-4
Cost: 400 MS Points ($5)
Co-Op Locked in Demo
If you’re looking for a co-op game with a story, A Wizard’s Odyssey is just about the only option in Community Games so far. This arcade style hack ‘n slash allows up to four players to try and defeat an evil wizard who has taken control of the land. Players have four elemental based attacks, one for each face button. Each attack can be upgraded three times. You’ll travel across the land, defeating the wizard’s allies until you finally face him in his enchanted castle. I didn’t say it was an original story.
We beat the entire game in about an hour and a half. The graphics are rough, borderline laughable. Tam nicknamed our characters Turkey Leg Boy and Crab Claw Woman, for their unintentionally distinct features. To be fair, the developers have tried something more ambitious than many other Community Games, but fell short from delivering a polished experience. We had some fun playing through it, so it wasn’t a waste of time. For 400 MS points though, there are better games in both XBLA and Community Games.
Endless SwarmDeveloper: Andrew Thayer
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1-2
Co-op: 2
Cost: 400 MS Points ($5)
Take Gears of War 2’s Horde Mode, cross it with a strange Missile Command/tower defense game, and you have Endless Swarm. Players build and manage ground towers to protect two factories from wave after wave of an incoming aerial alien onslaught. Waves becoming increasingly challenging, culminating in a boss fight every 10 levels. Then the difficulty drops and you start building back up again. Players earn resources from their factories to build and repair towers. Over time, players gain energy that can be used to fire three super powers (global repair, global shield and nuke).
The developer delivered an interesting experience that takes a different approach to an old genre. Endless Swarm tries to be a good game, which is more than can be said for many Community Games. It suffers from a lack of depth though. Players can max out their defense towers relatively quickly, after which it lost much of its appeal for us. We both felt that the excitement of a tower defense game comes from building towers, not just repairing them. I doubt that it’s deep enough to keep players interested for more than a couple of attempts.
UltratronDeveloper:Paul Cunningham
Genre: Action & Adventure
Players: 1-2
Co-op: 2
Cost: 400 MS Points ($5)
Ultratron is a port of an indie PC game. It sets itself apart from the other dual analog shooters available with a distinct look and a sense of purpose. Players progress through 40 levels of robotic enemies, with challenge waves and bosses alternating every five levels. In co-op, players share the same shield pool. So while you have double the firepower, you also have double the chance to chew through your precious protection. Die, and you start over. The waves become punishing, quickly. We’ve only made it into the late teen levels so far. If you think checkpoints and saves ruined the challenge of gaming, this is a game for you.
Ultratron is an odd one. Tam hated it because of its difficulty and having to start over every time. I felt challenged and wanted to keep trying again to see how far we could make it. Many of the Community Games have no purpose; you just play until you die. I appreciated that Ultratron had a finite goal, even though we’re not good enough to get to it yet. For co-op, you’re going to need a partner who welcomes a good challenge and can appreciate some of the frustrations that go along with a game that would have fit in well in an early 1980s arcade. This was the first Community Game that I bought and the only one that I can unconditionally suggest you try out.
Nuke Your NeighborDeveloper: SD Ruthless
Genre: Card & Board
Players: 1-4
Co-op: 2-4
System Link: Yes
Online Co-op: 2-4
Cost: 400 MS Points ($5)
Nuke Your Neighbor is a Crazy Eights card game variation (think Uno). Players attempt to be the first to discard all their cards. Many of the standard special cards one would expect are present: skip, give two cards, give 5 cards, play again and multiple wild cards. A unique feature of the game is the last card battle. Whenever a player reaches their last card, a series of buttons appear on the screen. If the team who has the last card enters the button combination first, play continues as normal. If any opponent enters it first, the player with the last card is dealt two additional cards, forcing the round to continue.
This game’s special feature is also its fatal flaw: the last card battle. Playing well or developing a working strategy with your partner can just be thrown out the window thanks to quick button punching. We found beating the computer to be a snap, at least up through the hard difficulty. By constantly winning the last card battles, the game becomes controlled by the person with the fastest fingers, rather than the team with the best card skills. This feature breaks what is otherwise an entertaining game.
Bricks4everDeveloper: Running Pixel
Genre: Classics
Players: 1-2
Co-op: 2
Cost: 200 MS Points ($2.5)
Bricks4ever is an Arkanoid clone with all the features one would expect: bricks, a bat, a ball, power-ups and an odd story featuring aliens. In co-op mode, one bat is slightly above the other. This lower player can save a missed ball, but it also means the upper player can monopolize the game at times. The only unique feature was the “Zen” mode, where the brick field slowly scrolls down vertically while players try to rack up as high a score as possible.
After three evenings of playing this with Tam, I was ready to write that it was a thoroughly competent Arkanoid clone that was fun in co-op. That is, until the game lost the save data. You unlock levels in batches of five. We logged in to play it again, went to load the previous checkpoint, and discovered that all of the levels were relocked. I tried exiting the game, starting it with Tam’s account, my account again, but to no avail. We were back at square one. Any goodwill this game had earned was crushed with one devastating glitch.
Wrap-Up
When the Community Games channel launched, I had high hopes that we would see some fresh, interesting content from new developers. One might even say I had unreasonably high hopes. In the co-op scene, the majority of the games are generic, clones or just plain bad. Try some demos though, we had more fun going through all of them than we did with the full games we bought. There are a few interesting ones and some that are so laughably bad to as to be worth trying.
The service is still young and developers are still learning the XNA toolset. So I have hope that we will see quality co-op games yet. My hope is doubly boosted by a couple of single player gems released so far (CarneyVale Showtime being the freshest digital take on pinball that I have ever played). And if developers continue releasing games at the same pace, we could see more than a hundred co-op games available by the end of this year. At least a few of those will have to be good, right?
Be sure to check out our Master List of All Community Games with Co-Op.