System: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Hudson Soft
Players: 1-4 players local; 8 players online
Review by: Matt Bosko

Editor’s note: This is a regular column in which Matt Bosko reviews Xbox Live Arcade games. Since XBLA titles are smaller in nature than full-blown retail releases, the reviews are shorter and forgo the Criteria page.

After spending several days in a hospital caring for my new son and daughter, I needed to relax. I was also itching to fire up my 360 and get back to doing what I love: reviewing games! So I’m pleased to present my thoughts on Bomberman Live.

In Bomberman Live, you and your opponents are placed in an overhead map with the goal of being the last one standing. Your only weapon, of course, is a bomb. Scattered across the map are pickups which make your bombs stronger or give you the ability to drop more than one explosive at a time. Unlike previous installments, there’s no story mode; it’s just you against other Bombermen.

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System: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: NinjaBee
Players: 1-4 players local; 8 players online
Review by: Matt Bosko

Editor’s note: This is a regular column in which Matt Bosko reviews Xbox Live Arcade games. Since XBLA titles are smaller in nature than full-blown retail releases, the reviews are shorter and forgo the Criteria page.

From the creators of Cloning Clyde and Outpost Kaloki X comes a new Xbox Live arcade game, Band of Bugs. Ninjabee’s Band of Bugs is an original strategy offering that pits you and your fellow insects against evil arachnids, flies, beetles and more. Ninjabee is hoping they have a hit on their hands, but will we welcome the pint-sized warriors or be left reaching for the pesticide?

Band of Bugs is a turn-based strategy game. There are several options from which to choose, but the focus is on the story of Maal. Maal is a bug chosen to free his fellow insects by destroying several crystals called “cursed artifacts”. As you progress through the story, new units are made available, some of which include a moth that can turn water into ice so you can walk across lakes, a deadly ninja bee and a one-armed praying mantis. The characters are one of the few high points Band of Bugs brings to the table.

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System: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Namco Bandai
Players: One player local
Review by: Matt Bosko

Editor’s note: This is a regular column in which Matt Bosko review Xbox Live Arcade games. Since XBLA titles are smaller in nature than full-blown retail releases, the reviews are shorter than our other reviews and forgo the Criteria page.

New to the Xbox Live Marketplace is Pac-Man Championship Edition. Namco Bandai introduced this game for the first time at the Pac-Man World Championships held in New York in May. Can you make Pac-Man better, though? Namco Bandai thought so, once again enhancing the overall look and gameplay.

Pac-Man first appeared in the United States in 1980. Back then, the only way you could get your hands on it was in bars and pizza joints, or by dropping $35.00 on an Atari cartridge. Don’t worry; Pac-Man C.E. will only cost you 800 Microsoft points, or about ten bucks. It keeps the same premise, though, placing you in a maze with four ghosts that will try to stop you from having your fill of yellow pellets.

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