A Night at the Arcade: Pinball FX and Eets

It's been a while since I made one of these XBLA posts, mainly because the last couple releases have been rather weak. I like the idea of a "double bill" release like we saw with last Wednesday's Gyruss and whatever that stupid golf game was. Now Microsoft just has to release a duo of games that are a) not terrible and b) not incredibly retro and ugly.

Today's release of Pinball FX and Eets is a huge improvement. Although I thoroughly suck at playing them, I love digital interpretations of pinball and have some fond memories of playing many freeware pinball classics on the PC "back in the day". Pinball FX plays fairly well. The graphics are attractive and I like the different viewing angles available, not to mention the solid, weighty feel of the ball when it contacts the flippers.

Eets is a cutesy puzzle game which instantly struck me as a cross between Lemmings and The Incredible Machine, with a liberal sprinkling of Alien Hominid art direction. This demos is surprising in that I didn't finish it in 30 seconds before being prompted to pay money for the unlocked version. Fun enough puzzler... just not sure if it's worth 800 MS points.

All of this is still lightweight fare, when you stop to think Microsoft and friends still have juicy must-haves like Castle Crashers and Catan locked away in production still.