Static Zombie

Summer of Arcade

XBox Live Arcade has published a pair of truly excellent games in the past month. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is stellar. I enjoyed the original game, but it was just too hard for me. I think I only managed to unlock one or two achievements, and my games just never lasted all that long. The sequel keeps the same basic mechanics and look-- think Robotron meets Vectrex-- but offers six different modes of play which keep things fresh and exciting. Best of all, many of the games are designed not to last long. The Deadline mode even imposes a three minute time limit and gives you unlimited lives. Perfect! Now instead of feeling like a spaz because I can't stay alive, I can merely feel inadequate as I see friends achieving absurd scores on the leaderboards.

Speaking of which, the design of the leaderboards is genius. The game select screen shows you six leaderboards at once, displaying the top six scores for all of the game modes. But only from among your friends. This is how it should be-- just as with politics, all gaming rivalry is local. I don't care where I rank in the universe, but seeing friends overtake my scores motivates me to try harder. The game even goes a step further. During gameplay, the upper-right corner of the screen always shows the name and score of the person just above you on the leaderboard, essentially showing you the target you need to hit to go up a rank. Brilliant! "Curse you and your third thumb, Tabasq-- I'll catch you yet!" *

My favorite mode is called Pacifism. No guns, just you, a horde of blue diamonds that swarm towards you in mesmerizing schooling formations, and gates you can fly through to destroy the beasties that follow you. It's a Zen slalom as you become your ship, deftly riding the collapsing pipeline between two colliding waves of diamonds on the way to a gate that is slowly rotating away from you. The ends of the gates are deadly, so the game is all about precision and timing, and it's far more compelling than it has any right to be.

The other breakout release is Braid, a puzzle platform game with literary aspirations (some might say "pretentions"). The game sports a unique watercolor look and innovative mechanics. Each of the game's six worlds offers a different take on reversing the flow of time. In one world, doing so creates a shadow image of yourself that repeats all the actions you just rewound, while your "real" self is free to do other things. In another world moving to the right advances time, but moving to the left rewinds time-- which can be maddening when you need to go left and want time to advance normally! There's very little filler here-- all the levels display an economy of design wherein everything serves a purpose. If a potential solution seems complex, it's probably not the intended approach. Finding the simple, elegant solutions is marvelously rewarding.

After solving words 2, 3, and 5, I'm stuck in world 4 but refuse to search You Tube for the solution. Braid harkens back to the age of Infocom text adventures, when I'd spend all day in school working a puzzle over in my head and then anxiously watch the clock, eager to hurry home and try out the ideas I'd come up with. The internet has killed the joy of these kinds of games by putting all the answers at your fingertips. It's so very hard to resist the temptation for instant gratification, and most players can't. The days of being stuck in a game for days, possibly even weeks, are long gone-- and with them, the satisfaction and triumph of finally figuring out the solution for yourself. I'm determined to recapture that feeling with Braid which is exactly what the author intended, as illustrated by his official walkthrough.

The W and I have enjoyed playing the game together-- usually with me on the controller, and she making the brilliant insight needed to solve the level.

Both games are well worth your hard-earned Microsoft points.

* No, actually, I probably never will.