My Top 7 XBLIG games I played in 2012

Ok yes I’m jumping on this bandwagon but with a bit of a change as these aren’t all going to be games that were released in 2012, but games I’ve played in 2012 so they could be old titles still knocking around. Also while I’d love to include some games I played pre 2012 as I haven’t played some of them this year I’m leaving them out. Also now it's a bit after everyone else's did theirs so it hopefully won't feel as much like more of the same.




7)




Trailer park King episode 1


Ok this might seem like a strange choice considering the series is now up to the more technically superior trailer Park King 3DD but this first one launched the series right and while I went in expecting a terrible game trying to use boobs to sell. Under it I found a very old school style of game, the old point and click adventures. OK so the puzzles aren’t exactly going to blow your mind in this one but it works for it by giving a fun and not frustrating little adventure. Not the mention the fact its story is almost fully self contained meaning you don’t feel like you’ve been left hanging story wise. Sure it was open to a sequel and has loose ends but it’s an ending that works with the questions being the kind for the most part won’t drive you mad due to their lack of answer. With it's own slightly warped sense of humour this game really does deserve to be on this list as if you enjoyed American Pie and the Mighty Boosh, chances are this games humour will hit spot on with its mix of insanity and crude.

6)



JellyFish MD
When I went into this game initially I really thought I’d seen almost every puzzle game style that could be done turns out I was wrong as somehow Jellyfish MD managed to create a sort of 3D puzzle game the kind which Tetris wishes it could have managed all that time ago on the N64. It’s one of those weird games that is simple and somehow as addictive as bejewelled without joining the pile of bejewelled rip offs on the XBLIG marketplace (seriously there’s at least 3 now)

5)



President John America, saves America.
Coming in at this spot is one of the more controversial games I’ve looked at, one that I found to be a team American esc parody of America as seen through the eyes of the rest of the world. Or a worrying look into the developers own world view of how they believe America should be. Honestly the jury is out on that one still but to me the game reminded me of an old game I loved playing from my past. Power Mad, the game of insane dictators. The difference between this and the turn based easy to play strategy of power mad is this is a trading simulator too. Oh and not one of those simple trading simulators either, there are no turns as such it’s all done in real time. You play John America the president and it’s up to you with a helicopter to sort out Americas entire debt problem via trading. Or later on mysterious terrorist raids to “liberate” the country and its assets from dictators. Which in itself goes into a boss fight style system.
For having the guts to do something different its earned its place at number 5.

4)



T.e.c. 3001
If at the start of 2012 someone would have told me I’d play a game in the “Runner” genre and be giving it high praise, I’d have laughed in their face. T.e.c. 3001 somehow managed to do what should be impossible and reinvent the runner. Kind of like how Jetpack Joyride sort of has. T.E.C. 3001 just did everything better. Free movement, cooler moves to do , with a decent sound track and a slick style, with very nice models and animation. Add to that some pretty nice mechanics backing it up and variations in the game along with multiple routes on some levels and you have a runner game that really is far above any other on the market. Seriously if this where on IOS or android Temple run would be a distant memory. What stopped it going higher than 4th on this list was simply the fact it was just a runner when honestly with all the work done it almost seemed a shame it wasn’t a third person shooter or something more complicated as honestly it seems like it could easily be one and work very well.



3)



Along came a spider.

It’s strange for me to put a game on here due to its artistic merit but that is in part why Along came a spider gets this spot, if someone were to ask me to define what being an indie game is about I really would have to point at this game. It’s so vibrant and oddly different with a minimalistic art style. There is however also a fairly enjoyable and innovative platformer under it too letting you feel liek you’re playing a spider by climbing obstacles and even producing threads to hang and swing off.




2)



DLC quest.

Ah my love of video games doing parodies is a long one and this game manages to fit in with some of the best for its tiny $1 price tag. If you’ve every hated some aspects of the DLC culture then this is the game for you where DLC and adventure somehow combine. The jokes are pretty good and the game itself doesn’t play too bad. Offering plenty to find and plenty of DLC in game to buy using the in game currency. It really is an hour or so well spent to laugh at the absurd nature of it all and to just see where it will go next.


1)



Dead Pixels
While XBLIG was packed with Zombie games I really did think there could never be anything new and great emerge without sending all of them back to being dead again. Turns out I was wrong as this Grindhouse styled 8 bit Zombie survival game managed to come out and entirely break the mould. This is one of the few games to make survival actually fun and not seem like hours of slowly crawling through a field to avoid detection from 2 zombies. This game gives everyone the zombie survival experience of the films, hunting for ammo, hunting for stuff to trade and blowing zombies up. An amazing little game that only costs $1 (or $3 on steam) yet somehow has almost an RPG esc set of systems behind it. You know what else though. The game got free DLC added to it in the form of a co-op mode (Offline of course) and a survival mode. This is a lot of game for such a small price right there it deserved its place here at number 1 and hopefully will sell well on steam and prove that there’s more to games from XBLIG than clones of more popular games and cleavage shots.