Let's Play Asteroids

Bright colors and challenging game play are just a small sampling of what my newest favorite Xbox Live Indie game offers. Beat Hazard by Cold Beam Games is produced and created by a company of one. The game is simple yet amazing, and has kept me playing for a few hours so far. We'll get the reason why later on.

I start off by playing the demo, in which I learn I can use the music from my computer (using Windows Media Player 11) with this game. Using my own music allows me to create an infinite amount of levels. Why? Because every song, becomes a level itself. So, if you are playing Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” it will be completely different from REO Speedwagon's “Keep on Loving You.” This was something I had never heard of before, using music to be complete basis of a game. Your music controls things like the patterns of flying enemies, the power of your weapon, the length of the level, and more. If that doesn't completely sell you, then maybe the next thing will. It is based around Atari's Asteroids. I can remember playing Asteroids on my mom’s old Atari when growing up, and playing this reminds me a lot of that.
There is a major negative to the game, but don’t let it turn you off completely. At least promise me you will try out the demo, because this game does so many things right. I can never play for more than a few minutes at a time. This is due to the intense color effects. Have you ever watched the Windows Media Player visual effects that move along with a song? Well take that and intensify it by a factor of one-hundred and you will get a feel for what the color is like with Beat Hazard. If you max out the volume and power of your weapon and if the song is really hard, you will have a hard time seeing the screen due to all the little colored pixels flying around. This could possibly lead to headaches, and even photosensitive seizures. Even worse, it could lead to many lost lives due to not being able to see the enemy missiles that blend in with your own gun.

Even with that, I must say that this game is a must have for all music and game lovers. This Indie game gets more DLC support than most mainstream games like Modern Warfare 2, as every new CD means you get a whole new set of levels that have never been played. So if you don't have five bucks to spend, at least play the demo. If you like it, add it to your wish list. If you don't like it, well I doubt that will happen.