What’s in store for games this spring and summer?

I must admit that my curiosity is highest with how game executives calculate the consumer price of “downloadable” games. Although I know I am not aware of the ins and outs of the cost of producing and distributing “downloadable games and content. It seems to me that the cost of distribution should be minimal, right? However, it seems that we are still in the early stages of prices in the games industry. For some time now, the price of $ 50 seems to be the industry norm for retail games. Until the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3, which rose to a average $ 60 per game. title. However, there are no such standard fees for the “downloadable” sector. Although I must personally say that I don’t think I paid much more than $ 10 (but it’s just me, I’m cheap) .

Don’t get me wrong, if the game’s title promises excellent gameplay and the reviews are good, I don’t mind spending more. However, I have played many games that defy the average in both quality and quantity.

Anyway, forward and up, this spring and summer seem to offer a great variety for all genres of games. Defense Grid: Awakening on Xbox Live Arcade looks promising. If it sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because the cleverly designed tower defense game received a lot of attention on its initial release on PC. As countless aliens rush through your base to steal your power cores, your hastily built defenses hold the line against the enemy. The game takes the tried and true concept of tower defense and makes it worth buying by balancing a constant learning curve and an intriguing variety of options as you craft your strategy. When you start to shape the board according to your purposes and find the correct formula for units, Defense Grid starts to shine where most of the entries in the genre get repetitive.

PlayStation Network (Sony) is looking forward to the highly anticipated release of Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic. It started as a side project to Mark Healy during his tenure at Lionhead, and has since been modified and evolved for release on the Sony platform, although its creator, Healy, has moved to Media Molecule. The game is a four-person fighter, complete with combinations of wild martial arts and goofy kung-fu characters. The real fun starts with hilarious challenges like Capture-the-Fish, as well as a surprisingly deep control scheme, ensuring players a solid game to tackle after the laughs subside. Sadly, even with its extensive character editor, this won’t keep your attention all summer long. However, it smells like big weekend gatherings.

A recently released classic on DS titles has come to Live Arcade. Space Invaders Extreme offers the same great gameplay that helped secure its niche early in the gaming industry, increasingly fast and descending spaceships. It also features the addition of power-ups based on hitting similarly colored enemies, which breaks up the design and makes for some challenging play sessions. Bonus rounds, multiple enemy types, branching tree levels, and boss fights combine to create a much more complex and entertaining gameplay than it might indicate at first glance. Not to mention the best part for Live Arcade players … the four player online co-op mode.

Adventure players probably know Telltale Games well, but their recent work deserves a bit of attention. Last year’s Strong Bad Cool Game for Hot People (PC and WiiWare) was a great interpretation of the ever-growing point-and-click platform. The Xbox Live Arcade and PC download service will be home to the studio’s newest effort, Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Telltale Games takes the classic clay series and gives it the game treatment. As with Strong Bad, the charm of the main characters certainly shines through. The first of the four episodes should be available on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this summer. If that’s not enough, it looks like Telltale is also working on a version of Sam & Max that they are preparing for Live Arcade and also scheduled for a few months after that.