Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

New video games are downright expensive.  In fact, they’re so expensive that I never buy new ones.  I wait until they’ve been reduced to $19.99 and are sitting in the used rack.  It’s true that I had to wait a few years to get games like The Orange Box and Call of Duty, but I’m not one to wait in line for an iPhone or movie tickets either; thus, I don’t see it as a loss.  60 bucks on a new game is absurd if there are a constant flow of oldies that are just as good and much cheaper.  This brings me to my point about downloadable content from Xbox.  I was poking around my Xbox dashboard yesterday looking for a few fun and cheap games to play.  And lo and behold, I found a few Indie games for a buck each!  And they’re fun!    

The Impossible Game:  Yes, it’s nearly impossible – and stupidly simple to play.  Your character is a square, and your objective is to jump over triangles and to climb and maneuver your way through the games without hitting anything.  There’s one button involved (the A button) and no joystick, and that makes it more basic than even Atari games.  It has a catchy little rhythmic song that goes along with it, too; it’ll have you bopping along with as you die over and over again, each time achieving one more inch through the game.  Imminently addictive.  Neil died 100 times in a row yesterday (unlocked an achievement for his martyrdom) and still wanted to keep going.    

Snowball Fight:  I think this one cost 3 or 4 dollars. I can’t remember.  In any case, it was still totally affordable.  The object is pretty basic.  Cream your friends or the AI with snowballs until they freeze – you win.  My boys have played it for several months on and off without getting bored.  Something about snowballs makes kids go crazy.    

Solar:  Whoever thought of this must have been on drugs at the time, but it works.  Your character – The Sun!  As the Sun you fly around the universe trying to attract planets to orbit you and to get moons to orbit your planets.  The planets can absorb their moons and grow into Earth like bodies.  When that happens, the planets start producing tiny spaceships that zoom around destroying asteroids that get too close.  There are also other solar systems that harbor evil life forms (producing tiny red spaceships) that want to reduce your planets to asteroids, thereby killing your solar system.  Oh, and your sun can be damaged by encounters with other stars.  For one dollar you can’t go wrong.     

Beat Hazard:  At 5 dollars, Beat Hazard is one of the best values on Xbox.  You are a spaceship that shoots stuff in much the same format as the old asteroids game from yore (in the center of the screen twirling around shooting incoming rocks and stuff).  The twist is that Xbox imports your music library from your computer, and the basis for the game becomes your own songs.  Stay alive until your song ends!  The shorter the song the faster the game progresses.    

Apple Jack:  1 Dollar!  Your name is Jack, and your head is an apple.  Anyway, your dog needs rescuing, and you have to go through 5 worlds and 100 Mario Bros. type levels to rescue him.  The difference, is that this game is A DOLLAR!  You get to toss washing machines and ride on pandas.  Random and awesome all wrapped up into one game.  Your kids will love it.   

RC-Air Sim:  It’s a bare bones RC flying simulator.  There are only a few obstacles and 5 or 6 styles of airplanes to try.  You fly them as you would a real remote control airplane (much harder than you might imagine).  My boys take turns playing; one of them crashes, they squeal with joy, and then the other one flies until he crashes, repeat.  They’ve been asking me for a real RC airplane.    

Related posts:

1. Xbox Parental Controls: Good Idea in Hindsight
2. Video Games Save Lives
3. Are Video Games Bad?
4. Top 10 Video Games for Kids — and Some Extras