Game Tunnel is proud to publish the July Independent Video Game round-up, the latest in our long-running Famitsu-styled panels that review all the latest Indie PC games. The 10 games reviewed this month include the physics-based puzzle game Obulis, the PuzzleQuest made even easier Puzzle Hero and the appropriately titled Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble.

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Is there a better name for a game out there? I challenge you to find one. While the name may lead you to think it's something that's factors of ten more lascivious than Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball, this game is actually a really creative and engaging take on the willful shenanigans of a squad of teen schoolgirls back in the roaring '20s.

The game is structured like a board game, but it's really just you versus the forces at school that seek to one-up your ladies at social skullduggery. By taking on such actions as taunting (think insult sword-fighting from Monkey Island), fibbing (played via a brief card game), and exposing (a fill in the blanks word game) or various other options, the girls in your squad uncover scandals and slights around the school. The girls can also attach themselves to boyfriends, who will sacrifice themselves to save their ladies should they encounter any troubles. Top to bottom, the game is filled with charm. Playing it feels a little disjointed (due to how interchangeable so many of the progression elements have to be), and it takes some time to get used to the swing of things in the game, but this was a thoroughly engrossing experience for me, with a great style to match its content.

Pany Haritatos: 8

I've never played a game quite like this. It is part board game, with a distinct Clue feel to it, and part mini-game collection. I'm a sucker for unique experiences, and this certainly is one. The visual style is consistent from start to finish and really enhances, along with the audio, the flapper theme. The mini-game challenges aren't especially deep, but each one packs just enough charm to keep it interesting. As a whole the story elements presented are intriguing and compelling enough to keep you hunting for just one more clue to help solve the mystery. There are a plethora of characters to pick from and interact with, each with their own distinct personality. Backed by some fun and quirky writing, it rounds out the great experience that is Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble.

Coby Utter: 8

Everything about DHSGIT is unorthodox. The visuals, the gameplay, even the quirky classic music. A person would think that trying to tie together all these totally unique elements would result in a mess of a game, and that person would be totally wrong. I had no idea what to expect with this game, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's hard to define what kind of game DHSGIT is, because it is unlike anything else out there. Hopefully without doing it too much injustice, I would say it is somewhere between a social simulation and a light role playing game.

Essentially, you are the queen of a gang of high school girls who go about finding all kinds of gossip and secrets, while precariously trying to stay out of trouble. There is a set of mini-games that you can play to initiate girls into your gang, coerce information out of people, and avoid detention and other troubles. Each girl has strengths and weakness that develop as you continue playing. Along with these mini-games, there is extremely well written conversations between characters that help progress the story.

The only detractor of DHSGIT is the fun factor. It is definitely a compelling experience, and very engaging, but it was hard to qualify as fun. With that in mind, everyone should at least try DSHGIT, and expand their mind to a new gaming experience.

Russ Carroll: 10

Every once in a while a game comes along that just stuns me with how clever and different it is. DHSGiT is a game that I had been avoiding playing for awhile, because just look at that title! Look at the screenshot! Seriously, what am I looking at? Is this a game for teenage girls?

The answer is no, sort of. I don't have any idea who this game is for honestly, but I love it. It reminds me of playing D&D in the college dorms. The game play calls itself a 'classic' board game, and the basic play certainly occurs on a board. However, the play proceeds more like a D&D campaign, with different areas that I can picture in my mind being divided by cardboard and brief descriptions coming from the dungeon master as he weaves the story along. Honestly, the setting for this game is freakish. You are a girl, getting a band of girls together as you unravel what's happening at the school through a series of mini-games that are unlike anything you've seen (to the point that calling them mini-games seems like an insult). DHSGiT is quirky goodness at its utmost and though I may not be able to describe it, I definitely recommend it. HIGHLY!

Michael Scarpelli: 8

Obulis is a game that sold me very simply on its gameplay mechanic. Obulis is a puzzler that requires you to drop balls from chains into receptacles of the same color. Super simple. However, the addition of needing to manage the arc and bounce and weight of the ball on its way to the goal is what makes solving these puzzles less rigid puzzle solving and more finesse. I never felt like I just plain couldn't solve something, I was always able to experiment my way through, which is always a good sign for a puzzle game.

You click on the chain that holds a ball up to select it, and right-click to break it and cause the ball to drop. Using that knowledge and timing, you can solve everything in the game.

Simple gameplay with a wide variety of puzzle applications and possibilities and an elegant presentation. What more can you want from a game?

Pany Haritatos: 8

This physics based puzzler game is a joy to experience. The polish that the developer has applied here is apparent in every facet of the game. The difficulty progression, level design, gameplay, graphics and audio are all of the highest caliber. I can only really describe the gameplay as a purely physics based version of the Incredible Machine, but certainly not at all like the recent Barrel Mania. Instead of weird contraptions and half-baked gimmicks, Obulis focuses on fundamental physics. An orb swinging on the end of a rope, for example, is generally all you get to start the cascading set of interactions to solve most challenges. The game starts off super easy, but gets challenging fairly quickly. Some of the later levels with time based elements like moving platforms and smashing pillars are particularly difficult, but I never felt like moving forward was impossible. I highly recommend Obulis. From the moment you start playing, you can tell just how much effort has gone into its development, and it pays off in the form of a polished, unique and engrossing puzzle game

Coby Utter: 9

Obulis is...mesmerizing. There are so many great things to say about this game, I'm not really sure where to start. The presentation is stunning, the gameplay is intriguing and fun, and the challenge is superb. Be warned, once this game hooks you, hours will vanish.
The game finds immense beauty in its simplicity. The subtle animations, crisp imagery, and sharp UI all cohesively meld into a terrific visceral experience. The visuals are complemented by soothing music, although the sound effects often seem slightly out of place. Obulis is not about the flash and sparkles, but the overall impression is vastly superior to many other games out there.

But what is beauty without solid gameplay? That's not a concern with Obulis. The core mechanic is approachable and simple, and additional mechanics are introduced at just the right pace as the challenge evolves. The game starts with several easy puzzles, but then ramps up the difficulty pretty quickly. In short, the game gets hard. It's a good difficulty though, as very few puzzles felt impossible and I was rarely frustrated. That is a difficult line to walk, and Obulis does it with grace.

The only shortcomings were a few technical issues. Occasionally the physics felt unnaturally stiff, and I came across a few bugs in the system. These were hardly an issue though, and even less of a concern. Obulis has that 'something extra' which makes it exceptionally fun, extremely addictive, and even more rewarding.

Russ Carroll: 8

Obulis is a physics-based game that is a lot of fun. Some of the time.

The game feels somewhat similar to Crayon Physics and Armadillo Run in that you are trying to get object 'A' to point 'B' by using physics and your own ingenuity. In the case object 'A' is one or more balls. The balls are either sitting on the board or hung by strings such that you need to create some motion by cutting the strings to begin a chain reaction that gets the balls to their end point. What is unique in this game is the focus on timing and precision during game play. Cutting a string at just the right moment will get your ball moving at just the right speed to make the correct interaction appear. What makes the game sometimes frustrating is timing multiple events precisely. Making a split-second mistake on string 3 will kill everything making some of the later levels a bit frustrating. Still, Obulis is beautiful, has great sound, and is very challenging in a good way. If you like physics-based games, I highly recommend it.

Michael Scarpelli: 8

Stardrone is a game that has aspects of its gameplay that would probably drive me crazy if the game itself wasn't so kinetic and colorful and fancy that I forgot all about the fact that its broken in several ways.

I'm not sure how to explain the gameplay for this one. You shoot a star from a cannon and then, as it approaches various spinning gravity centers, you can grab the star and whip it around in circles, attempting to control its arc and speed as you send it further on in the level, only to be grabbed again by another gravity center.

The goal for each level is usually to find the exit, sometimes needing to activate certain markers on the level in the process. You don't actually control the star directly, needing to use your gravity centers to rocket it around the stage, which makes things pretty dicey at times.

Okay, here's a decent analogy, it's like a mash-up of pinball and a racing game. You want to bounce off things to get points and bonuses, but you're always getting sped up as you go, which makes it harder and harder to avoid hitting obstacles like spikes and just plain "driving" right off the track.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun (with some mixed frustrations) playing this one… but it can be tricky to figure out just how those gravity centers are going to work or which one, in fact, will grab your star and this can lead to frequent and maddening deaths which may turn some gamers off.

Pany Haritatos: 8

Stardrone is a blast. The gameplay is fun, unique, and addictive. The experience is fast, exhilarating, and challenging but also generally not too hard. The graphics and atmosphere are great and they are supported by subtle audio choices that results in a very hypnotic experience. It earned some extra brownie points for its Starcontrol references. The biggest gripe I had with Stardrone is that I found the controls totally confusing at first. After I realized what was going on though, I spent the next few hours in Stardrone bliss. This is definitely a game worth taking for a spin.

Coby Utter: 7

The core mechanic of Stardrone, using orbital momentum to guide your drone around anchors, is very novel. This novelty is both Stardone's biggest strength and greatest detractor. It took me several levels, and often several tries per level, to finally feel comfortable swinging my drone around activating the stars and collecting other various items. Once the gameplay finally felt natural, I was rapidly flying around the levels, but never felt completely 'in control'. After a few more levels of this, repetition began to set in, and my interest started to wane.

Stardrone's presentation is top notch. The visuals are very clean and vibrant, and there is lots of action on the screen at all time. The end of level effects are particularly epilepsy inducing. The music is fitting, but certain sound effects were bland. All of the particles and effects come at a price though, and the game suffered slow down frequently on my mid-range machine.

Stardrone is a bit unforgiving, a bit repetitive, and often left me wanting much, much more. However, it is very nice to see such an unusual mechanic, and the attention to detail by the developers pushes Stardrone slightly above the bar.

Russ Carroll: 7

There are moments when Stardrone is pure bliss. Unfortunately there are also moments when you just pray for the level to end.

In the game you use objects to swing you through space by activating their gravity as you fly by. It's been done many times before, but usually the result is not a fun game. Stardrone for the first 30 minutes or so is really REALLY a LOT of fun with some glimpses of the challenges that await. Those challenges are longer more difficult levels that will present thousands of ways for you to die and will require absolute perfection to continue on. When you are perfect it is a great feeling, but then I'm not perfect MOST of the time which lead me to feeling frustrated to the point of giving up by the time I got to the game's midway point. The visuals are beautiful, feeling halfway between Geometry Wars and The Magic Blackboard. At it's best it's a splendid journey that will leave you awestruck, at it's worst it's a trial of frustration that will leave you cursing.

Michael Scarpelli: 6

Puzzle Hero is a pretty shameless rip-off of Puzzle Quest, which is in turn just an adaptation of Bejeweled. Just as Alex Gordon is a kid's version of a platformer, this is a kid's version of Puzzle Quest.

I give the game points for effort for bothering to include animated combat at the top of the screen to keep the game a little more visually interesting, but at the same time, the combat pales in comparison to Puzzle Quest, where spells that affect the entire field of battle are the order of the day. Puzzle Hero devolves combat to be a pretty simply matching formula. The draw of Puzzle Quest combat was being able to change the face of the tiles available to you to create brutal cascading combos, and you just can't do that here.

Short of having a fairly offensive piece of racial character design for one enemy (tribal shaman, I'm looking at you), the game is friendly and enjoyable, if not challenging. Again, this is probably a solid by for younger gamers, or the very casual. It didn't hold my interest for terribly long, though.

Pany Haritatos: 8

Puzzle Hero fixes everything I couldn't stand about Puzzle Quest. Where Puzzle Quest was heavy, overwhelming and packed with more things than I really knew what to do with, Puzzle Hero focuses on the core mechanic, keeping all the RPG and questing elements light enough so that they don't get in the way. I could not tear myself away from the game once I started it up. The graphics are really charming and the audio is up to snuff. As a whole, the game has plenty of juice and makes you feel awesome for casting spells, making big action matches, or even just defeating enemies. This is a great game and it is a pleasure to recommend it.

Coby Utter: 7

At its heart, Puzzle Hero is a simple match-3: you exchange horizontal and vertical pieces on the grid playing field to create 3-in-a-rows (or more.) Depending on what types of objects you match, you may receive gold, experience, combat bonuses, or attacks. Above the grid field, your character and one of several monsters engage in combat, which directly correlates to your moves.

Puzzle Hero suffers from a complete lack of originality. As I played, I constantly had the feeling of 'been there, done that'. The strategy for matching pieces is unfortunately shallow, and most monsters can be easily beaten by trying to match as many attacks as fast as possible. Purchasing item upgrades adds an extra element of light role playing, but adds little depth.

Puzzle Hero is not without virtue, however, as its execution is flawless. The full 3D character and monsters look great and have fluid animations. The monster design is often hilarious, and the game captures the light fantasy setting extremely well. The simple character creation is a nice touch, and the game has lots of polish. If the gameplay had been more substantial and original to meet the terrific style, Puzzle Hero could have been a great gaming experience.

Russ Carroll: 8

Puzzle Hero is pretty shamelessly a Puzzle Quest rip-off, but it may also be the better game of the two. The game is parried down to just combat, leaving out silly quests and walking around the countryside looking for a monster to beat-up.

There aren't classes to pick from, you don't get to apply your experience points, and after a couple of hours it gets a little tiresome.

However for all those negatives there are a lot of positives. Puzzle Hero has excellent graphics and battle animations that feel somewhat like PopCap's fantastic Bookworm Adventures. There are A TON of items, the game play is more focused on battle, the battles are faster (thank heavens) and the overall game is just a lot tighter feeling to it than Puzzle Quest. Though you'd probably call it a casual game, it's just so much fun to play that I don't know how you could hold that against it.

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Warbands is a game that I have been playing non-stop. I don't want to sell the game short, but that's more because I devour its style of gameplay than that I believe the game is super awesome.

It's a turn-based strategy game after the fashion of games like Advance Wars by Nintendo, and that kind of game is just something that I love to play. Warbands does the genre well, but doesn't really bring much to the table by way of innovation. The game does a good job meting out new units and map challenges over time, but there's nothing here that I haven't seen before.

The game's got a quirky animation style that I quite like and an irreverent script that brought forth some chuckles. So, it's certainly fun to play, but you've basically played this game before.

Oh, and woe be to you if you lose early on a three-player map in the campaign, because the computer will play out the rest of the level without you… and you can't quit the level outside of forcing the application to close. This can involve watching the CPU play itself for something like 10 minutes.

Pany Haritatos: 7

Warbands is a decently well done turn-based strategy game obviously inspired by the seminal Advance War series. They've kept the core of the gameplay similar, but iterated enough of the design elements to address some of the shortcomings of its predecessors. It doesn't quite have the polish or sheen of the Advance War games but there is plenty here to entertain fans of the genre. The cartoon-y graphics don't quite mesh with the somewhat serious story elements or music, but as a whole package the game works. The interface has a clean design and for the most part stays out of your way. With a built in level editor and multiplayer support, there is plenty here to get your money's worth. Two thumbs up for Warbands.

Coby Utter: 8

Warbands is fun. It is virtually a non-stop battle, only interrupted by conversations amongst your goofy allies and underlings. The game puts you in various scenarios where you must use your wits and resources to outmaneuver and overwhelm your AI opponent. At your disposal you have a variety of units, some of which get unlocked as you progress, ranging from your basic infantry to hovercraft and air units.

The turn-based strategy present relies on fundamentals such as movement speed and attack power, as well as terrain advantages. There is also some light resource management involved. The game is super quick to pick up and play, although the later scenarios require skill and thoughtful planning. It is very much an arcade-style RTS that you can play in bite sized chunks.

Aesthetically, Warbands fails to impress. The game has a playful minimalistic style, but in this case, it is just too minimal. There is very little environmental animation, and while the units themselves have a clean style, their animations are extremely basic. The effects are also very basic and the occasional music seems out of place. Despite all of this, Warbands is fun, plain and simple, and deserves a look.

Russ Carroll: 6

Warbands is a strategy styled war game in the same style as Advance Wars. The visuals are fun, but the game lacks when compared to Advance Wars and many of the Advance Wars clones already available (Brass Hats being the most recent memorable one). Maneuvering has been modified with each character blocking the way of other characters, which I found to be frustrating as it lead to much longer battles with tedious endings. However, experience in battle, ala Military Madness, is always a welcome feature, and I liked the way cities grew overtime (though they also added to the chore of finishing off a game after it was clear that you were going to win). Overall it's alright, but unless you are an Advance Wars fanatic, I'd recommend any of the Advance Wars games, Military Madness, Land of Legends, Battalion and the aforementioned Brass Hats before this one, especially if you haven't played this type of game before.

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Mexican Motor Mafia was the first game I ever got to review for Gametunnel, and it was a blast. Rocking tunes, wicked storyline and some accessible run and gun sort of gameplay.

Galactic Justice plays like a newer, somewhat clunkier version of Mexican Motor Mafia. The game has a lot going for it. It looks great and it has some pretty unique weaponry strategies you need to employ (needing to paint a target with one weapon in order for another to do proper damage, for example), but it falls short in the control and the environments.

Mexican Motor Mafia made sure that you had some wide open environments and a distant camera to allow you to maneuver effectively. Galatic Justice pulls the action in close, which only serves to make targeting a moving target while you yourself are spinning all about the level a frustrating act. It also becomes habitual to smack right into a wall you didn't see coming because the levels are so tight, and you don't reverse too fast, so this ends up being fairly deadly.

This game grew on me as I played it, but some of the problems I've outlined here will likely be dealbreakers for many.

Pany Haritatos: 7

The two best things going for Galactic Justice are the tasty visuals and the fun damage stacking gameplay mechanic. The game has some great audio, and while the writing is very heavy on the cheese, it still managed to squeeze out at least one burst of laughter. This is a highly polished and fun game. About the only real criticism I have of the game is that the controls take far too long to master. I feel like the physics engine could have been tweaked to make it a little less difficult to master the maneuvering – many of the collisions will stop you dead in your tracks, a situation that occurs far too often when you're trying to dodge a bunch of incoming enemy fire. I also found myself wishing I could assign a secondary weapon to the right-mouse button. These minor control issues are the only things that would keep me from recommending this game without reservation.

Coby Utter: 5

Occasionally I come across a game I want to like, a game that I try hard to like, but in the end, just cannot enjoy. Galactic Justice happens to be one of those games. The game plays as an overhead shooter as you drive your vehicle around, blasting a never ending onslaught of enemies. There are several fun ideas here, including mixing and matching attacks to wreck maximum havoc on your foes. The soundtrack is also good, with lots of hard hitting beats and rock riffs.

Galactic Justice is very frustrating. For me, it all boiled down to the controls. Commanding your vehicle is based on directional-relative movement using the WASD or arrow keys. This simply ruined the gameplay for me, as I was unable to efficiently move around, let alone dodge incoming attacks or evade sticky situations. Driving felt suspiciously like work. Aiming and firing is done with the mouse, and I was able to easily and accurately hit approaching enemies...when I wasn't getting stuck or fighting with steering. I'm sure there are lots of interesting things deeper in the game, but I died so frequently that the first handful of missions took me a very long time to complete.

For some people out there, I'm sure Galactic Justice is a lot of fun; I just wish I was one of those people.

Russ Carroll: 6

I wanted to like Galactic Justic, it's kind of like Mexican Motor Mafia, and I LOVED Mexican Motor Mafia. Galactic Justice is MMM, if MMM was set in space, had an uninspiring sound track, suffered from a case of jerky screen, had rather uninteresting visuals, had no cut scenes and was way more difficult than it should be due to camera and collision frustrations.

To be fair, there is some nice flash to Galactic Justice, especially as you take on the different challenges, but the substance is lost to gameplay that is tedious. Shorter battles would certainly be a welcome change as driving around killing the same type of enemies over and over while SLOWLY gaining enough money to buy something feels more like RPG grind than exciting fun. It's got great style, but GTA2, which this game is clearly 'inspired by' is free and is a much, much better game.

Michael Scarpelli: 4

Virtual Villagers is apparently a perennial favorite, but it is a game that baffles me. I've tried the demos for the first two and I couldn't tell if I was horrified or fascinated by the game. After having given a very thorough play-through of the third in the series, though… I have to land firmly on the side of horrified.

The notion of a persistent game world is tasty indeed. However, Virtual Villagers is a game that punishes you for, for example, not being able to play it on the weekends, and this is because your villagers (pardon my lack of political correctness here) are retarded. Straight up. They won't even have sex to continue the tribe's ability to survive unless you make them do it. That was my problem after this past weekend. My tribe hadn't managed to come up with any babies before I had to head home, and apparently didn't think that was a problem as old age crept up and killed them all over the three days I was gone.

I want a game to welcome me back with open arms when I start it up. I don't want the equivalent "Everyone died while you were gone. Real smooth, ace." At any rate, there is a certain compelling element to the game, but beyond waiting and once a day directing your villagers at a task, there's not much meat on this game. Plus, after two very popular iterations, it'd be nice to see some sort of graphical progression for the game.

Pany Haritatos: 6

This next installment of Virtual Villagers is more of the same. If you liked the previous Virtual Villagers, chances are there will be plenty here to keep you occupied. If you're looking for something new added into the mix, you will be disappointed. Not much has been changed in the gameplay or the presentation. I was looking for more, for anything that would make me want to spend more time with the game, but ultimately I did not find it. If you didn't like Virtual Villagers before, The Secret City will not change your mind. If you are a fan of the series, you'll likely still enjoy the game, but you might find yourself wishing they had done more to move the series forward.

Coby Utter: 7

Without a doubt, island living often has a much slower pace than living on the mainland. Apparently in the virtual world, this is no different. Virtual Villagers 3 puts you back in solitude with a handful of villagers who have washed ashore at a mysterious lost city. You are again tasked with keeping them alive, and developing a small island community.

Despite few changes in the series, there is something captivating about overseeing your villagers and letting them do their own thing when you are away. In many games, a slow pace can be a bad thing, but in Virtual Villagers it is the serenity and calmness that keeps players coming back and checking on the village's progress. Admittedly, I am quite horrible at these games, and often end up with more of a cemetery than a village, but even then, I always find myself wanting to play a bit more and see how things go.

Virtual Villagers needs an overhaul though. The look and feel is becoming quite dated and there seems to be little improvement over previous iterations. Each new game in the series I keep expecting something terribly new and innovative to improve the gameplay, but it is always more of the same with different puzzles. A fresh take on the series is in order, to keep the interest in sustaining a successful island community alive.

Russ Carroll: 8

While I found the second game in the series, The Lost Children, to be too tediously busy for my tastes, The Secret City really takes the Virtual Villagers series to new heights. The new puzzles are interesting and a lot of new intrigue comes into play with the addition of the village chief. Little touches like graying hair and villagers who literally slow down with age, make everything more realistic and provide an additional touch of strategy. The game remains difficult, so don't go in thinking you can leave your villagers alone for too long, they WILL perish. However, there is more to do and a more interesting world than ever before in the game. If you haven't played a VV game before, The Secret City is a great place to start.

Michael Scarpelli: 7

Alex Gordon is competent platformer gaming for novice gamers. The levels are about as vanilla as they come… but each and every one seems to introduce some minor new gameplay element, which I really like as a concept. It means each level has something fresh and it really does a pretty subtle job of holding the hand of younger gamers.

Beyond that, though, the game is saccharine to kill any older gamer of the rare insta-diabetes. There are a lot of odd elements that will throw off the savvy gamer. There are some odd plot points to kick the game off, an odd main character (he's got legs like Mr. Incredible and, well… he's a furry… and we all know what that means on these here inter-tubes), and some interesting character design choices (a panda in samurai armor? Really? Did anyone do any fact checking on that one? China and Japan DO represent some pretty distinct cultures, people). The highlight of the entire game for me was that your save point is a little sort of hamster looking cheerleader that roots for you as you run by. Genius. The rest of it… well… that depends. Are you 10 years old?

Pany Haritatos: 6

Alex Gordon isn't targeted at my demographic. This is a platformer obviously designed for the casual audience. The most interesting thing about it was the option to use mouse controls for the movement. I was surprised at how well it worked, but ultimately the keyboard provided far more precision. I'm not a diehard platformer. Indeed, I find most platformers to be too hard. Alex Gordon sits at the other end of the spectrum. The game is easy to the point that I was on autopilot – I was just cruising through the levels without much thought or engagement. If you've played any platformers before, chances are you won't find much here worth your time. If this is the first platformer you've ever played, ever, then maybe it is a nice gentle introduction of the genre. As a whole, the game is put together quite nicely, though some of the music and sound effects felt out of place. I wouldn't recommend Alex Gordon to anyone but the most casual game player who wants to try a traditionally "hardcore" genre tailored to their needs.

Coby Utter: 7

For the most part, Alex Gordon is a very standard platformer. Alex can run, jump, and swim to avoid his enemies and the myriad environmental obstacles. Visually, the game is very lush, with nice effects and parallax. The characters are crisp, and their animations are typically very smooth. The controls could be tighter, which can be frustrating in areas where precise jumps are needed to avoid enemies and land safely. And by controls, I am referring to the keyboard controls. Despite my most valiant efforts, the mouse controls were too unwieldy for me. For basic movement they seemed fine, but when precise and timely jumps were required, the mouse was just too awkward.

Unfortunately, Alex Gordon is too much of a standard platformer. It doesn't push the platforming envelope in the slightest and odd oversights like the lack of down-jumping make certain things harder than they should be. Another major flaw with Alex Gordon: it's simply too easy. It was deep into the third area before I lost my first life. Overall, the presentation and fun factor buoy what is otherwise a forgettable game.

Russ Carroll: 5

Alex is a bland little platformer that seems squarely aimed at a younger audience. Despite some awkward animations to some of Alex's movements, the graphics look pretty alright, with some of the backgrounds looking really pretty nice.

Unfortunately, there just isn't much to recommend in the game o the savvy gamer. It does do a decent job of trying to make each level feel slightly different by giving you a different type of obstacle, such as barrels, ropes and crevices that is unique, but the easy play and lack of any moves beyond just stomping on your enemies makes the game get old quickly. It's a perfect game for you younger brother or sister, especially if they like to gather coins. Lots and lots of coins.

Michael Scarpelli: 5

It's difficult to fault a game for being boring because one gamer's boring is another gamer's lifeblood. For me, Supernova 2 is just straight boring, which is a shame because I love turned based strategy combat games.

The problem with Supernova 2 appears to be that's it far too easy. In the campaign I started, I was given basically infinite time to accomplish my conquests. This is not to say that the game doesn't cap my play-time. I'm saying that none of the hostile forces on any of the hostile worlds that surrounded me ever tried to attack me. I was allowed to max out my research and build a huge armada of ships and then just move around the galaxy, cherry-picking the weakest systems to overrun.

Combat itself is fine, with a nice system of limited rotation for ship movement and importance placed upon ship placement prior to attack, but there's not much beyond what you see at the start.

Pany Haritatos: 5

Space War 2 is a game I wanted to like. Ultimately I had to abandon it because of some non-obvious interface issues that ultimately took all the fun out of this game. UI elements were constantly getting in my way. Scrolling in windowed mode was a bit of an exercise in patience. The controls suffers from similar issues. It's very easy to accidentally turn your ship instead of move it, or fire from the wrong vessel. In a tactical war game, mistakes like this can cascade and turn an otherwise even match into a slow painful death. All of this combined to frustrate my efforts to learn what is already an overly complex game. I wanted to like this game because it looks like there is a lot of quality work in here, but this is simply a case where more is actually less. There was simply too much to wrangle and not enough to really entice me to suffer through the bad controls and interface.

Coby Utter: 6

The learning curve for Supernova 2: Spacewar is a bit steep. It turns out there is a whole lot involved in running an intergalactic army and space battles require a lot of strategy. Resource management and technology research all add to the strategy as you try to build an unstoppable fleet. Spacewar manages to be an interesting game once everything starts to click and your army becomes a well-oiled machine.

The battle system is turn based, and is quite strategic. Not only do ships have the basic combat stats, but positional attacking and heading become very important as well. For everything Spacewar does right, it also seems to take a step back. Battles can be brought to a crawl due to the slow AI turns. The presentation is very basic, and the game feels more raw than polished. The sound effects are particularly poor, and there is little in the way of music. After a few games and despite the interesting game configurations, Spacewar began to feel stale. It is easy to see there is depth in the game, but nothing compelled me to delve deeper.

Russ Carroll: 7

I was a huge fan of Master of Orion 2. Huge. Still that game had some serious flaws that I wish had been better, such as battles that became less and less interesting as your fleet of ships became bigger and bigger (the length of the battles also became far too long!). Why do I mention that? Well Spacewar feels akin to MOO2, just very stripped down. That helps and hurts the game, making it easier to stay on top of what you are doing, but to some degree that is simply because there is less to do. Fleets get way too large, battles take way too long, and the propensity to move a ship when you are trying to turn it (or the other way around) take away from the gritty sense of tactical combat. [editor's note: the developer just let us know an updated version of the game with real-time play instead of the turn-based battles found in the version we tested and custom ships, it isn't out yet, but it seems to address many of the issues mentioned here]. I really liked the game in a lot of ways, but if I were looking to play this type of game I'd just fire up MOO2 again.

Michael Scarpelli: 5

Xeno Sola is essentially a straight rip of Carcassone which is a board game that itself has a video game version that you can play on Xbox Live Arcade. The XBLA version is actually super fun. Xeno Sola, in comparison, is a bit anemic.

Basically, it's a tile placement game. You pick up a tile and try to fit it on the board. The tiles make it seem as if you're building a space station, you can place tiles that consist of spaces for a landing platform, power line or power node. You can only place tiles that have edges that match with the edges of another piece (platform to platform, power line to power line, etc.). You can also place "bets" of points on portions of the tile pieces you play, and if you complete structures with groups of tiles, you can then use that bet to multiply your point total.

Anyway, long story short, the game itself is solid, but is devoid of any and all features. You can play against the CPU or… that's it. No difficulty level, no multiplayer (local or over the net). The game is cheap, sure, but it's still not bringing tons to the table.

Pany Haritatos: 4

I'm a fan of Carcasonne. I've probably spent as much time playing it on the Xbox 360 as I have just about any other next generation game. Xeno Sola, the "Tile Placement Game" is basically just a version of Carcasonne I could not willingly endure. From the badly designed interface, to the effectively non-existent help, it refused to let me love it. The game has some fun anime graphics, but the tiles themselves, the core of the game, are drab and uninteresting. The gameplay is never really explained. If this is targeted at Carcasonne players, then they managed to confuse even a veteran player. I can't imagine someone trying to figure out how to play this game if they've never touched the original game before. Xeno Sola is a pass.

Coby Utter: 3

Xeno Sola has two things going for it: the anime-style character art and the funky space music. Unfortunately, beyond that I don't have much positive to say. The first thing I do every time I play a new game is go through the tutorial. In Xeno Sola, that tutorial consists of one non-interactive screen. After reading the few things written there, I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Sometimes a game is so intuitive, that a shallow tutorial is all that is needed. Xeno Sola is not one of those games.

I attempted to play this game several times, but I never fully understood what exactly was going on. That is a bad sign. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to the developers however, so I had a friend come over so we could play against each other (which is a nice feature admittedly). Unfortunately, they were unable to make much sense of the game either. Perhaps it is unfair for me to assign the game a score since the concept is literally beyond me, but that fact alone is a huge warning flag. Other than the mysterious gameplay, the game lacks any animation, has weak visuals other than the character art, and in general, fails to feel like a complete, standalone game.

Russ Carroll: 5

I'm not sure Xeno Sola is a finished game. The game really lacks polish and long-term goals, at best you can replay the same challenge over and over again against the computer or friends, which I suppose doesn't make it any worse than Chess in that respect, but Chess is just a wee bit better ;).

In Xeno Sola you place cards on the board to complete a space station. Closing off power conduits and finishing areas can score you points, but only if you bet on those areas being completed. You have 3 betting chips worth 1, 3, and 5, which is really the multiplier you will get if the area you bet on is completed. The larger the area is before it is completed, the more points you will get for the area. Only one person can bet on any one area. It's unfortunate there isn't a tutorial, because by the time you figure out the game [editor's note: apparently Russ hasn't played Carcasonne before...] you are surely too frustrated to care anymore. However, it is kind of intriguing once you get the hang of it, despite repetitive music and unexciting play.