I don't mind pointing out faults in games, I find it actually kind of cathartic.  Some of the XBox Live Indie titles are actually good, some are bad, others totally unplayable.  The yellow titles, however, are a different beast.  I play them and like them, but see how others may appreciate the effort.  On the other hand, I might scoff at a title that people could like, and sometimes I'm so full of myself I can understand other people's feelings.  These titles I'm sure have many hours of toil, sleepless nights, and Jolt Cola leading up to a sometimes unceremonious XBox 360 release, lost in the shuffle of big-name titles, a flood of poor titles, and other things in between.  Thankfully, many of these games are only $1, so you can find the gem along with the crap, and not feel bad about finding the crap. Let's check some of the Indie Yellows out!  

  Racing, Running, Climbing, Falling   

Quite a bit of racing titles or racing-related titles.  Avatar Racedrome and Avatar Karting both look pretty good, but the controls for me are a bit wonky.  I found myself swearing at these games with minor swear words like "damnit" and "crap."  Seaside Racing has some ambitious layouts to it, but I wasn't feeling the emptiness to the atmosphere, even though the playfield looks nice and is quite large.  Maybe it was supposed to be similar to WipeOut, but I wasn't feeling it.  Hypership Out of Control isn't a typical racing game, but you do fly your ship from point A to B while your ship keeps accelerating.  You collect power ups and avoid smashing your ship into walls and other obstacles, kind of like the end of the Konami game Lifeforce.  I like Hypership, I'm just not sure it's for everybody.  The Charge is a falling simulator or a tunnel runner simulator. It has a similar idea to Hypership, but The Charge is in 3D.  Think Star Wars (Atari arcade vector game) in the trench run, or Sewer Shark, minus the alternate routes and shooting rats and going after Ned Beatty.  Each gate you pass through successfully speeds you up until you eventually lose control.  At least I always lost control.  I never got physically ill playing a videogame before, but The Charge did make me dizzy and woozy.  Not a bad game, just my stomach couldn't handle it.

Below: Dirchie Kart selection screen.  Take a closer look at the girl in pink. I dare you.

 Dirchie Kart looks fantastic and plays well, but you have to like Mario Kart to enjoy this one.  The choice of cars is good, the animations and style are enjoyable, and I even wonder how they got away with Mario fonts in the game.  Maybe it's slightly different than Mario's?  I feel this is a great title, I just wonder if it's for everybody.  Another title is Run.  Something's missing from this one, I can't place what it is.  I'm thinking it's a combination of the playfield size coupled with a noticeable lack of personality.  Not terrible, it's one of those titles you'd see in the arcade, play a few times, and walk away having forgotten about it.  Get To The Choppa!!1. Well, it is what the title says, and it's insanely simple in design.  The object of the game: run away from the zombies and get to the helicopter (get it!?)

Ninja Train is an interesting side-scrolling running game with really small graphics, and large pieces of a window frame on a train obstructing much of the view.  I tried to get into this one, but the foreground was incredibly overbearing.  Take that thing out of there, I WANT TO SEE the game!  Ninja Guardian suffers a little bit of the same problem, the graphics are really, really tiny, but the playfield is 1/3 of the screen.  Jumping platform to platform is a challenge, and dying is easy.  The style is simple but pleasing, the controls are easy but frustrating.  I'm a fence-sitter with this one.  I want to like it, I really do.  The last of the ninja titles, Ninja Stole My Bike, is based on a racist internet joke involving Mike Tyson's Punch-Out lead character, Little Mac, and his trainer.  The Ninja Stole My Bike game has you chasing a variety of ninjas stealing your bike and defending itself with pizza boxes.  Your ammunition is unlimited tomatoes, although you do have to avoid obstacles by jumping or ducking.  You only have control over the throwing, jumping, and ducking, so it's like one of those other "falling" games, but instead of falling down your falling left to right.  Humorous, and only $1, but you may be pissed at this game for some reason or another.

Toy Stunt Bike is a semi-clone of Trials HD for the cheap(er?) crowd.  It plays and looks good, and like the game it flatters has some trial and error to it.  A nice attempt that's pretty fun, if not a bit lacking atmosphere.  I can almost imagine this one with a track editor.  The title Who Is God? pits you in a jump session by different deities like God and Buddha and an Alien.  The goal is to jump to the top of the screen, much like the title I Think Somebody Stole My Princess, but without the humorous personality of I Think Somebody Stole My Princes.  It's not bad, you may like it, to me it seems a bit flat.

  Shooters 

First-person shooters are obviously plentiful on the indie circuit, guns and blood are calling cards in gaming.  Nuclear Wasteland is a nice shooter, it has the feel of the mini-shooters in the Thrillville series.  It's not terribly expensive for a game, it looks good, but there's a chance you will forget you downloaded it to demo, let alone purchased it.  Night of Doom 1&2 feel like you are playing a beta, and are following the progress of a game.  Part 1 is not much but is a start, simple noises and zombie-ish enemies sliding around like Hogan's Alley.  Part 2 moves the graphics to more details, the gameplay is a little smoother and changed up a bit (hills, obstacles, sounds,) and it has some silly bugs: the zombie who looks like it should be crawling out of the ground is in the sky (?)  Then again, playing Final Fantasy XI, by a huge studio, I was being chased by a toothy fish out of the water and across the land- I guess it happens to everybody!  Zombie Turkey Outbreak is simply the old Nintendo^64 South Park game, with better gameplay but less personality, slap on a South Park license, and you're off and running!

Kong360: Gorilla Warfare is a title that I really want to like, it just feels a little clunky and unfinished.  I love the weaponry and they gameplay idea, I thought I was back into the fun that was Loaded on the PSX, but Kong360 is lacking in the comfort of controlling and weapon selection.  A little brush-up on the controls, slight touch-ups graphically, and maybe a larger budget/studio backing these guys and Kong360, and there could be something there.  And yes, this is me being serious. 

Below: Kong360: Gorilla Warfare... somebody get behind this title!

Outbreak on Uranus.  This game is a guilty pleasure.  The graphics are comically simple, the sounds are silly, the gameplay is NARC-like, the blood flows like wine.  Best of all is that it's only $1.  Worst of all, they are proud of the advertisements and want you to notice them.  They keep popping down from the top of the screen!  Yes, they're funny, fine!  Stick them on the wall as part of the background, stop shoving them in my face, damnit!  Weapon of Choice is the game everybody's talking about as being one of the best.  It's a Contra-style game with different weapons, an odd gameplay mechanic, and a cool visual style.  It's an early Indie title, and it shows, but it has stood up to the test of time.  You just, y'know, you might just hate this game.

Notebook Shooter is one of Nth amount of twin-stick shooters, as are The XMas Chainsaw Massacre and Twinstick: This Ain't No Picnic, all from the vine of Geometry Wars and the Godfather of twin-sticks, Robotron.  They just take their own look at it, be it in a notebook, in a winter scene with chainsaws, or at a picnic blanket.  As many of the twin-stickers there are, it's really up to you to find your favorite style and stick with it.  Personally, I stick with Radiangames.

  Oldies 

Classic-style games are also all over the place, from Asteroids to Space Invaders to Pinball to, well, to Sinistar (no, really!)  Aban Hawkins & The 1000 Spikes and Tempura of the Dead are awesome displays of this, painted with a palette of 1980s graphics, bad yet good music, and insta-death annoyances of the old NES days.  That's a good thing, not a bad thing!  I teeter on Aban and Tempura between yellow and green, but I can see how they may be more frustrating than fun, and stuck in the dark ages of the 80s.  Cheneystar is the Sinistar title, with Dick Cheney insulting you after he comes to life, much like in Sinistar, but with politically slanted humor.  Angry Barry got that idea right, along with classic Bad Dudes gameplay. Cheneystar, not so much.

  Firebies tries its hands at the old-style beat'em ups with larger characters, weird combos, and very interesting graphic style.  They play liked hinged puppets, which actually works quite well!  The drawback to this game is also one of the things that could make this game stand out: character size.  Relative to the screen they are big, when I was in a fight with several enemies I jumped up into the air, and lost track where I was falling.  If the camera panned out when I was airborne, I could have prepared better for the fight that was waiting at the bottom.  Still, a very fun game!

Space Police on Superhighway takes the chase part of the Atari classic APB, and throws you onto the streets chasing down criminals.  It looks nice, but is insanely redundant.  Still, there's a charm to it.  Explosionade is another game with charm and style, and lends itself to the Solomon Keys dungeon crawling games.  Get from this part of the screen to the next without dying!  The writing in Explosionade is also very good, and the humor reflects the style of the game.  This one, like several others, needs more backing, money, and support!  Oh, and a sequel!

Below: Explosionade definitely has the look, and it has the gameplay.

Vaderz is a take on the Galaxian-Space Invaders games, looks good, plays good, sounds good.  A bit pricey for an indie game at $3, but a nice attempt.  Alien Super Mega Blaster takes the Space Invaders route, with a take on the recent reboots like Space Invaders Infinite Gene (feel free to correct me, it's only my opinion!)  Destroy waves of tromping aliens and large UFOs while avoiding falling shrapnel from their demise.  Throw in some semi-rapid fire and your off! 

Asteroid Sharpshooter looks fantastic and plays well, just a little redundant.  It makes me think (incorrectly) of Asteroids, could be the name of the game that throws me.  The graphics of the asteroids feels like I'm in a pre-rendered FMV game (think something like Microcosm or Loadstar.)  Nice game, enjoyable, but lacking variety.  Doppleganger, a take on Defender but with two levels of play!  How does it work?  Think two Defender playfields- a field on top, with its mirror image on the bottom.  The enemies can't travel between the fields, but you can.  And you must!  It takes some concentration but when you get going, you really get going.  Thing is I can see some players who don't get going, and don't have the patience to try.

  Shmups 

Above: Shoot 1UP brings the bullet heaven

Shoot 1UP Imagine a world to invade, a ship to control, and another couple dozen ships out there to help you.  It's a shoot'emup where you can become the bullet hell.  Shoot1UP plays like any other shooter, but you will collect ships as well as more powerful weapon capabilities.  When you have more ships, you can control the squadron formation with the shoulder buttons.  Keeping them apart will give you a giant beam of death that is formed in the middle of your ships called the Plasma Auger.  You will need a lot of ships in your squadron to survive, because the amount of enemies on screen during parts of the game makes it nearly impossible to keep all of your ships (full review here!) 

Revolver 360 stands above almost every Indie title as the best-looking game.  The play mechanic is standard-shmup, but you can spin the playfield around to dodge bullets, pick up bonuses, and get an inside track to destroying the larger bosses.  I personally love this game, I love it.  However, the spinning can induce nausea, dizziness, and a headache, but so does watching The Jersey Shore.  And you don't have to worry about getting a social disease from Revolver 360!  Warbirds at Work doesn't work as well.  It feels like my warbird is flying in mud, throwing feather bullets at enemies who are lazily meandering towards me or across the screen.  Kind of dull.  Needs polish.  Quickly.

Leucistic Wyvern invokes Panzer Dragoon, and throws it into a bad-looking Sega Saturn environment.  The graphics are bad, the gameplay is good, the sound is bad, the idea is good.  This is another game I want to like, but I can't wrap my thumbs around it.

   Girl Trouble 

In Adventures of Capt. Becky, you take your (obviously!) large-chested character in skimpy clothes through a Prince of Persia (the old 2D version)-like game, jumping around, hopping, jiggling, collecting, and smashing your way through maze-ish levels.  The controls are a bit floaty, the graphics are actually pretty good when you get past the silly outfits that Captain Becky is wearing.  She sort of looks like what Wilma Flintstone would look like if she were a porn star.  Wait, they did make a Flinstones porno?  Well, that's disturbing.  Oh, you can also unlock her outfits and change her clothes.

Below: Capt. Becky displays the Universal Sign of Sexy.. a bunny outfit.

Maid-San's Caving Adventure is a more claustrophobic game than Captain Becky's game, and doesn't look as good.  Maybe it's the lack of jiggly parts?  This game is for the cute-loving crowd.  It's almost too cute and sweet and syrupy!  The music is very, well, kid-like.  This is a Japanese game, and it shows it.  In fact, it flaunts it!  Before you even play, you will be bombarded with an advertisement to buy other alleged cute/sexy games!  Anyhow, Maid-San is a Japanese big-eyed schoolgirl who traverses caves and wanders past trolls and collects stars.  I really don't know what I'm doing in the game, it's almost entirely in Japanese.  It could be a good game, I just don't fekkin' know.

The Zombie Shotgun Massacre 1&2 are silly, stupid zombie killing games, with a much simpler and straight-forward play than the Onechanbara titles (which I love, they're just so incredibly silly-stupid.)  Lost of blood and violence, a scantily clad woman or two, and seemingly endless amounts of targets to take out. Oh yeah, more importantly, it'll cost you $2 for both titles and, quite possibly, several thousand brain cells... but who needs them!?  Funny you should ask.  The people who play Shooting Chicken Revenge need those brain cells to keep their sanity. Revenge is a silly chicken killing/murder simulator with some of the more annoying sounds to be found in any game.  I hate those chickens, I want to kill them, but I wish they'd shut the fekk up!  The control is good, the gameplay is good, the chickens are fekkin' annoying as all get up and fuck!

   Defense Mechanism 

All Out of Bubblegum. Build your defensive position, the defend against hoards of zombies.  Hey you lived!  Build more and defend more.  Oh you made it this far, hey?  Well, build more fortifications and use better weapons to kill more waves.  Guns are unsatisfying, the cynic in me wanted to put the gun to my player's head and pull the trigger.  Zombiez 8 My Cookies is a cute idea for a game, but overall feels a little unsatisfying.  Could also be that the silly zombies ate all my fekkin' cookies!  Maybe tower defense-type games aren't my taste?  

Crisis in the Gulf wants me to prevent oil from leaking into the gulf, a-la British Petroleum and their huge mess from 2010.  I was in high school during the Persian Gulf War, so I thought Crisis in the Gulf would have been about desert warfare with Stormin' Norman or something like Total Carnage!  It's actually challenging to manage your resources and prevent a natural disaster.  No Paris Hilton Clean-Up simulator yet, so that disaster is still around.

   Unknown Categorization & Tech Demos 

Crazy Ride with Zombies is a rollercoaster simulator with jumping and dodging.  It looks good and runs fairly smooth, there's just not that much to it.  There is definitely more to do than in Avatar Aquarium, which is an aquarium full of avatars.  No shit!  Avatar Pinball I thought would be more of a pinball game, but shows off the ragdoll physics of an avatar being flung and flipped around a pinball game.  Yep. 

Below: Crazy Ride with Zombies? Lazy Ride with Zombies?  Looks nice, but not much there.

 RC Airplane Challenge is challenging, but it's not much of a game is it is an RC airplane simulator.  Not that it's a bad thing, it's just the only thing it is.  There's a helicopter game also, called Rotor.  It has some nice mid-1990s polygonal graphics and a nice style to it, with a changeable color palette.  The flying is a bit floaty, and there isn't much to do aside from some missions but fly around the city.  Nicely done, but room for much, much more with some time from the developer.

Above: Rotor. Nice start, the Virtua Racing style graphics are fantastic.  So, what's next in Rotor's evolution?    

Homeslice & the Zombie Bunnies is a Dynasty Warriors-Ninety Nine Nights game with your character, Homeslice, chopping and killing waves of Bunnies.  Not bad, a bit redundant and definitely very goofy, but not bad.  A nice effort.  Baby Maker Extreme 2 incorporates projectile birthing babies or avatars from the mom, and flinging or bouncing them across levels, collecting points as you go.  Yes, there was a Part 1, and yes Part 2 is better, but, remember, you might hate this game.