LightFish

LightFish is a fast paced puzzle game in the vein of the old arcade classic Qix, and it's a superb one at that.
For those of you that have never played Qix (or one of it's many versions) a little explanation is needed. Each level in the game consists of a rectangular playing area that contains various enemy sea creatures and, more often than not, a few obstacles. You control a little fish that can swim along the edges of the level and, as long as you stick to the edges, you will mostly be safe from the other creatures. By holding down the A button you can venture off the borders and into the level itself, drawing a neon line behind you wherever you go. Should an enemy touch you or your trail you will lose a life, however, if you manage to box an area off with your line, that area gets colored in and becomes part of the level's border. This creates a new edge for you to move along safely, but also results in the playing field getting smaller and therefore more crowded making it harder to navigate safely in it. To make life easier you can dispatch enemies by trapping and boxing them off, however they will respawn after some time, so you must act quickly. To complete a level you need to color in 75% or more of the playing area, after which you will be given a score and awarded a rating of between zero and three stars. To get a good score and rating you will need to finish the levels quickly and kill as many enemies as possible, as they act as multipliers, while losing as few lives as you can.
As you progress through the game, you will come across new enemies, fortunately the game gives you a description of their movement and attacks as they are introduced. It's well worth paying attention to these, as they will help you predict the creatures' behavior, thereby making it easier to avoid them. A few obstacles are thrown into the levels to help keep things interesting, and these consist of reefs (areas you can't move through), lava (if you touch these areas you lose a life) and ice (areas where your movement is slowed down to a crawl).
The visuals in LighFish are done in bright neon, making the levels bright and clearly defined. The music ranges from atmospheric piano to some more techno inspired pieces.
There are a total of 45 levels to play through, which offer a good chunk of gameplay, and chasing after the 3 star rating on each one provides a decent amount of replayability. There is also a Time Trial mode, which sees you trying to complete levels before a timer runs out.
Overall, I found this to be an excellent game. The original arcade Qix games focused on killing the player as often as possible by making enemy movement completely unpredictable and having them hover near the player at all times, whereas LightFish, with it's clearly defined enemy behavior rules, makes for a less punishing game that rewards paying careful attention as well as quick reflexes.

There's three major reasons i even own a Xbox 360, and its First Person Shooters, Music games and Puzzle games. I especially love Music/Puzzle hybrid games such as Lumines and Chime (both fantastic XBLA games). Lightfish is a new puzzle game on XBLIG, and you have never seen anything like this before.

You control a neon "Lightfish" that follows the edges of the play area and can then move into the playfield by holding the "A" button. You leave behind you a thread of light. The concept of the game is to "fill-in" the open play area using the thread to inclose the level, without being touched by any enemies. If an enemy touches your light trail while your moving about trying to fill in a level, you'll die. Luckily you can retract your thread by releasing the A button to backtrack your movements if you think an enemy is about to get in your way. The concept seems confusing (and it was) but what we have here is a fairly fun new take on the puzzle genre.

Each level ends when you cover/capture a minimum of 75% of the playfield. Each level has an assortment of different enemies roaming about and/or bouncing off the walls within the play area. As you progress and fill everything in, the play area becomes smaller and enemies start moving around at breakneck speeds making it harder to move around without being hit. You'll have to predict the path of the enemies before venturing out into the open, which is tough sometimes because the bad guys can go off screen and appear out of nowhere. There are also "Reefs" which are just random immovable shapes and walls that you have to work around. There are a ton of different enemies that have different variables you need to pay attention to and take into account. Your rated at the end of each level with a star rating, from 1 to 3. The scoring seems a bit confusing. It seems more based on how much of the playfield you cover with your lightfish, then how many enemies you defeat or capture.

The graphics are very reminiscent of Geometry wars, everything is well lit and it is easy to understand who does what, by their corresponding colors. I LOVE the music in this game, its very relaxing, riddled with techno beats and tons of piano melodies. The sound effects seem a little lackluster compared to the music, but its not distracting either. I would highly recommend this game to any Hardcore fan of puzzle/action games, But i would say to sample the trial first to get a sense of what to expect. The game would have scored higher if there was even a little bit of a tutorial, but all there is, is a "How To Play" option on the main menu, which i had to read entirely to even grasp the concept of the game. There are 5 "worlds" with 9 levels each, so there's alot of replay-ability here. Give it a spin, i had lots of fun with this one, and for only 80 MSP, its a welcome addition to anyones puzzle collection.