If you haven't checked out the Xbox Indie Games, you're missing out!

I've been addicted to a series of 8-bit style games in the Indie Games section of the Xbox 360 store: the Arkedo Series. I'll try to post more about them later, once I've done a litter research. Here's my impressions of their latest release, SWAP!

SWAP! is a match-4 style jewel game for dual stick controls. It works great! Left stick moves your cursor, right stick swaps the cursor highlighted jewel with one in the direction you point. I've only played the 'Castle' story mode so far, for about 30-45 minutes of total play. At first, I plowed through the first 4 levels. The 5th and final level seemed easy at first, but I still haven't beaten it yet. It seems that the combo system, which I didn't use much in the first 4 levels, is key to progressing through the level. Combos are much like other games, but at first they seem to only be score based. Once you realize the depth of combo patterns, you'll notice that certain patterns are useful depending on what your board looks like (how many jewels are about to reach the game over zone and in which area of the board are they).

I played JUMP! a few weeks ago. I'll try to play it again today and post my impressions compared to my recent experience with Spelunky. They're two different types of games (with different levels of polish) so it will be interesting to compare the two. There isn't enough exploration of the 2D platformer genre, which would be nice to see outside of the licensed material put out early in the Nintendo DS' lifecycle.