It’s been awhile since there’s been some proper XBLA sales. Sadly though, only Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is really worth buying, even at these prices. Unless, of course, you’re into Puzzle Quest in a big way and want to finish off your collection.

Here’s the list:

• Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury – 400 MSP

• Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad – 400 MSP

• Karateka – 400 MSP

• Mad Tracks – 400 MSP

• Matt Hazard: BBB – 400 MSP

• Pid – 400 MSP

• Puzzle Quest – 400 MSP

• Puzzle Quest 2 – 400 MSP

• Puzzle Quest Galactrix – 600 MSP

• Rocket Bowl – 200 MSP

• Texas Cheat’em – 400 MSP

There’s also a ‘Disney publisher sale’ this week, which you can ignore entirely. The quad biking game Pure is truly excellent but the discounted price of £8.99, is laughable when you can get it for around a fiver on ebay.

Game: Fez

Price: 800 MSP / £6.80

Age Rating: 3+

Genre: Puzzle Platformer

Gameplay: Set in a world stuck in planes of 2D movement, Fez initially seems rather simple. That is until you gain the ability to rotate the world in four 90 degree increments. Suddenly, paths are revealed that were not there before, platforms that were once far away are in reach and with every turn a whole new perspective on the world is opened up.

This can initially be quite confusing, but the early puzzles a relatively simple and break you in gently. Soon though, you’ll be scratching your head in the desperate search for the mysterious cubes. ‘How an earth can I get over there?’ being the usual question that forms in your mind, but when you eventually work it out, it’s a satisfaction similar to the one you get from solving a puzzle in Portal.

In short this game makes you feel stupid, clever and in awe of the developer, all in equal measure.

Visuals and Sound: It’s 3D but not 3D, it’s 2D but not 2D. However you describe Fez, the look is something that really stands out. The flat pixelated characters that don’t even realise there is a third dimension are cute with just enough detail. The worlds you’ll end up in are varied, interesting and oddly mystical, and there’s always something new to be impressed by at just around the 90 degree corner.

There’s only very minimal sounds, but the music…ah the music. This is the soundtrack that convinced me chiptunes are not all worthless retro trash. I thoroughly recommend downloading the soundtrack from here: http://disasterpeace.com/album/fez and if that isn’t a compliment, well…suffice to say, it’s a compliment.

Like it:

• Clever gameplay mechanics that really test your thought muscles.

• Beautiful setting, graphics and music.

Loathe it:

• The…um…how about the..? I give up, I can’t find anything worth hating in this.

Worth a purchase?: Put simply Fez is clever, fun and hauntingly beautiful. Just like its spiritual puzzle platformer predecessor Braid, this is an essential purchase for all but those who can’t stand platformers or using their brain.

Rating: 5/5

Available on: Xbox 360 and PC

Run for the tower,

Slash, chop, bash and now I’m dead.

Man, I suck at this.

Game: Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown

Price: 800 MSP / £6.80

Age Rating: 3+

Genre: Collect ‘em up

Gameplay: Much like the original Feeding Frenzy it’s a case of: eat the small fish to grow bigger, so you can eat the big fish.

Gameplay is much smoother this time around and different fish have different abilities. All can dash as in the original but some can now suck to collect fish more easily.

Visuals and Sound: It may still be 2D but the fish are now all fully rendered in 3D, how’s that for technology and progress! Joking aside the updated fish look much better, with just a hint of cel-shading that adds an air of cartoon fun to the proceedings.

The music and sounds are much the same, though the new announcer will probably make you a little bit angry every time you hear him.

Like it:

• Adds four player cooperative and competitive modes.

• Much improved graphics.

• Greater variety in the levels, in gameplay terms and visually.

Loathe it:

• As with the first game, the short story mode doesn’t last very long.

• The announcer who says: ‘feeding frenzy’ is annoying hell.

• Still rather repetitive.

Worth a purchase?: I mentioned the lack of multi-player in the original Feeding Frenzy as a missed opportunity. Well, that opportunity has been firmly grasped with both hands in this sequel. Not only is the full campaign playable with four players, but there’s a whole selection of fun competitive modes too.

If you liked the original this is almost a no-brainer purchase, only the more expensive price is holding it back. However, with the addition of multi-player this makes it well worth the price.

It’s perhaps not the most exciting game in the world, but it’s more than fun enough to warrant at least a quick play before you judge it too harshly. Who knows, maybe the call of the deep will draw you in.

Rating: 3/5

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Cheap and cheerful fun this week in the distinctly bad looking, yet good to play Bug Zapper and Dinora. One is about saving bugs from a zapper, the other is a copycat Terraria. I’ll leave you to work out which is which.

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In parts one and two I discussed how puzzle games and platformers are largely dead. I lied, they’ve just shuffled round into a different way of doing things.

Puzzle games are alive and well, they’ve simply moved from consoles to a different arena: tablets and Facebook games.

If anything puzzle games are now more popular than they have ever been. The list of variants of Bejeweled is simply enormous, Puzzle Bobble has been copied endlessly, most notably with the incredibly popular Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook.

Puzzle games have even moved away from the traditional match three format, into games like Flow Free and it’s many imitators. You could even argue that 4 Pics 1 Word is a puzzle game and if it isn’t, what would you call it?

And platformers? Well they’re being made by indie developers, keen to make their mark instead of by the major companies (except Nintendo of course)

Over the past few years we’ve had a large number of Triple A indie platformers: Braid, Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Fez, ‘Splosion Man…the list goes on.

What do these have in common? They all bring something special, fresh or innovative to the genre. Be it the hardcore difficulty of Super Meat Boy, the dark twisted visuals of Limbo or the time bending fun of Braid.

Old genres don’t die…they just get taken up by different people.

Fingers crossed that the new generation of consoles is a great place to be for indie developers. The gaming community needs their innovation if the industry isn’t to stagnate entirely, but that’s a discussion for another day.

So in conclusion, how does each new generation of consoles effect a genre? Well it can improve or impede a genre, but even if a certain type of genre is rejected at one point it will almost certainly find a way back. Just look at Telltale Games single handedly bringing back point-and-click games, and very successfully so.

So even if you favourite type of game gets overlooked in the next console generation, take heart, there will always be new games coming out in that genre somewhere. Perhaps you shouldn’t hold out for there being many new text adventures though, there are exceptions to every rule.

Game: Feeding Frenzy

Price: 400 MSP / £3.40

Age Rating: 3+

Genre: Collect ‘em up

Gameplay: You are a fish, eat smaller fish to grow bigger, then you can eat bigger fish, eat those to grow even bigger, then you can eat bigger fish, repeat until end of level, next level; start again.

That’s pretty much all there is to Feeding Frenzy. The four different fish (and one whale) all handle slightly differently but it’s nothing game changing.

This is a game that can be played by anyone, which isn’t surprising when you learn it was made by Pop Cap, the king of casual game developers.

Visuals and Sound: Just as there not much to the gameplay, there’s not a whole lot to the visuals either. The backgrounds are static images and the various undersea creatures that you will be eating or getting eaten by only have a few frames of animation each. That’s not to say it’s an ugly game, just not a spectacular one.

The music has a nice undersea feel to it and the chomping sound your fish makes when eating another is actually rather satisfying.

Like it:

• Simple and fun gameplay.

• Surprisingly addictive.

Loathe it:

• Only two modes and both are quite short.

• Lack of multi-player seems like a missed opportunity.

• Rather repetitive.

• It might just be me, but it makes my eyes go all funny if I play it for too long.

Worth a purchase?: Cheap and cheerful cheeky fun. That’s how I would sum up in Feeding Frenzy in one vaguely alliterative sentence.

It certainly will not be to everyone’s taste but as far as casual games from Pop Cap go there’s only one better and that’s: Plants vs. Zombies, but that’s an entirely different experience.

Rating: 3/5

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Lots of little dudes,

Live in a growing tower,

Where do they come from?