You’ve all seen them, the dreaded indie multi-game collections. All too often they consist of clones of old arcade games, often implemented with poor menu systems and even poorer in-game presentation. Maybe they manage to have a singularly good idea, then again perhaps not. Bucking all the trends, though, is the simple truth-in-advertising “20 Games” collection (with the apparently semi-official subtitle of “To Play With Your Mates”, which hints at the game’s support of multiplayer for up to four people. Now this is an impressive collection of games, and is a total steal at 80 Microsoft Points.
Several of the included 20 games could have justified 80 Microsoft Points on their own, and very few of the 20 would I consider to be actually “bad” (perhaps only 2-3). That’s actually a better ratio than most commercially released party game collections I can think to name (including the various installments of “Mario Party”). There’s a nicely done exploration-based zombie shooter, a tank game with solid production values, a vector-themed racer, and much more, and all of them with tight controls and solid production values. When looking at the variety and quality of the games, I was reminded of Fuzion Frenzy on the original Xbox: a game with a few stinkers, several pretty darn decent games, and a number of extremely fun standouts… with one addendum, that is.
“20 Games” actually includes a turn-based strategy territory control game, something vaguely along the lines of Risk (but definitely not a clone). For my money, and added to everything else, that makes it one of the best values in the Indie Games channel. Unless I miss my guess, this game has “David Loves Sandy” written all over it.
Here’s what the developer (IndieSkies) has to say about the game:
“20 Games is a collection of games made for you and your mates. From zombie slaying to turn based strategy there are a great variety of games for local multiplayer and singleplayer.”
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