radiangames JoyJoy Hot

Not much more to add since I agree with the long-ish review below me: this is a happy, fun, addictive twin-stick shooter that has replay value.

It was the first introduction to radiangames and has the brighest (and perhaps clearest) graphics of all of them so far.

I like the way it handles the weapons and power-ups, and hands out criminally underused praises at the end of each wave--Splendid!

Twin Stick shooters are not exactly a rare thing on the Indie Games store, but ones of such high quality most certainly are.

Multiple weapon types, levels, and bosses create a much more "gamey" experiance than a simple shoot everyone in sight kind of format.

The asthetics are beautiful the graphics are simple yet gorgeous and the sound perfectly suits the tone and atmosphere created by the visuals.

Many times with Indie Titles i'll love a game intensely but move on to something new. It is a sign of the quality and bitesized nature to the Indie Game format but in JoyJoy has captured that hook, that intangible X factor that takes a game from great to classic.

JoyJoy is a landmark on the Xbox Indie Store, and as such is a MUST PLAY!

A quick note about how I score things for XBLIG titles. More than anything, I go by how much fun the game is, followed by how much replay value you'll get out of a title. Not everything has to look or sound perfect, nor does it have to do everything original for its genre. Those things help, but they're not necessary when you're talking about games that you spend your loose change on. Now, take all that stuff I just said and throw it out the window for the score I just gave radiangames JoyJoy. Because it has all those. AND the fun.

JoyJoy (I'm dropping the "radiangames" part for the rest of the review) is one of the latest drops in the growing ocean of twin-stick shooters on XBLIG. Easiest comparison is Geometry Wars, obviously, but JoyJoy does more than just put you in an arena and send waves of stuff at you. Instead of "go until you die", you need to go through 24 Waves (levels), with three of those levels being boss battles. Along the way you'll find and upgrade a total of six weapons along with your armor, speed, and weapon charge time. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. You can charge up with RT and release for an alternate attack that's pretty unique to each weapon. Little things that all add up to make the game its own experience rather than just another GeoWars clone.

Speaking of GeoWars clones, one other thing that JoyJoy has to differentiate itself from the rest is its look and sound. It's the happiest shooter I've played since the old Parodius or Twinkle Star Sprites days. Bullets look like flying ink, the music sounds straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon theme, stage clear screens greet you with words like "Extraordinary!" (or, my favorite, "Majestic!"), and everything is bright and cheery. On a more technical side, all your enemies and their ammo are one color with varying shades, and this color is usually the exact opposite color you and the background are for that wave; for example, red when you're blue, blue when you're yellow, etc. This makes it difficult for you to lose yourself, something I do often with these games. On top of all that, it's beautiful to look at in motion.

I'm not a huge fan of twin-stick shooters having a lot to do with controls outside of move/shoot. JoyJoy throws a couple buttons in, but they're all on the shoulders (thankfully) and all they consist of are switching weapons with the bumpers and powering up your charge shot with the trigger. Other than that, everything is as responsive as it needs to be for this genre, which means "spot-on".

The one fault is that there isn't an online leaderboard (more a fault with XNA, but still noteworthy). There, I got that out of the way. Now onto everything good. The campaign has five selectable difficulty levels in addition to two unlockable modifiers to make the game more difficult, which gives you a score bonus. In addition, there are six challenge stages that you earn, and beating each of those will unlock a modifier to make the game easier at the cost of a percentage of your score while using them. While in the campaign, if you die you can continue at the cost of resetting your score. You can also start at specific waves if you're in the mood to just go in and play against the later waves or want to stop for the night and beat the game in the morning. Oh yeah, and drop-in co-op at any time. Add in bonuses for not getting hit and for clearing the wave quickly and you have a game that can be as easy and relaxing or as challenging and competitive as you want it to be.

I won't say that this is the best twin-stick shooter on the system, nor will I say that it replaces all the other ones. The game has a different feel than the more survival-based ones and doesn't have as many modes as Pew Pew Pod or Echoes+. That said, the look, sound and feel of the game is a breath of fresh air on the saturated and somewhat stale twin-stick genre. If you like the genre, buy this. If one thing or another keeps you from enjoying other twin-stick games out there, try the demo out. It just might make a convert out of you, and I promise I won't say "I told you so" if you buy it.

Nice range of difficulty options. I like that I can set it for mellow when I want to relax and enjoy the art style. Plus the multiple weapons let me play using a style that works for me. It looks great too!