The Thoughtful Gamers Interview Xona Games!!

This is an interview with Xona Games, the development studio, manned by two man fraternal team Matthew and Jason Doucette, that brought us games like Decimation X2 and the totally phenomenal Score Rush, which I reviewed here on the thoughtful gamers. Most of the questions were submitted by myself, but my fellow TTG's and GT friends also threw in a few of their own, making this a combined effort. Thanks a lot to all of you, and Matthew from Xona who was nice enough to participate. 

Be sure to keep an eye on Xona Games in the coming months, as they set to take the world by storm with their awesome looking Duality ZF, which strikes me as being the culmination of two brothers' dreams and hard work. 

Let's begin!

Score Rush Xbox Live Indie Game Review

Score Rush XBLI Review

Score Rush, developed by two man development studio Xona Games, (edit: who I interviewed a few months after this review was written) is a mixture of two classic gameplay styles (2D Bullet Hell Shmup and Twin Stick Shmup) wrapped in a 4 player co-operative, neon coloured, $1 shell. Imagine, if you will, a mixture of Ikaruga and Robotron 2084; or, more relevant to today's gamer, and more accurate with respect to the game's visual style, Ikaruga and Geometry Wars.

Note: if you are familiar with shmup games, skip ahead to the 7th paragraph of this review (not including this one).

Upcoming XBLA/I Games (With Videos)

Upcoming XBLA/I (I=Indie) Games


Some great looking games in this list, but it's obviously not complete. If you know of any possibly good/great ones that are not included in this list, and you would like them to be, leave me a comment with the name of the game and a link to a video and I will amend the list to include it. Thanks!

Note: I'm not sure which of these are also going to the PS3/PC/Wii, but I know some are. I'm primarily a 360 gamer (I do have a Wii and both current handhelds), so I am looking at this as a 360 list. This is not done out of any fanboyish scorn or anything of that nature. I don't have a PS3 and don't game on my PC, so I am doing this through the lens of a 360 gamer by circumstance, not disdain for other platforms. I actually want a PS3, and will buy one in time.

Beat Hazard Review (Xbox 360 Indie Games)

Beat Hazard is a dual stick shooter found on the indy games section on Xbox Live which, upon first glance, will draw immediate comparisons to Geometry Wars, and for good reason; the games are similar in many ways (both of which being essentially modern versions of Asteroids). Similarly to the aforementioned Geometry Wars, this game utilizes very flashy visuals chock full of special effects, which can only be described as ''psychedelic.'' It really adds to the intensity and excitement while playing, although, it can lead to some frustration, especially during the acclimation process, but I will get to this later. Suffice it to say this is a dual stick space shooter that plays very similarly to Geometry Wars.

Geometry Wars, to which this game could be considered a spiritual successor (although it's not)

But it could be!