Anyone playing the XNA demos?

[diskoboy]

Some of them are pretty damn fun.

I'm loving Jelly Car and Dishwasher: Dead Samurai....

Dishwasher has alot of potential as an actual game.

[Cryomancer]

How/ where can you play them? Are they available on the live marketplace and I'm blind?

[s1lence]

You have to download the XNA Community program. Then you can download the demos.

Dishwasher is a blast and I got a good laugh out of Little Gamer.

The rest of them, meh.

[segagamer4life]

the dishwasher looks sick..... played 10 min... awesome game. you need to download the XNA studio update. look for the GDC icon on the dash.

[Kejoriv]

are they free to download?

[Cryomancer]

Dishwasher was neat looking but seemed to not keep my attention very long. Like the guys took too long to kill, might be down to me sucking of course. Jellycar is fuckin rad though.

[Half Japanese]

I was able to play 3 of them briefly this morning before I had to leave for work. Brief reviews of thsoe:

Jelly Car: Not seeing the big deal here gameplay-wise, though I dig the sound and visuals. Was there more than the one brief course? Like I said, I played it very briefly and if there is more than the one super-brief course I might be inclined to give it another go. edit: I played some more of the levels and wasn't that impressed. Good design but rather boring execution.

Culture: Crap. Playing Tron's lightcycles in Super Stardust HD's environment isn't fun or unique in any positive sense just because you're doing it with flowers and weeds. What's with the vapid "organic" craze going on with indie developers? First there was the super-shallow yet highly pretentious Flow (I refuse to spell it the official way) and whatever their upcoming game is and now this.

Dishwasher: Not seeing the big deal here either. It strikes me as the sort of thing the kids in Hot Topic get excited about: gory, semi-stylish, nonsensical and ultimately oh-so-empty. Also not a fan of comic-style cutscenes, though it's far more acceptable to do them in a low-budget game than in one that costs $60 (lookin' at you, Folklore).

edit: more reviews based on quick plays-

Little Gamers: This feels like a flash game, and I don't mean that in a good way (considering many fine games start out that way). I appreciate the attempts at humor, but repeating the same phrases that have grown tired in internet forums does not constitute for wit, sorry. Some of the weapons were cool, but most ultimately felt like graphical retreads of the same basic weapon.

Rocketball: Fuck this game. Seriously, this feels like one of those Tiger LCD games. Dodgeball games are by default pretty boring and are made moreso with generic design that would embarrass a PSX-era budget publisher.

TriLinea: Honestly I didn't give this one much of a go. It seems a bit confusing, which is not often an endearing trait for puzzle games.

ProximityHD: This feels like the video game equivalent of those little peg games on the table at the Cracker Barrel; sure it'll pass the time, but it's nowhere close to being fun. This also needs a serious coat of fresh paint before they unleash it on the public. It's not unusual to be bored by a game's interface, but it should at the very least offer the player something more entertaining than staring at the wall.


The conclusion I've reached is: FAIL. None of these are games I would pay money to play full versions of. Now begins the mass deletions from my hard drive...

[Cryomancer]

Jelly Car has a bunch of levels, press up and down at the title screen.

[MachineGex]

JellyCar is a blast, I am hoping it comes with a level editor. The fun factor really depends on level design. The first level was fun but too short.
I let my son(4 years old) play it and he smashed my record in his first few tries. I still can't beat his time of 8.910 . I doubt anyone can.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Little Gamers is perhaps the absolute worst thing I've ever played on the 360.

It makes the Burger King games look like GOTY material.

[walrusmonger]

little gamers was probably my favorite of the XNA games. if you dont play it through the first few levels, you miss out on a bunch of different gameplay mechanics. yeah, it's not so great... and yeah, it's not any better then flash games... and yes.... it uses lame internet jokes, but I appreciate the variations of gameplay put in. although nothing is unique or new in the idea department.