'Game Type' for XBLIG lampoons Xbox 360 dashboard

Serious Sam Double D developer Mommy's Best Games has released 'Game Type' on Xbox Live Indie Games to lampoon Microsoft burying XBLIG in the new Xbox 360 dashboard. The shooter packs an in-game dashboard crammed with adverts for humus and cat talk shows.

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Microsoft has long squandered the wealth of gaming in Xbox Live Indie Games by hiding the user-submitted titles away, but the recent dashboard update buried them even deeper. Inspired by the cack-handed categorizing, Mommy's Best Games--maker of Serious Sam Double D and several XBLIG titles--has released parodic arcade shooter Game Type to send up the new dashboard.

Since the update, the Indie Games category has been hidden several tabs into the dashboard, behind an inconspicuous box with a picture of a jumping woman, labelled "Game Type." As well as rooting around there to buy the game in the first place, you'll need to do that in-game too before you can play. Game Type's in-game dashboard is packed with adverts for TV shows including that famous sitcom "Fat Guy and Pretty Girl," and talk shows hosted by cats.

"I've been thrilled Microsoft created the special dashboard tile just for our game. It's such a terrible name which I created as a placeholder while starting the project," Game Type lead designer Nathan Fouts joked in the announcement.

"With the incongruous stock photo of a woman in a hoodie doing a jump-kick, and the forgettable 'Game Type' title, it's good to know Microsoft was advertising our poorly-named game, and not trying to label the console's entire digital game storefront. Otherwise, it'd be a horrible match that would simply make no sense and generally lead fewer gamers to find the store and browse on their own terms."

Numerous XBLIG developers have complained that the updated dashboard will harm sales.

As for Game Type the video game, it's an arcade shooter starring the famous woman in a hoodie, taking on giant enemy crabs, cars, cats, and other bizarre enemies. It supports two-player local co-op, if you happen to know another hoodie-wearing lady.

"Check out 'Game Type' on Xbox Live Indie Games. Find it in the Xbox 360 Games Marketplace. Or just do a search on it," Mommy's Best Games says. "Otherwise, you'll probably get lost in the dashboard, stuck watching advertisement for TV shows." Probably the easiest way to find Game Type is on the Xbox Live Marketplace website. It only costs 80 Microsoft Points ($1).

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 22, 2011 8:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, 'Game Type' for XBLIG lampoons Xbox 360 dashboard.

    Serious Sam Double D developer Mommy's Best Games has released 'Game Type' on Xbox Live Indie Games to lampoon Microsoft burying XBLIG in the new Xbox 360 dashboard. The shooter packs an in-game dashboard crammed with adverts for humus and cat talk shows.

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      December 22, 2011 8:42 AM

      good press for what ends up looking like another run of the mill XBLIG game.

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      December 22, 2011 8:55 AM

      If this is on XBLIG, it means that Microsoft had to approve its release, right? If that's the case, why did Microsoft not just shut this down as "inappropriate"?

      That said, I love the satire, and the criticism of a user interface mired in Microsoftian politics and adverspamming prioritization.

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        December 22, 2011 9:52 AM

        XBLIG are peer reviewed. As long as they don't violate any of the "rules" it's ok.

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      December 22, 2011 8:56 AM

      Indie developers should remind themselves that Microsoft also has ties to large developers that, yanno, actually pay the majority of Xbox bills.

      Just goes to show you can't make everyone happy.

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        December 22, 2011 9:24 AM

        And here I thought all those Gold subscriptions were paying the bills.

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          December 22, 2011 10:05 AM

          true, but no one is paying for xboxlive gold without games worth playing online

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      December 22, 2011 10:07 AM

      this is a bit off-topic, but relates to the new xbox update.

      I cannot stand the new netflix interface. How is it that they 'updated' it so that it now starts playing shows automatically (when selecting a TV series for example) when all you want is a list of episodes, or look up more information (i.e. Year of release). I don't think they could have made the interface for jumping between episodes any clunkier even if that had been their main objective!! Even the fast forward and rewind functions seem to be borked compared to pre-update.

      Am i the only one who feels this way...?

      /rant

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        December 27, 2011 1:32 PM

        Total agree with this. How much more can Netflix screw up? I don't believe you can even find the year the movie was released anymore... maybe I am wrong. I do not like it at all.

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