Thursday, April 12, 2012
By: Matthew Doucette
Score Rush has achieved some amazing results on XBLA & XBLIG Ratings:
1) 9.9 Rating:
First, Score Rush achieved a 9.9 rating, which means it achieved an average rating of 9.9 of user ratings! All ratings except for one were a perfect 10 out of 10.
Source: http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-list/66-shooter/3483-score-rush.
2) #2 out of 3,500 Games:
Second, Score Rush is the #2 highest rated XBLIG game (out of 3,387), for all games rated by 5 or more reviewers.*
*It is #10 when consider all games with 1 or more rating, due to many single 10/10 reviews on mostly unpopular games.
Source: http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-ratings/menu/order:rhits/.
3) #1 out of 600 Shooter Games:
Third, Score Rush is the #1 highest rated XBLIG shooter game (out of 598), for all games rated by 5 or more reviewers -- or even 2 or more reviewers.*
*It is #6 when considering all games with 1 or more rating, due to many single 10/10 reviews on mostly unpopular games.
Source: http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-ratings/xblig-games/xblig-games/shooter_c66/order:rhits/.
User Review Quotes:
Some user review quotes, which gave us the 9.9 rating above:
"This game is a mix of a bullet hell shooter with a twin stick shooter. ...it's almost a traditional SHMUP/bullet hell game. The music is intense. There's force feedback. The graphics are fast and amazing." - Vu, 10/10
"Everything in the game is fine tuned so that dying is truly your fault." - Dcon6393, 9/10
"The music is also very well done. Try playing the game on mute and then you realize what kind of impact the sound has on the game. The music is probably one of my favorite indie game scores." - Dcon6393, 9/10
"I am going to admit it... when I generally think of XBLIG, I think of cheap badly made games with a very small few exceptions. I've tried plenty and none managed to grab my attention. That is until I saw a clip of this game whilst randomly surfing the internet. I was like "what!? 80pts?? I better download the demo!"." - Tn-1, 10/10
"1 minute into the game, I quit and immediately purchased it. If you are longing for a shoot em up fix, this is it. It even puts many premium games to shame." - Tn-1, 10/10
"What sets this apart from other bullet hell games is that it is actually a twin stick shooter, or rather, a twin stick vertical hybrid." - Tn-1, 10/10
"The controls are spot on and not once did I come across any issues, the 2 guys who made this game have really nailed it. The graphics are perfectly clear which is important when playing a bullet hell game and like all bullet hell games, your ship is huge but has a very small area,about 4 pixels, that is your hit box." - Tn-1, 10/10
"As far as gameplay is concerned, it starts out slow but soon turns into hell. I found myself inching closer and closer to the screen to keep myself concentrating on my 4 pixel hitbox. This really gets my heart pounding as I fight for survival. Well done guys. The soundtrack is also pretty good at keeping you "in the zone"." - Tn-1, 10/10
"To finish off, I would've quite happily bought this game for more than its asking price. It is that good." - Tn-1, 10/10
"Bullet Hell...? More Like Bullet Heaven" - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"This little gem has provided the kind of enjoyment and thrill that is normally reserved for the top of rollercoasters or a glance of the woman of your dreams." - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"I suck at Bullet Hell shooters. There i said it. I will likely NEVER see the end screen of Score Rush. It doesn't matter one bit, the feeling of beating your personal best is reward enough. Surviving a few minutes longer, scoring that extra million points, it is gaming greatness." - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"It's almost like the guys at Xona Games have distilled that mysterious "one more go" factor and have infused Score Rush with it." - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"I havent even played 4 player Multiplayer yet! I may need to arrange a Score Rush party, and when you start planning your social life around a game you KNOW it has you!" - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"Duality ZF has a lot to live up to, but given that it features a SCORE RUSH MODE i think we are in very safe hands!" - DeadmanXIII, 10/10
"My eyes and hands hurt and I have a pounding heada[che]" - PepsimanVsJoe, 10/10
"Score Rush is the sort of sensory overload that's likely comparable to getting shot into space without so much as a helmet. The colors are dazzling, the explosions are constant, and a oddly-shaped thingamajig can't fire a bullet without the an infinite number of 4th of Julys going off at once. I used to think that even in my old age(29) I could handle whatever the "shump" genre threw at me but I think thirty minutes with this game has caused me to age thirty years."
"Since I totally blew past the mid-life crisis and forgot to buy my Ferrari I guess I should talk about why you've already spent your hard-earned dollar on this game. You craved action, you sought danger, you wanted to silence the voices in your head. That guy in the back was saying "Oh No good sir! Thou must purchase a role-playing game so thou canst engorge upon ham-fisted karma decisions and inappropriate cheesecake." There was that other guy sitting next to you whispering "no uh buy a multiplayer FPS so errh you can get huh called nasty words while um getting sniped from miles away...yeah" and then your girlfriend was saying "How about seeing a movie instead?"
Too bad for them however because you bought SCORE RUSH. If you're like me you probably hurt all over. It's that feel-good kind of hurt though because even if the only ass that got kicked was your own it still feels like an accomplishment. Everything about this game is pushing those limits in your head, that part of your brain that comes to life when your square-dealie is so close to hot death its tongue gets burned. This game gets you in the zone instantly and never lets go. It's the kind of pure adrenaline that other games make you work for and at the most its precious minutes out of potential hours." - PepsimanVsJoe, 10/10
"So addicting!" - jigsawhc, 10/10
"The shear scope of Score Rush is initial intimidating. There are dozens of enemies and hundreds of bullets to dodge at any given time. However, once you get a feel for the pace of the action it starts to come naturally to dodge while taking out the biggest enemies first. The “overwhelming firepower” mentioned in the game’s description is clearly there with power ups making your ship a virtual bullet hose." - jigsawhc, 10/10
"Hurray for Xona Games! Let me lay my cards on the table. There is no better game under the XBLIG service than Score Rush. Period." - KitesAreFun (Zach), 10/10
"They (Xona Games twin-brother team of two) understand arcade shooters, but more importantly they understand gameplay. They understand the intuitive joys of blasting the sh*t out of anything in site in a relentless chaotic frenzy of retro re-imagined orgy of destruction." - KitesAreFun (Zach), 10/10
"I couldn't give higher praise for a game." - KitesAreFun (Zach), 10/10
"Talk is cheap. Download the trial. You can't escape the automatic buy that awaits shortly after. This game is on a whole new level from the typical farm feed you'll find on XBLIG." - KitesAreFun (Zach), 10/10
2015-NOV-19 UPDATE:
Updated these figures above. In fact, this is the date I first gathered these figures.
That is all!
About the Author: I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning indie game studio that I founded with my twin brother. We make intensified arcade-style retro games. Our business, our games, our technology, and we as competitive gamers have won prestigious awards and received worldwide press. Our business has won $190,000 in contests. Our games have ranked from #1 in Canada to #1 in Japan, have become #1 best sellers in multiple countries, have won game contests, and have held 3 of the top 5 rated spots in Japan of all Xbox LIVE indie games. Our game engines have been awarded for technical excellence. And we, the developers, have placed #1 in competitive gaming competitions -- relating to the games we make. Read about our story, our awards, our games, and view our blog.