xbox live indie game reviews

I blasted Crystal Crush for having lackluster gameplay and costing too much (400 points), but I can't use either of those complaints on RunningPixel's followup game, bricks4ever. At first, I thought the game was just going to be a basic Breakout clone. It turns out I was right--it does have a basic Breakout clone... only neon. Across all three gametypes, a standard complement of Breakout powerups awaits you (shrink, grow, speed up, slow down, glue, lasers, etc...). More than the standard level-based "kill all the blocks to advance" mode, though, I really enjoyed their twists on the standard mechanic.

Zen Mode is a cool idea--kind of like a mix between breakout and a rail shooter. Blocks continuously fall from the sky, though they'll self-destruct if they get too low. Your goal is to take out as many of the bricks as possible before they hit the self-destruct line. You have both a regular point-score and a percent score showing how many blocks you were able to destroy. Because you have infinite lives, you can tactically let the ball pass and then shoot a new ball wherever you like. My only complaint for Zen Mode is that it goes for way way way too long. I'd enjoy a handful of more tightly focused, scripted levels (like a normal rail shooter) much more than the current incarnation--one single level that eventually gets a bit tedious.

The namesake of the game, "4Ever Mode", is where the game really shines. Like Zen Mode, blocks will continuously drop from the top of the screen. Instead of getting zapped when they fall too low, though, they'll just sit there until you clear them out. Once the bottom row is cleared, the blocks above resume falling until a new "bottom" row settles.

Besides improving the Zen Mode, there are a couple of other places the game could use a little polish. When you first load the game, cryptic text reads: "In the beginning there was darkness...". Eventually the game lays out a really hokey sci-fi story about "Neons", but unfortunately the story is littered with misspellings (I believe the developers are Italian)--apparently the universe is "infinitive" and the Neons were born in the first "istants" of the universe. These are small distinctions, to be sure, but when playing Community Games most players are looking for any reason to dismiss the games.

The trial mode could also do a better job of guiding you to the 4Ever Mode--when I first tried this game a couple of days ago I only played the regular Breakout levels. With 50 levels and a nice level of polish (other than the opening screen), I was pretty close to giving this one a thumbs up already. The Zen mode could use a little work, but when you toss in the 4Ever mode (and I haven't even tried the 2-player mode yet) this game definitely gives you some value--bricks4ever is worth the points.