On the Download: April 8-14

Finally got quite a bit to talk about this week for On the Download.  It seemed things have picked up yet again in the downloadable space with quite a few big releases this week.  Got a full order of games to talk about today, so let us dive right into the biggest downloadable games of the week.

When I first opened up the Nintendo eShop today, I was upset that Nintendo had yet again not add anything to the 3DS Virtual Console.  I turned off my 3DS disappointed only catching a glimpse at this week's biggest edition, Ketzal's Corridors, scrolling through the eShop's main menu.  I would soon see that to be a mistake after watching the trailer and reading a few things on Ketzal's Corridors as it looks to another unique original title for the Nintendo eShop.  Ketzal's Corridors is action-packed puzzler which sees the player quickly rearranging their guardian in order to pass through the hole in each wall.  It looks like an ancient version of Hole in the Wall mixed with Tetris as the guardians are shaped like Tetriminos.  Ketzal's Corridors features a story mode, which contains over a hundred levels, and a couple multi-player modes.  You can play multi-player by sharing one 3DS or through local wireless connection.  The two multi-player modes offered are Tower Trial, which can be played either with one or two 3DS's and has you battling your friend to see who can match their silhouettes to ten holes sooner than your opponent, and Ruin Run, which has players compete to see who gets the most hearts in a head-to-head run through the ruins.  If you looking for some high speed puzzle action, Ketzal's Corridors looks to be the 3DS downloadable title for you and it costs only 7 dollars.

The last couple of years have seen fighting game genre rise from the ashes of obscurity to new heights.  Following the big wave of interest in fighting games is a 2D fighter you can download on XBLA or PSN called Skullgirls.  Skullgirls allows players to face off with a different amounts of characters per team up to three fighter limit.  Teams are balanced by numbers, so single-player teams are stronger and possess more health, but larger teams can perform character assists and tag in and out on the fly.  Skullgirls has various features that makes it standout from other fighting games.  These features are infinite detection, which allows players a chance to break out of a loop combo, easier inputs for complex actions and protection against unblockable attacks.  Skullgirls has 8 fighters for you to play as with more coming in the future as DLC.  Done with Street Fighter, Tekken or another fighter, give Skullgirls a chance it will run you 15 dollars or 1200 Microsoft Points.

Coming to XBLA this Friday the 13th is this year's Grand Prize winner at the Independent Game Festival that took place at the Game Developer's Conference early last month, Fez.  Fez is a platformer developed by Polytron, which features 2D to 3D perspective shifts very similar to Super Paper Mario and Crush.  A catastrophic event changes Gomez's, the main fez-wearing protagonist, 2D world forever and it is up to our hero to set things right.  You will have to flip levels from 2D to 3D and back again in order to traverse each beautifully realized level.  It is hard to describe Fez into words it is a game that you have to see in motion to really get how great a concept and how beautiful the graphics are.  Fez looks to be a one-in-a-kind game that Xbox owners should go out and download.  You will be able to pick it up tomorrow for 800 Microsoft Points.