Before I review the levels themselves, there may still be a few of you out there who have never heard of or played The Impossible Game. The rules to the game are simple, guide the red square to the end of the level while dodging triangles, jumping on top of black squares and not falling off the level. It may sound simple, but it isn’t.

The first new level, Chaoz Fantasy is pretty chaotic. The level starts off pretty simple, then jumps right into being a little hard for new players. Many double and triple triangle jumps are thrown in with pure confusion if you do not practice this level for about 30 minutes. After you get through the first round of confusion, the level flips upside down and your mind just just blown. The first time you see this, your initial reaction is to either flip your head or pause the game and flip your television. I have tried both, and it just doesn’t work when the level decides to flip to the proper way again.

The final new level, Heaven, is probably my favorite level. The level starts off slow and simple. There isn’t anything hard in the beginning besides a few jumps and double triangles. When it gets hard is when the screen turns dark and all the block start falling out after you jump on them. I find it pretty insane and fun to play although I cannot complete it.

Overall, both of the new levels are pretty fun, and if you are a fan of the original Impossible Game you should buy this little map pack. If you never played The Impossible Game before, I would avoid these levels until you have played through a majority of the original game. The original game is just as much fun as these two new levels, and for $1 apiece, you cannot go wrong.

You can buy The Impossible Game Level Pack for 80 Microsoft Points by clicking here and you can also buy the original Impossible Game for the same price by clicking here.

Also, the cake is not a lie.

The First Place prizewinner of Microsoft’s Dream.Build.Play 2010 XNA game competition is now available on PC. A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda is a side-scrolling action game with gorgeous 2D characters and 3D environments and lighting effects. Defeat enemies and recycle them into new items and weapon upgrades for the A.R.E.S. robot. Try the demo for free or purchase for the price of $14.95 direct from Extend Studio (PayPal Only), or for $14.99 through GamersGate.com

The listed Minimum System Requirements are an intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1.5GB RAM, 300MB hard drive space, Nvidia Geforce 7600 series graphics card, and Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

The FAQ has markedly-lower listed Minimum Requirements, most likely posted during development. People with earlier dual-core CPUs like the Pentium D and Athlon 64 x2 should definitely try the demo before purchasing to verify support and satisfactory performance on their system.

What a difference a year makes…  Xbox Live Community Games launched on November 19th, 2008, populated with many titles from Microsoft’s first two Dream.Build.Play competitions (2007,2008).  Launching with amazing games like CarneyVale Showtime and Weapon of Choice, quality titles quickly became lost in a sea of mediocrity.

The Community Games channel was overwhelmed with more clones than Star Wars, from Pong, to Breakout, Asteroids, and beyond.  Not to mention all the “me-too” apps.  Sadly, controller massage apps are one of the great success stories of this grand experiment.

Things have greatly improved since Microsoft introduced the rating system over the summer.  Microsoft implemented a bit of a reboot, changing the name and pricing scheme of Community Games.  Quality titles are seeing dramatically improved sales through increased exposure.

While I despise the onslaught of shovel-ware, I love Xbox LIVE Indie Games.  It is one of my favorite features of the Xbox 360 platform.  Each year, Microsoft’s Dream.Build.Play competition shows more and more of the potential of XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

Have you tried any Indie Games?  What are your favorites?