Dview: Unbound Saga (XBLA)

The Bottom Line:
Unbound Saga is a 2.5D brawler that was released for XBLA in 2010.  i decided to purchase it on sale for 160 points ($2.00) - it is normally 800 points.  The story finds you as one of two comic book characters.  The character who i consider the main character, Rick Ajax, is aware that he is in a comic book and wants to make his existence easier by dealing with "the creator" who puts him in cruel situations. However, like many 2.5 D games, it can be hard to line enemies up for attack - and sometimes even hard to turn around.  The style of this game is along the lines of Streets of Rage (but it is not nearly as good).  The game isn't really that long and the ending is very disappointing.
Grade: D+


What to Expect:
* Sometimes dodgy controls
* Getting mobbed by enemies, it is a brawler
* An annoying method of adding enemies where "the creator's" hand will be shown on screen drawing them in
* 10 chapters that go by fairly quickly (i think i beat it on easy in less than 5 hours)
* 2.5D presentation that sometimes makes it a little difficult to line up with enemies, weapons or switches
* A very lite RPG-ish leveling up system - unfortunately, the items needed to level up do not seem to be dropped enough to fully level one character in one play through.  The leveling system adds some moves, abilities, combos, etc.
* A comic book like presentation, where the character move from one area to others (essentially pages or panels).  Levels are essentially issues.  
* Combat - basically 3 buttons: punch, kick and grab/jump.  There are some combos too (and maybe you can block)

Achievements:
For a downloadable game this has some annoying achievements - though most definitely seem doable - the no damage one is probably the most challenging.  i had 5/12 achievements (i think) when i finished my first play through.  There are achievements for finishing each character's skill tree, completing levels in co-op mode, KO enemies in specific ways, not taking any damage in a level, defeating the final boss, etc.