Dreams of Witchtown

As the descendent of Witchtown, Aurora has a huge job on her handsAfter it becomes clear this enchanting world is under threat from the power of wizards and witches, the elderly witch travels to the sacred city to place a curse on itA scrolling introduction announces that, on her way, she was hit in the face with a soccerball, and therefore lost her spells and scrolls that would save the universeAlas, a true hero doesn't give up thereAurora picks up the offending ball, places it in her bag and strolls off to find her missing documents.

This is exactly why the Xbox Live Indie Games scene was createdQuirky, out-of-the-box titles like Dreams of Witchtown would never see the light of day without itIf you hadn't worked it out already, your main weapon is the soccerball2D side-scrollers are nothing new on the marketplace, but few have the character and excellent art design of WitchtownA bright color palette isn't the only attractive thing about this game, though; the actual platforming is hugely fun, and will have you leaping about the luscious scenery in secondsAurora, despite the announcement she is elderly, wouldn't look out of place alongside Ash in Pokemon as her user-friendly looks will appeal to adults and children alike.

Romping through this world there are many familiar challenges to overcome: collecting coins, rounding up golden stars and tackling enemiesPrepare to volley oversized mushrooms into oblivion, drop-kick gigantic bees across the sky, and even take on a ferocious red dinosaur (another nod to Pokemon)When enemies have been defeated they beautifully disperse into broken pixels, and eventually vanish from sight, leaving the path ahead free to passDreams of Witchtown is wonderfully designed, and even incorporates an RPG leveling up system to keep players making progressAll of this, backed by a well-produced soundtrack, is available for 80 MSP (around $1)You'd be a fool not to give it a try