Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Yesterday, Atlus was nice enough to invite Aeropause to sit in on a WebEx Live Demo stream of their upcoming XBLA title, Zeno Crash: Ultimate Edition, so we could see some of the changes, and how the game would run on the Xbox 360.  Zeno Clash was an independent title, built for the PC using the Source engine a little over a year ago.  However, instead of translating it to a straight up shooter, as the norm with the Source engine, they created a strange world filled with vibrant creature design, and focused on a straight up brawler title.  Zeno Clash was something completely different from the norm, and was a refreshing change for PC gamers.  On March 31st, Xbox 360 gamers will get a chance to try out this off the wall game, and from the looks of our presentation, Atlus has done a fantastic job bringing this title to the Xbox 360.

As with the PC version of Zeno Clash, the main storyline has not changed, with your character teaming up with his sister, Diedra, as they try to figure out why your character was banished from his home, retracing his journey through a series of flashbacks and other storytelling devices.  I could try to break down the story, but trust me when I say that I would never do it enough justice.  Suffice to say, there are some strange concepts at work here, and a strange love/hate relationship with your character and his parents, who are trying to kill him.

One of the big questions I had was whether they would be able to map the control set from the PC to the Xbox 360 controller, as that can be tricky sometimes, when a game comes from the PC environment.  Zeno Clash does pul this trick off, using the buttons for all the brawling attacks, while switching things up a bit when you pick up the occasional weapon drop.  Performing brawling attacks is easy, with just a couple of button clicks.  A three punch combo has been mapped to a button as well, helping players that might get caught in a jam with multiple attackers.  New combat moves have also been added to the Xbox 360 version of Zeno Clash as well, giving players new ways to inflict pain upon the enemies you may face.

The big addition for Xbox 360 owners that was not available in the PC version of Zeno Clash, is the ability to do Tower Challenges in cooperative play.  In Tower Challenge mode, you and a friend can take on one of five Tower Challenges, each of which,hosts multiple levels for you to battle your way through.  Each level will play host to a variety of creatures, that you have to clear out before a stairwell drops down from the ceiling, allowing you and a possible teammate to advance to the next level of the Challenge.  Yes, Tower Challenges existed in the PC version, but the added dimension of a second player controlled character brings new strategy to this gameplay mode.  Unfortunately, it looks like there is no customization available for this mode, so the two characters from the main story are the characters that you will play in co-op.

For those that like to have a little gunplay in their first person styled games, fear not, as their are weapons that can be used, and for some of the heavyweight bosses that you come across, mixing up weapons and melee combat will be necessary to survive.  All the weapons have a unique style to them, but equate to normal FPS weapon conventions.  And yes, the Fish Guns are here in all their pellet shooting glory.

As for the demo itself?  The team porting the game from the PC to the Xbox 360 has done a great job so far with the action we got to see.  The controls seem fluid, and the action on screen ran at a smooth 60 fps.  Our demo via the web was a bit jumpy, but that was more due to a lag in the presentation than the game.  Our presenter did run into some trouble spots, which led someone to call this the “Demon Souls of XBLA” which we all got a laugh at.  But he did respond to that comment, saying that the game is challenging, but never frustratingly difficult.  I can attest to this from the PC version as well, that you will die often if you are repetitive with your actions.  It is all about mixing up your fighting styles and tactics.  Do that, and you will find success in the game.

At the end of the presentation, we did get a few technical and pricing items as well.  Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition will clock in as a 1-1.5 GB download from the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace, and will cost no more than 1200 Microsoft Moon bucks.  The price is not totally finalized, but they did mention that it will not cost more than that price point, but could be less.  Also, the release date, as mentioned earlier, will be March 31st, 2010.  So far, it looks like Atlus has done a fantastic job with migrating the game to the Xbox 360, and we hope to have a review up on the site as soon as final code is available.  I also want to say thank to Arum and Atlus, for inviting Aeropause to the demo session.