Xbox Live Indie getting all the games in one week

This post is subtitled: “Cthulhu Saves the World has a release date!”

Anyway, you’ve probably been on the XBL Indie section once or twice. Probably around when I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 was released. You looked at the other best selling games, and found a stream of crap, and many, many titles involving zombies, avatars, or massaging. I mean, XBL Indie is at best a brilliant idea poorly done, as evidenced by the game Try Not to Fart being one of the top selling titles. Seriously, people. Seriously. And it’s evident that some of the creators on the service are fed up with the state of affairs, but until now, there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it. Microsoft seemed content to relegate it to non-priority status, and has not done a whole lot to promote it. Mostly, the system has relied on grassroots promotion, with the most successful titles being fan favorites like the aforementioned game with zombies in it or Breath of Death VII, an old school comedy RPG that’s actually quite good.

Now, though, things change. A collection of the best talents on the marketplace are banding together to overwhelm the crap by releasing all their games on the same day. …Yes, I know, I’m about as confused as you are. On one hand, it makes a good news story, that’ll get play pretty much everywhere. On the other, I don’t have $50 of expendable cash on the first week of December. I have maybe $10. Which is unfortunate, because so many of these games look fantastic. I was considering highlighting specific ones as the “best of the bunch”, but honestly, with sequels to a number of games I liked (Breath of Death, Aphelion which we reviewed!, and Soulcaster) as well as new games from Ska Studios (maker of the game with the zombies in it and personal favorite Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, possibly the best XBLA game) and radiangames, as well as some awesome looking new titles like competitive brawler Chu’s Dynasty, stick adventurer Alpha Squad, roguelike Epic Dungeon, and the awesomely named Asteroids Do Concern Me, I mean, fuck, how do I highlight one or the other.

In any case, the first week of December is going to be pretty awesome. Though we do not know whether that means December 1st (which is a Wednesday, so XBLA updates) or the first week of December proper, as yet. But it doesn’t matter, because this winter, we will all be poor!

If you’re still skeptical of these games, have no fear, for we shall bring you detailed, tangent-filled reviews of many of these games!