No, that’s not Seth Godin’s head up there. (At least… I don’t think it is…)
You Don’t Know Jack is a trivia game from Chicago developer, Jellyvision. It was first introduced in 1995 as a PC CD-ROM title published by Berkeley Systems, whom you might remember as the people who made the “flying toasters” screensaver for your Windows 3.11 machine. Needless to say, YDKJ is the best thing that ever came out of that company. Billed with the tagline, “where high culture and pop culture collide”, YDKJ was (and is) the most well-written trivia game ever made. After spawning a few sequels and spinoffs (e.g. sports), the game disappeared in 2000 and was only recently brought back in a web format in winter of 2006-2007. YDKJ’s charm comes from it’s ability to seamlessly weave stuff like the movie Juno together with Roman mythology in creating trivia questions that will either make you feel smart, or borderline retarded. Either way, you’ll still be having fun.
With the rise in popularity of games such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Singstar, the amalgamation of music and interactivity has reached the mainstream masses in recent years. As more and more people are exposed to music games, the complaint of “I don’t like the song list they have.” invariably surfaces sooner or later. Since it’s virtually impossible to cater to each and every person’s musical tastes, developers have done their best to have a little something for everyone. But what if you could use any song you have as the basis for such a game? Not just as a soundtrack, but as a crucial foundation to how the game is played. That’s exactly the basis for independent developer, Invisible Handlebar’s upcoming release, Audiosurf.
Welcome to the inaugural entry in a new ongoing feature series highlighting gaming’s best independent titles. If music and movies can have their “indie” titles be cutting edge and hip, why can’t games? The advent of digital distribution and micro transactions in the gaming industry has allowed more independent developers a shot at producing quality titles without a huge budget. While you may or may not have heard of the titles featured in these spotlights, rest assured that they come wholly recommended and are solid purchases for your gaming library.
Undertow is a new Xbox Live Arcade game from Chair Entertainment available for purchase today for 800 MS points ($10). The developer is best known for employing many of the driving forces behind the 2005 adventure game Advent Rising. They are also involved with Ender’s Game author, Orson Scott Card, in developing games based on the author’s Empire universe.
The game is essentially a 2d Battlefield 1942 that plays like Geometry Wars. Players use the left thumbstick to move their character and the right thumbstick to shoot in 8 directions. In addition, players can drop depth charges (read: grenades) with the left trigger and dash with the right trigger. Each team starts off with a certain amount of “tickets” with the goal being to deplete the other team’s ticket total. To accomplish this, teams vie for the control of several “bases” on the map. The more bases your team controls, the faster the opposing ticket count will decrease.
