The Chick’s Monthly Top 10 Update: November 2011

We’re almost halfway through the first year of Indie Gamer Chick and it’s time for my 5th monthly update.  Like last month, only one new game has made the leaderboard.  Perhaps we’re nearing the point where a full month might pass by without a new member for it.  That’s not to say games are becoming poorer in quality.  November was actually a pretty good month for Xbox Live Indie Games.  I would like to give a quick shout-out to the good titles that didn’t quite get a spot on the board.

LightFish: XBLIG’s answer to Qix.  I adored my time with this game.  No title ever at IndieGamerChick has come as close to making the leaderboard and coming up short as it did.

Avatar Panic: Another remake of an arcade classic.  Maybe.  I’ve never really heard any old school gamer drone on about how they lost their childhood to Buster Bros.  Either way, I quite enjoyed Milkstone’s AHHHHHHHHH God damn it.  Every time I say their name it makes me think of Raven fucking Thorne. Let me try again: I quite liked their effort here and I think it’s criminal that this was one of their lowest selling titles.

Growing Pains: The guys who brought you some Xbox Live Arcade title return to their XBLIG roots with this dexterity-based punisher.  From what I’ve gathered, the general consensus seems to be “meh.”  I would go higher than that, even if my review didn’t indicate it.  I thought it was overall solid, even if the higher difficulty levels were a bit on the impossible side.

DLC Quest: I absolutely adored DLC Quest.  That’s why I hope there is never a sequel to it.  I know Ben Kane has been getting tons of requests for them.  For God’s sake Ben, don’t listen to them.  You successfully made a parody game where the joke didn’t stop being funny before the game ended.  Walk away a winner.  My sequelphobia aside, this game actually did what so many XBLIGs failed to do: take the piss out of gaming.  I don’t think it’s really a Top 10

VolChaos: I still don’t like it.  I do like Kris Steele’s other game, Hypership Out of Control.  Grab it for the iPad or iPhone now.  The dude has talent.

And for everyone who says that VolChaos is like Super Meat Boy, I don’t think so.  The similarities might be there, and Kris might have gotten some inspiration from it, but I don’t find the games particularly related.  I even went back and messed around briefly with it.  Super Meat Boy is based more on dexterity and acrobatics, while VolChaos is more of a game that tests your reflexes and focuses and quick thinking.  Growing Pains is much more in the vain of Super Meat Boy.  I would compare VolChaos to one of those auto-scrolling sequences where an enemy is chasing you, sort of like the dragon from Mega Man 2.  Of course, VolChaos doesn’t auto-scroll.  Maybe I missed too many games from that era but there’s really nothing I can directly compare it to recently.  Help me out people.

So it’s time to induct a new member into the IndieGamerChick Xbox Live Indie Game All-Time Top 10.  Instead of rehashing the list, I’ll just skip to the new game.  But first, a huge shout out to Andromium, which finally slipped off the list after three months.  It’s not a game that was very successful commercially, and that is a crying shame, because it’s one of the most original and entertaining XBLIGs I’ve had the pleasure of playing.  Guys, don’t miss it.  If you have 80 points to spare, go get it.

And now it’s time to welcome Escape Goat to the list.  It’s without question one of the best Xbox Live Indie Games I’ve ever played.  It has awesome old-school graphics that never tip their hat that they were developed with an Xbox 360 in mind.  The gameplay reminded me of Tecmo’s arcade and NES classic Solomon’s Key, but with much better play control.  In fact, the control was absolutely perfect.  Maybe that’s why I ended up being so hard on VolChaos.  It’s hard to look away at its control problems when I just played a game that was old school in theme but was completely without flaws in terms of playability.

In determining where it would go on the list, I weighed it against each current occupant.  Ultimately, I decided that it merited the #2 spot.  When I told Brian, he was stunned.  What I didn’t tell him until just now was that I had a very difficult time trying to determine if it had actually climbed to the #1 spot.  It was very close.  I still give the nod to Dead Pixels because it offers more replayability, with or without the added content that’s on the way.  And while we’re on that subject, quit hounding CSR Studios for the new Dead Pixels content you impatient fucks.  It will be ready when it’s ready.  You already have the best video game that 80 Microsoft Points can buy.  Be happy with it for now.

So that’s it for this month.  Thanks again to all my readers for your continued patronage.  I did have to retire the Developer Challenges and Indies in Due Time features, which really did sadden me.  But I think the Fuck Nostalgia feature went over, um, well.  And there will be a new feature this month called Tales from the Dev Side where I give developers a chance to talk about the creation of their games here, and an open forum to hate on me if they so wish.

Until next time, I’m not a FemNazi.  I’m Cuban.  I’m a FemCastro.