Swarm

Well, this one was a nice surprise. Swarm came out of nowhere and is totally and utterly unlike anything else on the market. No hubris, just truth.

Controlling up to 50 "Swarmites" at once, the basic premise is to progress from left to right through a sadistic obstacle course, designed to reduce your numbers in the most brutal ways imaginable. Controlling your army of little blue guys is initially rather tough, but this is a game which rewards practice. After an hour or so, you'll have mastered a variety of tricks to help you marshall everybody along (spread out, huddle together, speed boost, climb up into a 50 man tower and so on).

At its core, Swarm is a score attack game. The twist here is that progressing through the game's 10 or so levels relies on the player attaining said high score, which adds a whole level of purpose to the endeavour. This isn't leaderboard willy-waving, people.

The frustration factor can be quite high, but this isn't a major criticism - the balance is generally very good with only a few sections causing teeth gnashing and uncontrollable anger. This is offset by the rather ingenious "Death Medals" which add progression (and an Achievement, natch) to the continual and brutal deaths - of which there are a wide variety. Crushed, Vaporized, Sliced - yeah, these guys get a lot of punishment.

Originally planned as a boxed product, the move to XBLA and PSN has worked wonders for Swarm. I almost certainly wouldn't have picked it up at all if it weren't a download title, which is certainly its natural home. 1200MSP / £9.99 is about right, and definitely decent value for the 10 or so hours locked away in this little gem.

8/10

Available now on XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.