E4: Every Extra Extreme Epilepsy

So I payed the $10 (800 Microsoft Points (is this a real currency at this point? like do they trade it in currency markets?)) to get the E4: Every Extra Extend Extreme.

First off, this game should probably be called something like Ten Times Toomuch Telemetry because holy wow is there a lot of information on the screen at one time. Combo counts, multipliers, multipliers of multipliers, clocks counting up and down, and the scores make late-edition pinball scores look low. I’m not religious, but Jesus Christ.

The game has 4 modes, E4 timed, E4 untimed, S4, and R4.

E4 is chains and multipliers on steroids, coupled with an almost anti-shooter game mechanic. You detonate yourself to blow up all kinds of crap on the screen, and the groups of crap release icons which give you something good. The something good depends on the color of part of the crap, and it can be extra time, quicken (speeds up the movement and introduction rate of the crap, not to be confused with the bookkeeping software), bonus, and something else I forget about. Did I mention you should also detonate yourself on the beat of the accompanying music for additional multipliers? Yeah it’s insane, and kinda cool, you have to do a lot of balancing and it’s got a good feel.

S4 is just E4 but to your own tracks – you rip a CD on the 360, then in the game you pick a track and the game does some Amiga demoscene/medtracker looking crap to try to determine the bpm, and then you play to that. It doesn’t really work, especially if your song changes BPM.

My favorite mode is R4: Rhythmic Rolling Revenge Revolution. This is like a complete different game, and it would be like if someone took Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo and threw it in a blender with Mu-cade and rRootage by ABA Games. In other words, quality. I thought I was going to explode when I played this, and I will likely be playing it until I get the level 100 achievement.

So Guitar Hero III and The Orange Box are all lonely because of E4, so I guess that’s $10 well spent, as long as the others don’t get too angry-jealous.