Wasn’t broke, hasn’t been fixed
Attentive viewers might recall a little Xbox Indie Games gem that WoSblog uncovered last year by the name of Decimation X. Now the sequel is out – ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Decimation X3!
(Hang on, what?)
It turns out that Decimation X2 was a Windows Phone 7 version. Well, that's that mystery solved.
Anyway, Decimation X3 is just as fantastic as its (grand)parent, largely because it's pretty much the same game. The slightly rubbish graphics, which used to look like an Amiga PD game from 1992, have been overhauled in favour of a more neo-retro pixelly style, and every couple of waves you get a mini-boss character that's just one of the normal baddies blown up to about 30 times the size, but otherwise it's hard to detect any significant changes.
You can conduct your own inspection by downloading the trial version for free, but to be honest I was happy to pay the 65p (80 MS Points) just for the fancy graphics and the minibosses, which break things up pleasantly.
(It does also feel a bit harder than the original, but that could just be me being out of practice.)
(EDIT: Oh, I forgot – there's a Challenge mode, which is the normal game except you never get any shields, which I don't think was in DX1. So there's something extra for your money.)
Decimation X, everybody! Now there is another one of it!
Have you tried Score Rush yet? It's a bullet-hell twin-stick game. Costs 80M$P and is the most frantic thing I've seen. Somehow, everything is still pretty clear even with a screen full of bullets.
Needs decent leaderboard support but is very polished for such a cheap game.
May I suggest also REVOLVER360
Score Rush definitely has the funk, and has been duly purchased. Revolver 360, not so much. If you're going to ask 240 MS Points for an Indie game, it damn well better be three times as good as the amazing games I can get for 80, and it better be OBVIOUSLY three times as good, because it's got two minutes tops to impress me. Not even telling me what I'm supposed to be doing or what half of the controls are doesn't cut the mustard.
Oh well, the 240 MS are justified (I guess by the author at least) by the graphics quality. In a recent update the author added a static intro screen that tries (not so successfully) to explain the mechanics (which are anyway better detailed in the "how to play" menu option).
In short anyway: A shoots, X fires laser (which also destroys enemy bullets, except the bigger ones), Y is the smart bomb, and the LT and RT triggers make the background (and everything inside it) revolve around its axis (hence the name), which creates interesting mechanics as you can often revolve the screen to put all the enemies in line and wipe them out with a laser shot.
I’ve seen plenty of better graphics on 80MSP games, such as Toy Stunt Bike. The game itself is confusing and untidy and I don’t think it’s got a hope in hell at the premium price.