Everyone should have this "Complex"

So last night I was playing some "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" and I ended up getting my next rank up in the Prestige ranks that they have.  For each Prestige rank, and if I remember correctly, there are 8 of them, you have to level up to 55, unlocking different perks and weapons along the way.  Once you cap your experience points for that particular rank at 55, you get the option to stay at that rank, or move up a rank.  Now the kicker is, if you choose to move up to the next rank, you are, for the most part, demoted.  You get reset to level 1, so you have to go through that next rank, unlocking everything again on your way to 55.  I think I only have 5 more ranks to go......

Now onto the game I refer to in the title of this post, and that game is "Shadow Complex".  It is only available on the Xbox Live Arcade, but at some point it might get released on PC.  This game was partially created witht he help of Cliff Blewzinski (I hope I spelled his name right), or better known as Cliffy B. (I know I spelled that right).  He is the guy responsible for the "Gears of War" games, so I had a good feeling about this game before it even came out.  Then I saw some gameplay during the coverage of E3 over the summer and I was hooked.

But probably the thing that got me the most excited was the style of gameplay.  What they did was go back to the good old days of the 2-D side scroller, bringing back fond memories of the original "Metroid" and "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night".  They used quite a bit of the old school side scrolling gameplay, and added 2009 graphics and that combo definitely works.  Hell, I didn't even start the main game until earlier tonight.  I spent a good 6 hours or so last night just working on what they call the Training Grounds, if I remember the name correctly.  Basically what that is, is a bunch of short, and in some cases, timed and scored mini-games.  And I gotta say, some of them are really hard.  I finally had to shut it off last night and go to sleep, because it ended up getting pretty frustrating.  I did end up beating what challenges I had left, not even worrying about my rank on them, just hoping I would be able to finish them. 

Once I did finally finish all of the challenges, I dove into the main campaign, and it is a lot of fun so far.  They did a really good job bringing a 2-D side scroller into this day and age of gaming.  They deserve a ton of credit for making such a high quality game, and releasing it on Xbox Live.  Most companies would be after the big bucks and releasing a game like this to mass retail, so kudos to them.  The only bad part about that though, is if you don't have a 360, you're kinda hosed.  But if you do have a 360, I really recommend picking up this little gem off of Arcade.