XBLA Indie Review: radiangames Crossfire
“Purely Awesome!”
An XboxHornet Review by WDesm.
Radiangames have already proven themselves to be indie programming superstars with JoyJoy, a Top 6 Finalist in Dream Build Play 2010, and they intend to keep the fun ‘a-flowing with their next title, Crossfire. When you first load it up, you might be tempted to brush it off as a simple, albeit neon, Space Invaders (or Galaga) clone, but with a single button press, you are shown the slickest feature to sneak in since Retrofit: Overload cunningly got rid of 1-d movement.
In Crossfire, enemies spawn in the middle of the screen, but unlike Galaga or Space Invaders, they don’t rush towards you. Instead, they rain bullets both downwards and upwards, and, while you are stuck to 1-d movement, you are able to bounce (as shown in the image above) between the lower and upper levels in an invincible blast – the hop from top to bottom doesn’t damage enemies (or you), but it will collect those shiny purple orbs, which act as power-ups. Your primary gun doesn’t take any ammo, but the purple orbs drop from enemies, and are used to power a stronger ’super gun’, which can quickly mow down enemy mobs en masse. The game never lets you get complacent, though – throughout various levels, badder and stronger meanies are thrown your way, while tantalizingly rare power-ups keep you racing to keep up.
As you move through waves, checkpoints are unlocked periodically, so you won’t need to restart from the beginning should you fail. Additionally, should you be good enough to warrant it, an unlockable Turbo mode really stretches the limits of your skill. Alternatively, if you’re having trouble handling the difficulty, an included co-op mode can give you the extra firepower needed to clear levels.
Overall, radiangames hit every nail right on the head: Gameplay is innovative, fast-paced, constantly evolves as it gets more difficult, and even includes a solid co-op mode. I’m surprised that Crossfire is launched at the $3 pricepoint – with so many shooters and schmups being released at that minimum priced 80 MSPoints, they’re taking a bit of a chance pricing it so high, especially considering it does not include an online leaderboard (the included high score board is local-only). Still, the game is mighty impressive and damned good fun, and is worth the entry fee.
For a limited time, download the free soundtrack of Crossfire.
Game Score: 9.5/10.
Download a free demo of the game here.
2 Responses to “XBLA Indie Review: radiangames Crossfire”
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Definitely a fun game. I was hoping there would be online leaderboards, but even without it i’d still pick it up.
[...] Xbox Hornet (9.5/10) [...]
Radiangames Crossfire’s price has been dropped to 80 MS Points.
In addition to new box art (which is not showing up yet, but hopefully will soon) and a price drop, Crossfire has been updated with the following changes:
*Modifiers*
Two new modifiers have been added: Speed Reduction and Better Damage. Speed Reduction reduces the enemy movement speed and firing rate by a significant amount. Better Damage increases the damage you do by a large amount (2.5x to be exact). You can turn these modifiers on/off in the pause menu in any mode.
Note: Both of these modifiers reduce your multiplier by 0.5x each, where the effect is additive. They also reduce the bonuses you receive at the end of the round. You’ll get 50% of the bonus scores with one modifier active, and 20% of the bonus score with both active.
*Balance*
Overall enemy movement speeds have been adjusted, so that the first 10 or so waves move faster, and the last 25 or so waves move slower. In addition, the Cross enemy type now only fires in one direction at once (towards the player). They’re still a challenge, but warping is no longer so dangerous when near them. A couple waves (43 and 49) also had some Shield enemies removed to reduce the amount of edge camping you have to do in those waves.
Also, you may notice a somewhat longer period of invulnerability when spawning or respawning, which went from 1.25 seconds to 2.0 seconds.
*Other*
Made a minor change to the ending (no longer says anything about Blaze), and added arcade stick support. To make the game more playable for arcade sticks with no remapping, you can now warp using the Y button or the shoulder buttons and triggers.
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