The Indie Games channel offers alternatives to XBLA’s finest for a fragment of the cost and you would be silly to disregard them.

With an increasing number of games on XBLA getting further and further expensive, and with the following-gen way forward for Xbox laying an uncertain path for indie development, now’s the ideal time to benefit from the indie game channel and all its wonderfully eccentric games.

Here are some XBLA games and their indie game alternatives…

XBLIG

White Noise Online

Developer: Milkstone Studios

Price: 80 Points

Taking its cues from PC freebie Slender, White Noise is set exploring creepy locations without attracting the unwanted attention of mysterious figures that, for some reason, want you dead.

It looks awesome for a game that costs lower than a pound and contours online co-op besides, so if horror is your thing, it is among the many better examples available for download.

INSTEAD OF…

XBLA

Haunt

Developer: NanaOn-Sha

Price: 800 Points

Coming from the rhythm-action pioneers that gave us PaRappa The Rapper, Haunt is predictably somewhat strange.

bizarre cross between Condemned and Luigi’s Mansion controlled exclusively with Kinect, it’s only a shame that the standard issues with motion control prevent it from being anything greater than a unique experiment.

XBLIG

Rad Raygun

Developer: Tru Fun Entertainment

Price: 80 Points

Monochrome Game Boy style titles appear the entire rage at the Indie Games channel and here is considered one of our favourites, emulating the classic handheld down to some crazy motion blur.

The music is outstanding, too – in the event you even vaguely enjoy chiptune soundtracks then this is considered well worth the asking price alone.

INSTEAD OF…

XBLA

Mega Man 9

Developer: Capcom

Price: 800 Points

The Blue Bomber’s retro revival had fans of old-school gaming beaming from ear to ear, Capcom brilliantly returning to the franchise’s roots with this new/old game and its further improved sequel.

Tough as nails (accurately) and filled with content within the kind of additional challenges and characters, here is a great doff of the cap to gaming’s rich past.

XBLIG

Soulcaster

Developer: MagicalTimeBean

Price: 80 Points

While it may well appear as if an 8-bit RPG inside the vein of Dragon Quest, Soulcaster’s combat is really far in the direction of tower defense than that of a standard RPG.

Allies could be placed and recovered to defend your fragile wizard from Gauntlet-style hordes of monsters, and while it starts out relatively sedate, things quickly escalate.

INSTEAD OF…

XBLA

South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!

Developer: DoubleSix

Price: 800 Points

Or any tower defense game, for that matter – they’re the entire bloody same.

While we variety of get the appeal of the genre, it’s one much better fitted to mobile gaming where you can find off about a waves of enemies at the bus and play little and sometimes.

Although ‘little and often’ can become ‘for a very long time’. We’ve been there. Curse you, Plants Vs Zombies.

TOTAL COST

XBLA: 2,400 Points (approx. £20.40)

XBLIG: 240 Points (approx. £2.04)

 TOTAL SAVING: £18.36