Wouldn't it be nice to come home from work and play some VOOT? I think so, but usually there's nobody playing at that time. So instead, I usually play Catan or Magic: The Gathering to wind down after work. Anybody on my friends list already knows this, though.
Catan:
When I downloaded Catan, I thought "eh, this might be alright." I only got it based on reviews and recommendations. I had never played the game before, I generally don't play board games, and it seemed odd to use this console that was supposed to be a shmup machine to play a board game. But here I am, still playing it regularly over a year later. Simple and addictive.
Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers:
I could write a ridiculously long essay about this, but I'll try to keep it short. The XBLA version of Magic is basically a marketing tool to get new players into the game, enticing them to move on to paper Magic or Magic The Gathering Online (i.e., give all their money to Wizards of the Coast). Pretty brilliant, actually.
The gameplay is just like the card game, but they watered down the game by only allowing you to use pre-constructed decks (there are a dozen or so), and you can only modify those decks to a certain extent. They say they did this to prevent experienced players from destroying the n00bs, but really it's to artificially limit the game so that people don't just settle for this and not blow all their money on "real" Magic.
I forgot how much I liked this game (I used to play way back in '94/'95), but I like not being broke, so I'm sticking with the XBLA version for now. Climbing the leaderboards my current obsession.
Tetris Splash:
The Tetris The Grand Master games are better than this, but this has an active online community on XBL, so this is what I play. There are some crazy good players; check out some of the Round 3 videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TSpinWeekly
Not Tetris Splash, but here's good demo of how good people get at Tetris (I think this is one of the Tetris Splash regulars, I forget his Gamertag, though):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va21OTQt ... re=related
STGT '10 (Shooting Game Tournament 2010)
Shmups Forum has been having these since '06. The format has changed a little over the years, but the basic principle is the same: a shmup gets picked, you get one week to get the highest score you can, repeat for 5 or 6 weeks. Both individual and team points are awarded at the end of every week. The competition is pretty intense.
It can be fun, but inevitably you get stuck playing some games you don't really like, but you sink tons of time into it to keep your ranking up. Normally I try to play every week, but this year I told my team I'll play very little, if at all.
Speaking of shmups, looks like we have a few shmup fans here.
MasterFygar wrote:I've also been playing Raiden IV and Raiden Fighters Aces pretty obsessively.
I only played Raiden IV once or twice, but it seemed alright. I really liked Raiden Fighters Jet until I started playing it for score; now I can't stand it.
MasterFygar wrote:The Mr. Driller series has also commanded my attention lately.
As it should. I've been neglecting that game ever since I stuffed my Dreamcast away in the closet. I never could quite get to the end. I've also been meaning to pick up the DS version.
Fredo wrote:Dangun Feveron
Good man.
It'll be sweet when this comes out for Xbox (presumably XBLA). Leaderboards are much more gratifying than posting a score to a message board.
Zaarock wrote:Will be playing ESPGaluda 2 every once in a while, I like the game a lot compared to other cave shmups.
Honestly it's one of my least favorite Cave games. The scoring system just doesn't click with me; for Xbox360 Cave games I'd much rather go with Futari or Ketsui.
Zaarock wrote:Twinklestar Sprites is probably sweet too but havent played it with anyone online yet.
I've never played it online, but it is a really fun game.
Also, I'm surprised by two things:
1. Zaarock's post didn't just say "Castlevania"
2. He had enough time to post despite playing Castlevania
chunkypuff31 wrote:shamanic_beat wrote:Learning how to play Mushihime-sama Futanari right now.
Oh god, please tell me that's not refering to what I think it's refering to.
Thankfully, no. Shamanic is either trying to be funny, or his Freudian Slip is showing.