Dust Devils - Xbox360 Indie Title Review!

This evening, I managed to steal away to my super-secret lair of high speed internet to bring you my review of Dust Devils for the Xbox360! The basic premise of the game is that Earth has depleted all of its natural resources, forcing them to begin looking towards the stars for an alternative. Eventually, “Crystals” are found on the surface of Mars and mankind takes off into space to begin harvesting these as an alternative source of energy.

With a top-down view reminiscent of Asteroids, the game gets you with one thing right off the bat; Nostalgia. The game however is not all black and white; it features colorful enemies and environments. While the introduction to the game was a little jolty, remember that it is an indie title, but a fun one at that. The controls for the game are simple; steer with the left stick, and aim with your right. Not very much more could be said, that is as simple as you can get.

Each of the Levels are laid out in Waves, and of course, as the waves progress further and further towards the limit (say 15 like in Level 1), the enemies become increasingly hostile and larger and greater numbers of them appear on the screen. In some levels you’ll be tasked with defending the Drill platform. Other times, you will be braving the enemy to collect them for yourself to drop them at various points on the map. As I stated at the beginning, this game gets you with nostalgia, and is absolutely just as addicting.

As far as customization goes, the most you can do is with your weapons; the Laser, the Flamethrower and Grenade Launcher. After purchasing level 1 of these respective weapons, you are free to equip them once you enter the “shop” menu, which pops up every 5 waves or so. Only allowing one type of weapon to be used at a time adds a strategy variable into the simple equation; Laser for small, Flamethrower for larger enemies and crowd control, and the Grenade Launcher to blow stuff sky high. Co-op definitely adds a certain level of fun to the mix, and makes things like defending and fetching Crystals a little less of a task with a buddy to watch your back.

If you loved Asteroids, this game is for you; it holds all of the same cards in its hand, just much prettier. As an Xboxlive Indie Title and for only 80 Microsoft Points, it’s definitely worth it: Simple Controls, Co-op, Top-down Nostalgia, it’s something to pick up on a day when you’re missing just how simple yet fun games could be.