It's been a while since any truly interesting Xbox Live Indie (formerly "Community") games have been released, and I say that mostly because the last time I wrote about them was in March, when A Fading Melody came out. Maybe, after playing A Fading Melody, the indie developers all threw up their hands and decided they'd rather just keep making Arkanoid over, and over, and over, and over again, because there's no way they'd be able to top the sidescroller about a coma victim who has to battle evil demons in her dreams in order to keep the darkness from overtaking her. 

Besides, this game doesn't have time travel in it. Totally an original game. Nothing like Braid. Instead, you play as a girl in a coma.

(Full disclosure: I wrote the intro that way just so I could say "Braid" a whole bunch of times, and link this game to it in your mind. Because I like this game, and you like Braid, so saying "Braid" a lot in conjunction with it might tempt you to check it out.)

Melody is in intensive care in a hospital, and you play through her nightmare world, hopping and bopping on enemies and trying to wake her up, all the while learning bits and pieces about how she ended up in her coma. Every time you defeat an enemy, the screen gets a little bit lighter. It also gets periodically darker as time passes, though, so you need to keep killing things in order to stay in the game.



I don't like talking about graphics in games; but this game is simply beautiful. I'm not using "simply" as a filler word there---I mean that the game's graphics are simple, and their simplicity is beautiful. Melody is portrayed as nude and entirely white-colored---kind of like the reverse of the people in the iPod ads. Rain falls lighter and lighter as you help her break free into consciousness, while classical piano music plays on repeat to help soothe you through the frustrating platforming bits.

Of which there are plenty. This isn't exactly Mega Man---there's only seven short levels, and there aren't any powerups, or robots---but it is the kind of platformer that you can only get through after dying a million times, slowly internalizing the level's layout so you know exactly when, where, and how to jump. I don't usually like impossible platformers because they frustrate me. This game frustrated me, too, but it kept me from breaking my controller in half because I didn't have to restart the level, or the game, every time I died. Each level has periodic check points that you go back to if you die, and they make a huge difference.

Anyway, it's a cool game---the only Community Game I've liked enough to actually purchase so far---and it's $5. Definitely check out the trial if you have a 360.

Community Games on Xbox Live are the best, and I say that mostly because:

1) They cost like a dollar or two each, and
2) The indie developers who make them sometimes do interesting things.

2 is not always the case, since so many developers also think it's a great idea to make soduko; but it is the case for a few of the games I've checked out recently.

(Remember, to check out these games yourself, all you have to do is visit the "Community Games" page on Xbox Live and download them right onto your console.)



First, there's DOODLEMAN!!! (exclamation marks and capslock are the developer's, not mine). You play as a little doodled man with the greatest walking animation I've ever seen, and you walk into other doodled men and flail your arms at them until they die. This game is especially great, because the time you're given to play the game in its free trial mode is long enough to get all the entertainment you could possibly want out of it. Also, the soundtrack is just a guy making "doot" noises.



Second, there's Twin Ghost, in which you play as too little lost ghosts trying to reuinte and escape purgatory. It's a cutie. You control each of the ghosts simultaneously---controlling each with one of the Xbox controller's joysticks. It never becomes natural-feeling, but half the fun, for me, was trying to remember which joystick controlled which ghost and trying to make my fingers move them in different directions toward the same objective simultaneously.



Third, there's FallDown, which, if nothing else, is aptly named. The trial for this game is ultra short, so I didn't get too far, but the basic jist is this: You play as one of an assortment of characters that includes...well, just look at the screenshot, and you fall down. The screen's constantly scrolling, so you try to fall down through the gaps without getting stuck and killed. I'm pretty sure you get to unlock new characters or something as you play it.

So that's the latest and greatest of the service. Unfortunately, Microsoft still doesn't allow these games to have Achievemnt Points---so what's the point of buying and playing them, right?---but they're still fun.

Actually, though, on that subject, why doesn't Microsoft let these games have Achievement Points? I'm sure their rationale is that they don't want everyone to make The Achievement Game, in which you turn the game on and get Achievement Points; but, seriously, is it that hard for them to take two seconds to look at these games before they're published, to see if they do something stupid like that? What jerks.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:f76216a8-10b0-41b0-b7dd-2d07ab552222&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Barf And Beer Trailer">Video: Barf And Beer Trailer</a>

You know I'm not making that one up, because I have the game's trailer to prove it.

From the game's official description: "Chug your beer as fast as you can! Drink too much without burping and you’ll puke, wasting valuable drinking time! Punch your opponents while they’re burping to make THEM puke! Test your drinking skills against up to three other human or computer players at five difficulty levels!"

It's like somebody transformed my college roommates into a videogame. (That sounds like a stupid joke based on a cliche, but it's still a pretty accurate statement.)

If that Community Game doesn't tickle your fancy, this next one surely will. Kinda literally.



From the game's description: "Take control of someone else's controller to give them a soothing massage, either locally or over XBox Live. Solo mode lets you use your own controller to relax. Different vibration settings allow you to give the massage you want to give or receive. Supports voice chat so you can request the perfect massage. Great for long distance relationships."

Community Games on Xbox Live are hard to locate. Or, at least, they were a week or so ago, the last time I checked. Maybe things have changed since then. If they have, you can skip the next two sentences, because they're going to tell you how to find Community Games. If you go to the Community Games section of Xbox Live, it only shows you two or three games, none of which are all that interesting. In order to find the rest, you have to go to the "New Arrivals" section.

The reason you'd want to do this, besides downloading and playing In the Pit, the entirely graphicsless game I talked about here a few weeks ago, is to download and Play Swords & Monsters. S&M is a "minimalist" game that you could, literally, beat dozens and dozens of times in the short time limit Xbox lets you play its Community games for before demanding that you give them money. I was easily able to get all three endings with enough time to spare to call my girlfriend over and show her how to get all three endings, too.

Don't believe me? Try it. The game boils down the RPG genre to its absolute barest essentials, and I enjoyed it enough to seriously consider buying it, even though doing so is pointless from the consumer's standpoint. If only Microsoft let Community Games have achievements....

Speaking of minimalist games, though, if you enjoy Swords & Monsters, here's a few other (free) ones you could check out:

Quest for the Crown
You Have To Burn The Rope

And, if you don't have a 360, here's Swords & Monsters for the PC: http://www.mediafire.com/file/yhyv2zyzny5/SwordsAndMonsters117.zip