Word on the street about “10 Amazingly Awful Games” was that it contained several perfectly good games, but that they were all clones of other games; good value at 10 decent games for 80 Microsoft Points, but not deserving of a Mass Deduction review as I don’t review games that are clones. I’ll review something that adds to the classic formula, but not one that simply clones it. I finally decided to investigate it in more depth today and was surprised at what I found. There’s more to “10 Amazingly Awful Games” than meets the eye.
For one thing, the games aren’t all straight clones. The Space Invaders-inspired game has you piloting a ship that’s invincible, defending an Earth that takes damage for every enemy you fail to take out, which is a different take than either classic Space Invaders or games like “Decimation X”.
For another thing, it has a game that absolutely thrown Arkanoid on its ear. This block-busting game adds blocks that shoot at you, blocks that suddenly fall and must be avoided, keeps adding more blocks at the top of the screen (forcing existing blocks toward you) leading to a Bust-A-Move-style of movement constriction, and a paddle that actually produces new balls every few seconds. It’s great hectic fun and worth a dollar all on its own.
In addition to the entries above, you also have:
– a Spy Hunter clone,
– a video poker game,
– a generic side-scrolling shoot-’em-up,
– a Pac Man-ish game (though it does add a new zoom feature to the camera),
– a remake of SNAFU (better known as Snake, though that game was a clone of a classic Intellivision game called SNAFU),
– a fish-on-fish action game (though it does take it out of the Feeding Frenzy fish tank, and turn it into a side-scrolling game),
– a game inspired by Jetpac (a classic Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum game from Rare, back when they were still called Ultimate Play The Game),
– and something where you play as a toilet trying to grab falling objects (which I’m pretty sure is a clone of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on what).
Some of the games support local multiplayer too, which adds to the value. So ignore the clones and/or middling iterations of some of the games, and the uneven quality of the presentation, and you’ll find a package worth getting.
Here’s what the developer (thedeadstu) has to say about the game:
“Just when you thought it was safe to switch on your X-Box! 10 Amazingly Awful Games contains 10 different games from space shooters to block breakers through to bean eating! Some games support up to 4 local players competitive or co-op. Have fun and don’t say you weren’t warned!”
Writings of Mass Deduction 
Hmm, it might be worth buying this just for the Breakout variant. I’ve said before that I typically have no love for Breakout games, but that one seems to add enough interesting elements to make it worth a play. The others in this package hold less appeal for me (though they’re perhaps not actually bad).
Incidentally, based on the video above, the toilet-centric catch game reminds me of ‘Kaboom!’ on the Atari 2600. There are undoubtedly many others like it though.
I’ve always enjoyed seeing the forgotten games that turn up on here that I’ve missed, but never expected one of mine to appear! Glad you got fun out of it and keep up the good work :)
Thanks for taking the time to comment. What was the thinking behind the name? Was it a marketing gimmick? Most people would not consider most of them amazingly awful, I don’t think. :)
It was just a bit of a laugh making them really, I wanted to make a parody of Action 52 and the old Cascade 50 tapes but soon decided making that many was a bit too ambitious, so it became 10, looking at the ratings of 2.5 though I seem to have nailed the awfulness with the second volume :p
It definitely wasn’t a marketing gimmick though, I didn’t expect to sell many but did better than I thought, it was always just done as a bit of fun, 400 or so sales, though the 2nd volume is likely to be the last, first day sales of 7, my worse ever lol.
What was the inspiration for your “Block Vengeance Alpha”, is it an upgraded version of the brickbreaker mode in 10 Amazingly Awful Games?
Yeah it was, just wish I could have afforded to pay for decent graphics though, that’s the main factor that lets me down on that game and others, another 20 games released and I might have enough cash for a few sprites lol
I see some Friday the 13th stuff started happening a little early for Steve and WOMD
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[…] game’s developer said recently that his aim was to parody old low-grade game collections such as the infamous Action 52. I’ll […]