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Gastronaut offers up a powerful reminder that great things come in small packages.
November 28, 2006 | 8:18 PM PSTXbox Live Arcade was originally sold to the public on the promise of combining beloved classics with new, innovative games, but with a year’s time in the rear-view mirror, only half of that promise has been fulfilled to a satisfying degree. For every gem the likes of Geometry Wars or Wik: Fable of Souls, gamers have to wade through swathes of card games and old arcade titles – fun diversions and trips down nostalgia boulevard, but hardly anything indicative of an HD or online console gaming era.
Small Arms is the latest example of what Xbox Live Arcade could mean for independent developers and creativity in the industry as a whole in a long time, and it’s appearance should help to rekindle some faith in the potential service holds. A cute concept, impressive graphics, an oddly appealing random personality, and addictive online play all make hosting Gastronaut’s latest one of the best uses of the service to date. At the price of only 800 Microsoft points (I forgot my Microsoft point to USD currency converter, so lets just say its no more than $10), Small Arms offers a huge amount of fun for the money despite some unfortunate flaws, not to mention a bit of a fuzzy feeling for helping one of the ‘little guys’ get ahead in an industry dominated by major players.
A party/action hybrid in a similar vein to the popular Smash Brothers titles, Small Arms isn’t as deep or fully-featured as Nintendo’s franchise, but still offers a fair bit of substance for a downloadable game. The gameplay operates now-familiar principles, as up to four players are placed on a 2-dimensional battleground seemingly suspended in mid-air, with platforms, pits, and power-up spawn locations scattered about. There are a limited number of maps to choose from, but each of them is distinct enough in size, layout and theme that players shouldn’t get tired of them too quickly. Matches are last-man standing affairs, wherein each player starts off with a certain amount of lives to be lost, either be falling off of the suspended ‘island’ or having their life-bar whittled down to zero by enemy attacks. At the end of each match, points are tallied for knock-outs in addition to bonuses for remaining lives, combos, and other performance-related feats.
The major differences between Small Arms and the Smash Brothers titles, aside from the obvious absence of licensed Nintendo characters, are the inclusion of a life-bar and the fact that melee combat has been replaced with long-range weaponry. The characters Gastronaut have created are varied and designed in a style that creates an appealing dichotomy between cute critters and aggressive warriors. Each of the characters in the game begins each round with a signature weapon that sport primary and secondary firing modes. For the most part, the primary-fire modes are all-purpose damage dealers, while the secondary fires are more specialized support attacks. One of the weapons shoots icicles at a high rate of speed, while the secondary function emits a short range cloud of frost that freezes the enemy in their tracks – particularly useful if applied mid-jump above a pit. Another weapon, a grenade launcher that lobs globs of toxic goop, has an alternate fire that emits a wide beam of yellow energy that deals fair damage, but eats ammo quickly. Ammo can be replenished via power-ups that respawn frequently all over the maps, or players can simply opt to swap their current weapon for one of the weapons that respawn in random order at various points on the map. Almost all the weapons are fun to use and effective damage dealers, save the sniper rifle which only worked well in a few select situations and didn’t suit the fast-paced nature of the game.
Insanely fast-paced might be a more-apt description - everything in Small Arms happens quickly, from the speed at which the characters bounce around the map to the rate at which players burn through ammo and each others’ health bars. As a result, the gameplay feels like a mad scramble for power-ups, with the winner determined by whoever can keep the steadiest flow of ammo in their weapon and recharge their health most frequently. Furthermore, the fact that any character can use any weapon robs any sense of individuality from the cast of combatants, rendering the initial decision of what character to play as one based entire on aesthetic preference, an cheapens the experience since players aren’t required to learn and exploit the advantages and weaknesses of each of the fighters. Despite the lack of depth, the gameplay is still remarkably enjoyable and addictive, in no small part due to the intuitive controls. The left analog controls movement, and the right and left triggers control the primary and secondary fire modes respectively as one would expect, but aiming is done via the right analog stick. Therefore, players can move in one direction while shooting in another, allowing for quite a bit of evasive gunplay. The A button is used to jump, the Y is used for a dash maneuver, and melee attacks are performed with the X button. While the latter is practically useless, the game would have controlled perfectly if the jump and boost buttons were mapped to the bumpers so that players wouldn’t have to stop aiming to pull them off.
Small Arms features a simple single-player campaign that leads players through a sequence of increasingly challenging battles against different combinations of characters. It doesn’t take long to beat, and there’s no story mode per-se, so the only real motivation to actually play it is to gain access to the four locked characters and their weapons. There’s also a training mode that will run players through the core gameplay mechanics, but those looking for any meaningful preparation for online play will be best served by tackling the challenge mode, which sends an endless stream of enemies at the player until they lose a match. There’s also a shooting-range mini-game, which feels like a complete throw-away and is never particularly entertaining. Once players are confident in their skills, they can get to the meat of the game, the online play. The game doesn’t feature much in the way of match customization, and players will only be able to alter the winning condition (lives or timed), the time limit and the number of lives that each of the participants begin the round with. There’s also an option to allow players to hop into a match in progress, which is a nifty feature that works both online and offline such that two players could be going at it on one machine, invite an Xbox Live buddy play, and have them join mid-match whenever they get back to their Xbox 360. The underlying gameplay is solid enough that it provides enjoyment for a decent length of time, but by the time players hit the 30 minute mark or so, players will probably be ready to switch games. Chances are however, they’ll come back to the game a few hours later, for another 30 minutes of chaos, and then return again a few hours after that. Addictive gameplay aside, a greater number of options and gameplay modes would have prevented the game from growing repetitive too quickly, in addition to increasing long-term replay value.
Visually, Small Arms is easily one of the best looking Xbox Live Arcade games, featuring detailed character models and some snazzy lighting and particle effects for the various projectile attacks. Sound is fairly standard however, as the characters only deliver a few snippets of voice-work in the form of grunts and enthusiast yells in the midst of battle. The weapon effects could have been more varied and impressive, as almost all of the explosive weapons sound the same on impact, and many of the opportunities provided for creative sound effects by the more outlandish were wasted.
Small Arms has its share of problems, but the cumulative effect of all of them still isn’t powerful enough to prevent the game from being tons of fun to play. At worst, it makes us hope for a sequel that addresses all of the issues and builds further on the game’s solid concept. With its frenetic, action-packed gameplay that’s easy to pick up and play but hard to put down, and addictive online play, Small Arms is representative of the type of independent development and new properties we need to see more of on Xbox Live Arcade.
Small Arms is the latest example of what Xbox Live Arcade could mean for independent developers and creativity in the industry as a whole in a long time, and it’s appearance should help to rekindle some faith in the potential service holds. A cute concept, impressive graphics, an oddly appealing random personality, and addictive online play all make hosting Gastronaut’s latest one of the best uses of the service to date. At the price of only 800 Microsoft points (I forgot my Microsoft point to USD currency converter, so lets just say its no more than $10), Small Arms offers a huge amount of fun for the money despite some unfortunate flaws, not to mention a bit of a fuzzy feeling for helping one of the ‘little guys’ get ahead in an industry dominated by major players.
A party/action hybrid in a similar vein to the popular Smash Brothers titles, Small Arms isn’t as deep or fully-featured as Nintendo’s franchise, but still offers a fair bit of substance for a downloadable game. The gameplay operates now-familiar principles, as up to four players are placed on a 2-dimensional battleground seemingly suspended in mid-air, with platforms, pits, and power-up spawn locations scattered about. There are a limited number of maps to choose from, but each of them is distinct enough in size, layout and theme that players shouldn’t get tired of them too quickly. Matches are last-man standing affairs, wherein each player starts off with a certain amount of lives to be lost, either be falling off of the suspended ‘island’ or having their life-bar whittled down to zero by enemy attacks. At the end of each match, points are tallied for knock-outs in addition to bonuses for remaining lives, combos, and other performance-related feats.
The major differences between Small Arms and the Smash Brothers titles, aside from the obvious absence of licensed Nintendo characters, are the inclusion of a life-bar and the fact that melee combat has been replaced with long-range weaponry. The characters Gastronaut have created are varied and designed in a style that creates an appealing dichotomy between cute critters and aggressive warriors. Each of the characters in the game begins each round with a signature weapon that sport primary and secondary firing modes. For the most part, the primary-fire modes are all-purpose damage dealers, while the secondary fires are more specialized support attacks. One of the weapons shoots icicles at a high rate of speed, while the secondary function emits a short range cloud of frost that freezes the enemy in their tracks – particularly useful if applied mid-jump above a pit. Another weapon, a grenade launcher that lobs globs of toxic goop, has an alternate fire that emits a wide beam of yellow energy that deals fair damage, but eats ammo quickly. Ammo can be replenished via power-ups that respawn frequently all over the maps, or players can simply opt to swap their current weapon for one of the weapons that respawn in random order at various points on the map. Almost all the weapons are fun to use and effective damage dealers, save the sniper rifle which only worked well in a few select situations and didn’t suit the fast-paced nature of the game.
Insanely fast-paced might be a more-apt description - everything in Small Arms happens quickly, from the speed at which the characters bounce around the map to the rate at which players burn through ammo and each others’ health bars. As a result, the gameplay feels like a mad scramble for power-ups, with the winner determined by whoever can keep the steadiest flow of ammo in their weapon and recharge their health most frequently. Furthermore, the fact that any character can use any weapon robs any sense of individuality from the cast of combatants, rendering the initial decision of what character to play as one based entire on aesthetic preference, an cheapens the experience since players aren’t required to learn and exploit the advantages and weaknesses of each of the fighters. Despite the lack of depth, the gameplay is still remarkably enjoyable and addictive, in no small part due to the intuitive controls. The left analog controls movement, and the right and left triggers control the primary and secondary fire modes respectively as one would expect, but aiming is done via the right analog stick. Therefore, players can move in one direction while shooting in another, allowing for quite a bit of evasive gunplay. The A button is used to jump, the Y is used for a dash maneuver, and melee attacks are performed with the X button. While the latter is practically useless, the game would have controlled perfectly if the jump and boost buttons were mapped to the bumpers so that players wouldn’t have to stop aiming to pull them off.
Small Arms features a simple single-player campaign that leads players through a sequence of increasingly challenging battles against different combinations of characters. It doesn’t take long to beat, and there’s no story mode per-se, so the only real motivation to actually play it is to gain access to the four locked characters and their weapons. There’s also a training mode that will run players through the core gameplay mechanics, but those looking for any meaningful preparation for online play will be best served by tackling the challenge mode, which sends an endless stream of enemies at the player until they lose a match. There’s also a shooting-range mini-game, which feels like a complete throw-away and is never particularly entertaining. Once players are confident in their skills, they can get to the meat of the game, the online play. The game doesn’t feature much in the way of match customization, and players will only be able to alter the winning condition (lives or timed), the time limit and the number of lives that each of the participants begin the round with. There’s also an option to allow players to hop into a match in progress, which is a nifty feature that works both online and offline such that two players could be going at it on one machine, invite an Xbox Live buddy play, and have them join mid-match whenever they get back to their Xbox 360. The underlying gameplay is solid enough that it provides enjoyment for a decent length of time, but by the time players hit the 30 minute mark or so, players will probably be ready to switch games. Chances are however, they’ll come back to the game a few hours later, for another 30 minutes of chaos, and then return again a few hours after that. Addictive gameplay aside, a greater number of options and gameplay modes would have prevented the game from growing repetitive too quickly, in addition to increasing long-term replay value.
Visually, Small Arms is easily one of the best looking Xbox Live Arcade games, featuring detailed character models and some snazzy lighting and particle effects for the various projectile attacks. Sound is fairly standard however, as the characters only deliver a few snippets of voice-work in the form of grunts and enthusiast yells in the midst of battle. The weapon effects could have been more varied and impressive, as almost all of the explosive weapons sound the same on impact, and many of the opportunities provided for creative sound effects by the more outlandish were wasted.
Small Arms has its share of problems, but the cumulative effect of all of them still isn’t powerful enough to prevent the game from being tons of fun to play. At worst, it makes us hope for a sequel that addresses all of the issues and builds further on the game’s solid concept. With its frenetic, action-packed gameplay that’s easy to pick up and play but hard to put down, and addictive online play, Small Arms is representative of the type of independent development and new properties we need to see more of on Xbox Live Arcade.
February 8, 2010
