Minus World

In my rush to abbreviate my last post as much as possible, I completely forgot to mention this week's XBLA goods. Well, good, anyway.

n+
Achievements: 12 (8 offline for 130 gs, 4 online for 70 gs)

Given that I've been playing video games since I was four or five, there are times when describing a game in terms of its derivations occurs. While it's not my favorite style of reviewing, it certainly fits this game, because everything that is derivative is well-executed.

n+ pits you as a stick figure ninja up against peculiar environments, explosives, and a lot of turrety things in what could best be described as Super Mario Brothers 3: TECHNO REMIX OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE. Between the boucy blocks that I couldn't help but picture bearing music notes, the greatly increased jumping power from running inertia, collecting coins left and right, and a dash of wall-jumping from Batman for the NES, this game was like a fusion of some of the best platformers of my youth.

The best part is, I'm not even a big fan of platformers. Paid for it after the first tutorial level, and I'm terribly curious as to what this online Survival Mode happens to be. Get it.

I think I'm lifting the impromptu hiatus I took from the other games I had floating around today, too. Since I'm going to Vegas next weekend, I figure I'll just play what I've got until then and send everything back, save for Bioshock if it doesn't get finished and whatever they send me to replace Avatar.