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Hello all, this is Your Friendly Neighborhood Satanist asking you a simple question, what game featured on the Xbox Arcade's "Summer of Arcade" did you get the most fun out of? So let's present the few quality games we got over the Summer Drought (other than Catherine at the beginning of the summer... WANT)

Let's start off with a small little title about a small little kid in a big mess of Calamity;

Bastion



Bastion is an action-adventure RPG that blew many people away with its awesome aesthetics, fun combat, and of course, the Narrator. However, Bastion is the only game in recent memory that actually meshes Gameplay and Story, as you play the game, the Narrator tells a story of your actions. Isn't this what we've been waiting for? HOO-RAH!


Now onto some God Game action;

From Dust



From Dust was a title we heard about a year ago at E3 2010 from Ubisoft that made us raise an eyebrow then get back to fanboying over the inordinate amount of games to be released later in the year. The player takes control of an entity known as "The Breath" that must create land for the "special" villagers to get across lava, water, exploding trees, and fire trees to make enough villages to open a portal to the next level. The final sandbox level adds a lot of potential sadistic scenarios for any cruel gamer, and the game makes a transition about half-way through from God Game to a half-way Survival Game due to a steep difficulty curve.


Phone app meets console in the only KINECT compatible title this summer;

Fruit Ninja KINECT



Eh... I never wanted anything to do with this one. I like the Kinect and all, and the tech behind it is pretty impressive and it totally blows Move and the Wii out of the water, but it's a phone app on a console. Never played it, if someone wants to spot me some cash I'll play it and review it.


Enter one of the most awesome game names of all time in a super-special-awesome font;

[h2]Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet[/h2]



ISTP is, well, an insane and twisted game based around exploring a large Shadow Planet. It's very similar to Metroid's gameplay, finding paths to places you can't go because of a certain blockage, finding a tool in the Insane Shadow Planet that just happens to open that one kind of blockage and nothing else, and of course there are collectibles. ISTP has a very Insane aesthetic featuring Twisted black Shadows highlighted with a few specks of color here and there all over the Planet (let's see how long I can do this). It's a very striking art style and gives the world a very unique and kinda creepy vibe, still doesn't beat LIMBO in spookiness, the Insanely action-packed Twisted bosses litter the Shadow Planet and never give the game the mellow and dark mood it deserves. I still dug that little grabby-thingy-arm-weapon that you start the game with.


Well, enough ISTP jokes! Onto the only sequel on this list;

Toy Soldiers: Cold War



The gritty sequel to a gritty game, Toy Soldiers: Cold War plays nearly exactly like the original WW1-based game. The towers, vehicles, and units have all been changed from British and German palettes to Soviet and American ones, and there are now deployable "Kill Streaks" bonuses. Ever wonder what Plastic Rambo can do to an entire platoon of invading Soviet infantrymen? 50x baby. The game is incredibly fun and maintains the same Tower Defense/ Real-Time Strategy feel, but the fact its set in the Cold War has turned me off a little. The original was based in WW1, an environment barely used in games. It was unique, and because of the lack of any knowledge of the actual war other than politics, I had to slap myself a few times while playing the original to tell myself that Wilhelm NEVER built giant tanks that looked like wagons, but it was still fun to see the developers run away with their imagination. There is one Tower based around reminding the player they're in a Toy Box, but its only one unique thing in a sea of generic Cold War themes.


Well, there's the list. Rock of Ages hasn't been out for too long, and I haven't played it too long, but if you have by now, do tell how it is, and how it compares to the above games.

Btw, Your Friendly Neighborhood Satanist ADORES From Dust. Maybe it's the fact he's got a God Game bug up his butt, but the truth is his first game on a current-gen console was Viva Pinata: TIP. Yay From Dust!

-Chillz