We're not sure what a polar bear is doing in a jungley racing game either...
There's something about games which use a 'z' instead of an 's' which make us instantly wary – like the Popcorn Arcade, er, "classics" 'Action Girlz Racing', or their 'Kidz Sportz' (Oh god! Double ...
Savour Scrabble? Relish Risk? Then Quarrel's right up your street!
Quarrel is a game that's had something of a tumultuous journey to the Xbox Live Arcade, with more than its fair share of bumps, twists and turns along the way. You see, the problem is, nobody plays...
Life, love and pets – what more could you want?
They said I could be anything I wanted – so I became a crazy cat lady. And a celebrated five-star chef....
Heavy metal tilty puzzle game for a bargain price – what's not to like?
What's this? A wild 400 point game appears! With Microsoft deciding to charge increasingly more for titles on their slightly-less-fantastic-than-it-used-to-be downloadable games store, the Xbox Liv...
Quirky hack-and-slash platformer based on an ancient Jewish script
These days, companies often seem afraid of trying something new, as corporate bosses increasingly believe that the average consumer prefers to play it safe, and is more likely to play Generic Space...
Microsoft's biggest game of the year's here - and it's better than you'd think.
Gears of War is one of those games we’ve never really managed to get on with. Try as we might, there was always something that stopped us from really throwing ourselves into the series. Perhaps it was...
Use your body, and save the little people.
The Xbox Live Arcade has often been the place the most inventive of titles call their home. It's a place for the sort of games that you might feel a little bit reluctant to plonk down £40 for, but wou...
Kick, punch, it's all in the mind.
If the Government want people to eat five items of fruit and veg a day, it can be argued that fruit really needs to be more fun. Give your child a plate of greens, or sometimes even a banana, and they...
Generic name, generic game?
Sometimes, a game’s name can tell you everything you need to know about it. Driver, for example is a game about driving cars; Microsoft Flight Simulator is all about flying a plane, and Bodycount – we...
Times may have changed, but the west's still wild.
With their ten gallon hats tipped down to cover their eyes, and six shooter yearning for an itchy trigger finger, the previous Call of Juarez games were effectively interactive spaghetti westerns. Pla...
An entire civilisation needs your help
From Dust is one of the more ambitious offerings on the Xbox Live Arcade. Part ancient world-builder, Populus, part puzzle game, and part a more serious take on ...
The chances of anything coming from Mars...
If you ever set foot in an arcade in the 80s, the chances are you’ll have come across Space Invaders. The perennial 80s shoot-em-up, Space Invaders was the game that defined an entire generation – a...
Don't judge a book by its cover.
You may think one look at Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet tells you all you need to know. "Oh look, another monochrome, artsy fartsy downloadable game" you might sigh, your cynical side winning you ove...
Step into the mind of Alice. You won't want to leave.
As a child, we remember being rather disturbed by Alice in Wonderland. Not the ambiguous Lewis Carroll novel, either – but rather, the Disney film. Don’t ask us why, as we wouldn’t be able to explai...
The boy who lived, come to die.
The Harry Potter series of games has had a bit of a rough ride over the past 10 years, getting reviews ranging f...
A trip into hell and back.
Whenever big names in any industry come together you can almost always guarantee fireworks. Such ventures generally end in either a superior product, or a venomous reaction from fans scorned, who disl...
Platforming from hell
Poor old Shuggy. Our peppy little purple vampire bat with the incredibly cute name doesn’t seem to have much luck lately. Having inherited a castle from his recently deceased uncle, he must have thoug...
An arcade racer without any substance
At first glance, it may seem a bit odd to release SEGA Rally Online Arcade in the wake of the lumbering rally juggenaut, DiRT 3. With the latter ga...
Long time coming
Fourteen years. For fourteen years, across four development studios, Duke Nukem Forever’s been in development, with a team of programmers, artists, and designers beavering away. Long thought lost in d...
Turns out, being a superhero's a lot of fun!
We've long maintained at Everybody Plays that, realistic physics, epic story, and amazing graphics don't really make that much of a difference to a game if they don't affect the main reason we all pla...