Chain Crusher (Second Chance with the Chick)
November 29, 2011 10 Comments
My review of Chain Crusher was unique because it is the only game I’ve done so far at my blog that I liked but told people not to buy. Why? It cost 400 Microsoft Points. At that price, it positions itself as a game that competes directly against some modestly priced (or on sale) Xbox Live Arcade games. With only one mode of play and very simplistic game design, I think Chain Crusher’s price point put it well out-of-bounds. That review actually haunted me for a while, because I’ve always maintained that fun is all that matters to me. If I enjoy a game, I recommend it. I didn’t do that with Chain Crusher, and that really did bother me.
Well, the game has been updated. Chain Crusher now has three modes of play and online leaderboards.
It’s still not worth $5.
The new modes of play are really just the same game. Mono-Shot is the lowest difficulty level. Standard is Chain Crusher on its medium setting, while Ancestor is the game on hard. At least I think so. No official explanation was offered, but that’s what I gathered from my play session. So really, the major difference here is online leaderboards. Yes, it’s nice to have them, especially in a game that’s sole purpose is to get high scores. But it doesn’t justify the price tag. Neither does the addition of an award system.
Going back to Chain Crusher, I still had fun playing it. It actually is a good, addictive video game. At 240MSP, I could easily give gamers my personal go-ahead to get this. At 80MSP, which it originally could have sold for as it was well under 50MB in size, this might have even contended for the IndieGamerChick leaderboard. At 400MSP, I simply can’t tell people it’s worth the money, because it’s not. It’s a time-sink arcadey shooter, the kind that you would expect to get on your iPad or phone for 99 cents. I know some developers argue that many games on the service are actually under-priced, and that might occasionally be true. It’s not true of Chain Crusher. $5 for this game was just plain stupid. The dark cloud of greed hangs over it, and I finally see that. I think I’ll sleep just fine tonight.
Chain Crusher was developed by Mindware
400 Microsoft Points could have bought 5 much deeper, better games, and the developers should have known that so phooey on them in the making of this review.
I’m celebrating 50,000 unique page views by giving away 1600 Microsoft Points to one lucky follower of mine on Facebook. All you have to do is follow me for a chance to win! Click the link, hit “Like” and you’re in! The drawing will be held December 1, 2011. I don’t spam with my Facebook. I just post article updates and the occasional “thank you” when my site hits a milestone. So what are you waiting for? Enter already!
Indie Gamer Chick 
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I just wanted to say thanks for actually linking to the games’ martketplace download pages and to their company websites. Surprising how many people, including videos by the authors, don’t do this, and it’s always appreciated when I see this.
Jason Doucette
P.S. Ok weird, I just noticed this forum software put JasonADoucette@twitter.example.com as the email address. I didn’t type that in! So maybe this is (currently) why I’m getting no notifications to replies to my posts. I’m going to try and put my real email address in, and see if it remembers it. It certainly doesn’t remember that I have both “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” and “Notify me of new posts via email” clicked, since I have to click those every time.
Jason Doucette
I have to tick ‘notify of follow-up comments’ every time too. I think that’s just how it works. Weird about the email address though.
I always add the marketplace links. The one time I didn’t was simply an oversight on my part. Over 3,000 total marketplace clicks have been achieved through my site, or roughly one in every 16 page views. Sure, that’s not an incredible number by any means, but I’m quite proud of it.
Hmm, that’s really not a lot of additional content.
You hit on the main point behind my price gripes about XBLIGs: it’s not so much that some are over-priced, but that they’re over-priced relative to other games that have far more content. Dead Pixels, Lair of the Evildoer, LaserCat, Mega Monster Mania – all 80 MSP. And they’re just the ones I’ve played recently.
In fact, compare Chain Crusher to another 400 point XBLIG: Flotilla. The latter is a detailed, mildly complex and aesthetically unique tactical space warfare simulator, with randomly generated encounters. It could be an XBLA game, which fits its price point. Chain Crusher could not.
“It could be an XBLA game, which fits its price point.” Did you know that for 240 ms points you can get Beyond Good & Evil HD? That’s nuts…but really does underscore this point. For 3-5 bucks, you better have something that competes (at some level) with the big boys….presentation, content, fun-factor should all be in full effect.
Even at a buck the consumer is getting less likely to cut you any slack.
Actually BG&E was only 240 over the last week, as part of a bullshit holiday sale. I say it’s bullshit because who’s going to buy someone a digital content game for a present? How are they going to keep it wrapped until Christmas?
“Hey honey, I got your Xmas present today. Just don’t turn on your Xbox for the next four weeks. Or if you do, don’t check your own game library!” Don’t get me wrong, good price for a good game, but come on.
Your right about the Dev he is greedy. I am glad you enjoyed it so do i. But What fuck was he thinking charging 400MS points. I beat all your high scores.
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