Cheap Xbox Live Indie alternatives to the biggest Xbox 360 blockbusters

[Teajunkie]

Strapped for cash after funding Santa's latest trip round the globe? Fear not, gaming doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. We do hereby present 12 bargainous Xbox Live Indie Games substitutes for drastically bigger-budget Xbox 360 titles, each costing no more than a quid or two. Go on, treat yourself to a cheeky digital stocking filler. If you're still scrambling for boxed goods to stow beneath the tree, you may want to refer to our Christmas 2012 Xbox 360 buyer's guide, which is abundant with savings.

Real Game: Left 4 Dead 2
Valve Software: £15

This co-op survival shooter has led us to fear our colleagues' fickle loyalties as much as the threat of undead. The tension reaches eye-clawing desperation as you gun down the all-too-sprightly hordes.

Indie Alternative: Zombie Estate
Jeremy Verchick48: 80MP

You aren't likely to match L4D's elegant storytelling, or the shrieking sense of menace. But in terms of frantic four-player co-op amid a seething morass of brain-ripping deadopaths, this checks the boxes.



Real Game: Trials Evolution
RedLynx: 1,200MP

A physics obstacle course disguised as a biking time trial, this inspires a rare combination of violent curse words and compulsive play. It's the diversity and versatility of the tracks that put it in the top spot, with a cracking multiplayer to boot.

Indie Alternative: OSR Unhinged
Riddlersoft: 80MP

It might not quite manage the 3D visual lustre of RedLynx's game, but the ruthless physics simulation is there in all its impossibly addictive glory. With the addition of anti-gravity wells and other novelties, it's worth a try even if you already own Trials.



Real Game: Halo: Reach
Bungie: £22

Bungie's swansong on its sci-fi epic may not be its pinnacle but it's still an FPS of rare polish. Stunning visuals and refined gameplay separates Noble 6 from the boys, leaving you choking back tears as the Reach succumbs to the Covenant.

Indie Alternative: Avatar Laser Wars 2
DigitalDNA Games LLC: 80MP

Oh sure, it doesn't quite manage the galaxy-sweeping single-player arc, and Avatars inevitably whiff of cheese, but the online combat is surprisingly rich, with bubble-shields, active-camo and many other tricks besides.



Real Game: Mirror's Edge
DICE: £5

Flawed as a narrative, misconceived in its shooting, DICE's first-person parkour game got one thing totally, utterly right: movement. Moments of genuinely incredible acrobatics are hampered only by a frustrating lack of variety.

Indie Alternative: T.E.C. 3001
Phoenix: 240MP

It's evident that this auto-runner is working within strict limitations - its only ambition to nail a sense of terrific, yet graceful speed. But nail that it does, blitzing you with sparse neon landscapes that recall both Tron and the abstract slaloms of the Mirror's Edge DLC.



Real Game: Burnout Paradise
Criterion: £15

Sizzling speeds and spectacular wipeouts take this to the front of the pack, but its the ambitious open world which leaves others in the dirt. Generous free-roaming maps even allow extra space for carnage.

Indie Alternative: MotorHEAT
Milkstone: 80MP

XBLIG can't compete with the feature-sets of triple-A car games, but there are a few which capture a single aspect with class. This time-attack risk-reward racer is probably the best looking of the lot.



Real Game: Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
Capcom: £12

Tekken and Virtua Fighter have their champions, but few would dispute that this head-to-head fighting game sits atop the pile.

Indie Alternative: Chu's Dynasty
mHoesterey: 240MP

Though it sacrifices a little clarity to its idiosyncratic art, few games look this rich. Plus charge metres, counters and time-bending powers create combat that competes with any boxed game.



Real Game: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Square Enix, Tri-Ace: £20

The melodrama, camp fantasy and ludicrous hair are present and correct, if little else, in this latest JRPG outing. The locations can be a bit repetitive and the inability to explore sometimes stifling, but it's still got that awesome FF feeling.

Indie Alternative: Aphelion 2
Lunatic studios: 240MP

XBLIG offers many retro homages to Final Fantasy, but this is something much more ambitious in both scale and sophistication. At a time when the FF series has stumbled, it may take avid fans-cum-devs to show the way forward.



Real Game: Rayman Origins
Ubisoft: £15

Gallic charm and gorgeous painterly backdrops are just the cherry on the top of this innovative, precise and pacey platformer. From menu screen to inexcusably chipper protagonist, it's shameless fun.

Indie Alternative: Apple Jack 2
My Owl Software: 80MP

Being a genre in which budget takes a back seat to ideas, it's no surprise that there are a wealth of great platformers on XBLIG. But none have the same escalating sense of invention or off-the-wall wit as this.



Real Game: Trine 2
Frozenbyte: 1,200MP

Often touted as the co-op puzzle platformer of choice, Trine 2 sees players adopting asymmetrical roles to defeat its fantasy world's physics-enabled conundrums.

Indie Alternative: Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage
IshiEiketsu: 80MP

This retro-themed platformer asks two players to search a castle for collectibles. Only by using their different skills in unison can they get the full set.



Real Game: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Bizarre Creations: 800MP

Quite possibly the greatest twin-stick shooter ever made, this psychedelic scoreboard scramble is often cloned, never beaten. The sequel even introduced both co-op 'co-pilot' and competitive multiplayer.

Indie Alternative: Radiangames Inferno
Radiangames: 80MP

Radiangames' several efforts at shmups may the uppiest snuffiest ever made, often adding ingenious twists on the formula. Inferno cuts its slick splodes with Gauntlet-style levels and RPG progression.



Real Game: Lumines
Q Entertainment: 800MP

Tetris by way of a synaesthetic J-pop seizure, this took block-clearing hi-score puzzlers to new heights. A whole bunch of skins and music packs are available on Xbox Live Marketplace too, although be prepared for terrible remixes.

Indie Alternative: Megacity
ColePowered: 80MP

The DNA of Sim City is spliced into this block-dropping puzzler's heady mix. A sweeping bar totals your score as it passes over your blocks, but here those blocks represent interrelating acts of municipal planning, which you arrange for maximum profit.



Real Game: Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Ubisoft: £18

A historical fantasy parkour and copious stabbing - but it's the cat and mouse competitive mode that keeps us coming back. Ezio bows out in style with a pile of mutilated corpses behind him.

Indie Alternative: Hidden in Plain Sight
Adam Spragg Games: 80MP

One player must kill the other, disguised by a generic sprite, before he completes his acts of subterfuge. Mimicking the AI and working out who's human is a hilarious challenge.



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[flumperino]

Fab post, I'll try me some of these.