John Curry Writes:
"Sierra studios brings us Aces of the Galaxy, a space shooter available on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. It is becoming more obvious to me that I miss the good old fashioned shooting style space games. Unfortunately, often times in order to get enjoy the games of yesteryear we must give up the graphic advancements that we have been blessed with. At least I thought we did."
"To begin with there are three difficulty settings for you to choose from, Easy, Normal, Difficult. Once you have selected your difficulty it is time to select your ship. There is no information given regarding the differences between the ships and based on trying out the three ships the only real difference between them is cosmetic. You have three weapons to use on your ship. You have a rail gun that you will use most of the time, torpedo's that you will use on larger ships, and a set of seeker missiles that you will be able to use on a varying amount of ships depending on how long you hold x and select the different ships."
"This game is a great addition to the XBLA and a game that I hope picks up some popularity on the arcade so that we can expect to see some sequels. While fun to play it does grow a little monotonous but not so much that you get up and walk away never to return. You will enjoy this game. If you have a need for some hardcore gaming with a good mixture of difficulty and graphics this game is definitely for you."
RunDLC posted an article listing its top five underrated Xbox Live Arcade games. The list includes Poker Smash and Rocket Riot.
I bought Rocket Riot when it was on sale for 400 points. It's awesome old school gameplay with really nice art direction. The later levels demand old school perseverance though :)
Resumeplay writes: "Developed by Black Fire Games, Alien Dominion: the Acronian Encounter is a high-flying shooter set in space where you have been signed on as the gunner on a spaceship. Before I get into that, I thought I’d mention the activation of the game because it was different than most that I’ve played. Once you buy the game, you copy your serial number and start the game. The serial number is saved on your clipboard and the full version of the game is then activated. To make sure you’ve done it correctly, the timer at the top should no longer be counting down. It was easy and painless, unless you have difficulty copying and pasting. I saw that a few people on the developer’s site felt that the game should be included on Steam. But, I think they’re doing pretty well with what they’re doing now. However, Steam would be a definitely good way to keep track of the game, your information and maybe have some achievements to share with your friends."
Sounds like a whole game like that "defend the hull" mini-game in Dead Space. Which was cool for awhile, but I can't see a whole game out of it.
Yeah, it was fun just to jump into a mission and go crazy shooting up enemies but after 30 or so minutes, I was pretty much done.
Games32 writes: "In this age of Pixel Shaders, MMOs and DirectX 10, "Aces of the Galaxy" comes as a blast from the past, to remind us that arcade games are still out there, alive and kicking. Do you have what it takes to fly your spaceship through the numerous meteor belts while destroying every single enemy ship on screen?
Arcade games are somewhat of a rarity nowadays since everything seems to revolve around huge skill trees, moral choices, higher Fps or resource hoarding. What happened to those games that we used to play when we were growing up? Yes, I'm talking about the platform games that would keep us up at night trying to make that final, difficult jump and to those easy, yet challenging arcade games.
"Aces of the Galaxy" not only brings back memories of those games, but also manages to do what others have failed: to become a good game by its own, and not depend on nostalgia to keep its fan base."
