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Reminder: Check out Live Community Games

by Dustin Burg on Nov 24th 2008 5:00PM

With all the excitement surrounding the New Xbox Experience, one "feature" we haven't discussed and some haven't explored are the new Community Games. If you weren't aware, the XNA developer community is churning out XBLA-style games that get voted on and the best are pushed onto the Xbox Live Marketplace's Community Games section. And, just like official XBLA games, you can download a trial before you buy.

To get you started on your Community Games game search, we took the liberty to list the seven most popular games that are currently available. Also, don't forget to tell us what your Community Games top choice is.

Seven Most Popular Community Games

Weapon of Choice - (Action & Adventure) by MommysBest
sin(Surfing) - (Sports & Recreation) by Raph
Colosseum - (Fighting) by Shortfuse Games
In The Pit - (Action & Adventure) by luvcraft
Word Soup - (Puzzle & Trivia) by Fuzzy Bug
Funky Punch XL - (Fighting) by SolusG
painball - (Shooter) by radlogicgames

Source

Tags: community-games, xbla, xblm, xbox-live

Reader Comments (37)

Anything good?

Weapon of Choice is pretty good, as is Galax-e-mail. In the Pit is unique, there's no graphics, its played entirely by using sound and force feedback. Lines is a rather good puzzle game. I haven't played them all, but those four are probably the best I found. There are a bunch of clunkers, but since they all have trials, its easy to find out if you'll like a game or not.

I almost forgot, Biology Battle is a great shooter similar to Geometry Wars or Mutant Storm.

I can't believe more people aren't checking out Easy Golf. The graphics are as good or better than any golf game out, the mechanics of the game are excellent and you can create and share your own courses. It's hands down the best game out there on Community Games. Here's a link to the XBox Live Marketplace page:

http://tinyurl.com/5k6y3o

I'll second the recommendation of Biology Battle. It's the only one I've considered buying so far.

I have paid for a few games so far, they are games that I can get my wife to try and are a nice change from Gear, Fable Etc.

Audiball is a good try at something completely different and I enjoyed playing it with my GH guitar.

Beat It. I bought this because at 200 points it might get a laugh when we have friends round.

Brain Party. Good fun and upto four players

Snake360. I know it is only Snake, but there are loads of levels and it is as addictive as ever.

Word Soup. This is a must buy IMO. It is a fantastic game.

Here's a second reminder: Xbox360Fanboy fails, yet another time, to address its English speaking audience (which extends far beyond the US borders):

Community Games is not, just like Netflix and the entire Video Marketplace, available in the European Union. But then again, what do you care, Xbox360Fanboy.com? The US is all that matters, so why even acknowledge the EU?

Actually, Community Games are also available in France, Spain, UK and Italy.

Quit yer bellyachin'. Read this:

http://www.themanfromdelmonte.co.uk/

You can access community games in the UK.

Are these available to people outside the US?

....I can't see to find them on my xbox :(

Nope... Just like Movie marketplace and Inside Xbox and actually all great stuff we dont get, besides games (which, as the only one, we DO get...)

(still love my x360 though...)

Yep. Also available in UK, along with the UK Inside Xbox channel, the UK Video Marketplace, and all the games.

@Glenn: No you are wrong.

You can get them outside the US. I like in the UK and I can get them all..

Just a correction: The games aren't exactly "voted on." They go through a peer review, mostly to make sure they aren't inappropriate or infringing on intellectual property, etc. But anything that makes it through peer review will end up on Community Games. Not just the good ones.

Shafnitz is right.
When reviewing, we (the members of the community) only review the games for crashes and inappropriate content.
There is not sort of quality review happening.

For non american players: Make a US account and the games will be available to you. Alltough it really sucks that M$ haven't made the games available to all regions automatically.

hey guys im from Australia and i haven't seen the community games. this sucks why does every one else get left out hmmmmm not happy.

ITs becuase MS need to get approval from the ratings board in each country to release the games unrated

I would recommend artoon i actually bough it!

Autralia, New Zealand and Singapore are getting XBLCG on 15th of Dec according to Maxconsole

I was nonplussed by Weapon of Choice. Sure, it's a functional game, but as you might expect, it lacks the polish that I've come to expect of games of late. For 400 space bucks though - not bad.

I did find Word Soup incredibly compelling. If Community Games supported Achievements, I'd have been all over this like a monkey in a poo-flinging contest.

You won't play a compelling game because it doesn't have achievements? Why? I've seen this before, and, while I like getting the achievements, they never affect my game purchases, so I'm intrigued by this perspective, which I've read several times.

How about Garrett the slug, lol!

Seems kool, ill be sure to check it out later =:)

just a heads up - Check Your HUD is going to be featuring one outstanding community game that isn't already getting a lot of press once a week (Wednesdays to be precise). Here's the link right to the tag for that series of articles if you're interested.

http://checkyourhud.com/tag/cgotw/

I've done a review for Weapon of Choice, it's in german, but someone might find it useful?

http://tinyurl.com/5z467j

Seriously you guys, I've played all these games and while they're actually solidly built, most of them seem like cheap ripoffs of other games. Some of the ideas are pretty neat, but the graphics area is highly lacking. I don't mind 2D graphics, that's perfectly fine, but many of the games can't even properly animate! I'm looking towards the future with this feature but for now, I think I'll just watch and wait.

I wish I could play these =(

I believe its a good start so far. Won't be able to see the progress it makes come next week for 2 years, but I see it paving the way for very good games that will most likely end up being sleeper hits which is both good and bad. I really hope this does well.

XNA games are a great idea to me and I enjoy DL the trials and trying them out. A few I've really enjoyed are Duotrix, Biology Battle, Word Soup, and Blow. Everyone should give them a try and they're all really pretty cheap too! Pretty cool.

mando

XNA's a great idea, shame the games on there are mostly rubbish at the moment. Out of the 45 online, I'd pay for.... maybe 1 of them. And that's if I was really bored.

No achievements, no money.
If those were free, I might give one or two a try.

Painball is def amazing. its so fun, im probably gunna buy it. its only 200

Where's Dishwasher: Dead Samurai or Jelly Car? I though those were to be launch titles for the community games.

I would SO buy Jellycar, and probably the Dishwasher Samurai game too, but Jellycar definitely amused everyone at my house. That other game where you grow the flowers all over the planet was pretty fun too, but I forget what it was called.

Try Snake360, I think everyone will enjoy the multiplayer battle mode for up to 4 players.

Hey guys, I'm a little late, but anyways, I'm one of the guys at the Colosseum dev team. It's cool to see all comments on Community Games so far. If you have any questions regarding Colosseum, Shortfuse Games or Community Games in general, feel free to ask.

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Reminder: Check out Live Community Games

Reader Comments (37)

Posted: Nov 24th 2008 5:06PM Joeybeast said

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