On Xbox Live Indie Games, you get a fair share of many genres, but the one thing that I've been seeing lately is that developers are tapping into their nostalgic side. It seems that all that was "old-school" is cool once again. This makes gamers like myself very happy. As for the others, they can get a chance to see what games were like in the times of the 8 and 16-bit eras. The release of Soulcaster, from MagicalTimeBean, is a healthy example of a game with an old-school look with a new-school style of gameplay that is fun and very addicting.

Soulcaster tells the tale of a lone sorcerer with no melee ability, but what he lacks for in sheer strength he makes up in with the ability to call for the services of three souls to battle the forces of evil. There's Shaedu the Archer, Aeox the Warrior, and Bloodfire the Alchemist. Each of these spiritual warriors possess the ability to wipe out enemies in a tower defense type of fashion protecting the sorcerer standing behind them. Shaedu uses her arrows to take out enemies from a distance. Aeox is more like a tank taking on enemies in a melee attack fashion. Finally Bloodfire uses a concussion attack to take out enemies near him. As your playing the game you find ways to take advantage of their abilities to take control of tight situations.

Soulcaster's gameplay looks very reminiscent to the arcade classic Gauntlet and the Sega Genesis class Fatal Labyrinth featuring some tight corridors, levers that open locked rooms, and of course plenty of loot to collect from dead enemies. Now keep in mind that the souls are doing all the combat while the sorcerer in back is collecting all the goods. That makes me think of people who play Borderlands who decide to stay in the background and only collect the loot and XP instead of doing any actual combat...you know who you are! As your in combat, you must also keep aware of your surrounding so position your souls in the right places. Once an area is clear or your about to get flanked, then you may want to recall them and position them elsewhere so that you won't die.

Throughout the campaign you'll come across shops where you can upgrade your souls with better items to fight with. Besides you don't want to have weak souls fighting tougher enemies or else they will fade away leaving you open for certain death. Here you'll use your hard-earned gold to buy items to help you like health vials, screen clearing scrolls which are really helpful in a pinch, and extra soul orbs for some extra aid in battle. The only question I have is that who decided to place a shop in a dungeon? Then again, I still have the question of why people lived in caves in the original Legend of Zelda.

Now, I mentioned earlier that Soulcaster definitely gives off an old-school feel. One of the defining factors is the 16-bit era graphics that the game has. I felt like I was playing a game on my Sega Genesis which was pretty cool. The Gauntlet and Fatal Labyrinth inspired gameplay brought back plenty of memories. Even all of the plot is represented in text form in black blocks. Another factor is how you save your progress. There is no save feature! Instead you get the long password save feature which was used in cartridge games before they implemented batteries. Back in the day I needed a pen and paper to write down the long passwords, and now your going to do it once again. It may be annoying at first, but we all got used to it back in the day right?

Overall, Soulcaster is another shining example of what Xbox Live Indie Games is all about. The game looks like a retro title, but it's far from it. The infusion of Gauntlet meets the tower defense genre is brilliant. The best part is that even after you finish the game your going to want to play over and over again. I suggest trying the Hard Mode for a real challenge. The crew at MagaicalTimeBean have a big hit on their hands which makes me wonder what else they have planned next.