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About Matthew Smail

Matt has been around Videogames since the ZX Spectrum way back in the 1980's. He enjoys a very broad range of games including everything from epic RPG's through to cute platformers and the odd really dumb FPS romp. Matt is in his early thirties and has been writing for XBLA Fans for over three years now.
Latest Posts | By Matthew Smail

Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Guide – Region Three

By  •  Guides

Hello and welcome to the XBLA Fans guide to the third region of Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls.) On this page, you’ll find a walkthrough to each of the levels in this region, as well as how to win all of the gold skulls for the area. Enjoy!

Please note that to get the most achievement points possible from Skulls, you’ll need to play on normal difficulty, which is the default anyway.

R33

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Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Guide – Region Two

By  •  Guides

Hello and welcome to the XBLA Fans guide to the second region of Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls.) On this page, you’ll find a walkthrough to each of the levels in this region, as well as how to win all of the gold skulls for each level. Enjoy!

Skulls of the Shogun XBLA

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Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Guide – Region One

By  •  Guides

Hello and welcome to the XBLA Fans guide to the first region of Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls.) On this page, you’ll find a walkthrough to each of the levels in this region, as well as how to win all of the gold skulls for that area. Enjoy!

Please note that to get the most achievement points possible from Skulls, you’ll need to play on normal difficulty, which is the default anyway.

R1

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Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Guide – General Strategies

By  •  Guides

Skulls MS1

Welcome to the first part of the XBLA Fans exclusive guide to 17Bit’s fantastic new strategy game, Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls.) Within this section of the guide, you’ll find a range of killer strategies, hints and tips which will help you get started. We’ll be adding complete guides for every level and each and every one of those coveted Gold Skulls over the next few days.

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Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Exclusive Guide
11 years ago

Skulls of the Shogun – XBLA Fans Exclusive Guide

Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls) is one of the most enjoyable turn-based strategy games available on XBLA, with a lengthy campaign, lots of replayability and lasting multiplayer potential. Here at XBLA …
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Guardians of Middle Earth – Good Characters Guide

By  •  Guides

Welcome to the XBLA Fans GOME Good Characters Guide. In this article, we’ll offer some invaluable usage tips which are specific to the good Guardians which, if used in conjunction with our General Strategiies Guide, should enable even the greenest of recruits to become combat effective quickly.

Arathorn

ArathornFather of Aragorn, Arathorn is found in the Warrior section and proves to be a very powerful character. His basic attack is very strong, and is what most builds will be centered around. He has 3 main skills that he will utilize during combat. Staggering Shot is a long range stun that does moderate ability damage. It has a reasonable recast timer, so when attack other Guardians open up with this move. You then have a choice of two moves to follow up with. Chieftain’s Focus is a forward facing attack, that not only slows the enemies movement but increases your attack speed. The other choice is Ranger’s Strike. This is a power move that does massive damage, slows the enemy and renders you invisible. Using a combination of these three skills, or all three back to back will likely kill most weaker Guardians and stronger ones will think twice about continuing the fight. His final skill is less useful in direct combat, and should be used more when killing monsters in lanes. Dunedain Blade is a close range attack that will deal damage over time while also slowing the afflicted targets.

For Gems and Relics, it is suggested you boost his basic attack damage and speed. His basic attack is quite high already, and adding on to this only makes him stronger. With the right gems in place, his damage can reach 300+ on regular attacks. Couple this with attack speed increases and you will have a very powerful Arathorn, who can net kills even without his abilities. An alternate build involves stacking a lot of ability power with cooldown reduction. This will allow for the player to cast abilities more frequently, for more damage. Potions and Commands that increase damage or speed are both recommended for this character.

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Guardians of Middle Earth – Evil Characters Guide

By  •  Guides

Welcome to the XBLA Fans GOME Evil Characters Guide. In this article, we’ll offer some invaluable usage tips which are specific to the evil Guardians which, if used in conjunction with our General Strategiies Guide, should enable even the greenest of recruits to become combat effective quickly.

Sauron
Sauron
Sauron is a Warrior class Guardian who features a strong basic attack and extremely high durability. These cornerstone statistics, in conjunction with 3 fairly damaging abilities ensure that Sauron is always useful when pushing or holding a lane, because he can engage multiple foes at once with his ‘Might of Barad-Dur’ ability and base attack. ‘Dark Lord’s Reach’ is a great skill when facing a single, weak enemy Guardian, as it roots them and enables Sauron and his ally’s to hammer on the stricken foe. Any team which features a player who is using Sauron should be aware of the fact that his ‘The Lidless Eye’ ability damages ALL enemy Guardians for a small amount of health, meaning that when used it can immediately kill an enemy who is running very low. Use this to your advantage by calling out to your Sauron ally that there is an easy kill available for using his ultimate and remember to do so yourself, when called. Read More

Guardians of Middle Earth – General Strategies

By  •  Guides

GOME

So you want to succeed in Guardians of Middle Earth?(GOME) right? Well, you’re going to need all the help you can get, because GOME is a complex game which is made even tougher because it is played almost exclusively online against other human beings. Don’t worry though, because XBLA Fans is here to help. Below are some of the most useful hints for new players, along with a few more subtle strategies which even experienced players are sure to benefit from:

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Friday Top Five: Best Bang for your buck!
11 years ago

Friday Top Five: Best Bang for your buck!

Look after the pennies, and the pounds (or dollars, euros, pesos or whatever) will take care of themselves. Or at least, that’s what our parents used to tell us, right?

That may be sensible where traditional currency is concerned, but it’s not a strategy that converts well into MSP. Waiting for sales and bargains may be the cheapest way of buying XBLA games – but what if the game you want never goes on sale? What if everyone else has moved on and you lose out on the best bit of a fantastic co-op game like Lara Croft: GOL or a community-focused game like Section 8: Prejudice? What if you think you’re buying something you want, but actually you just bought it because it was cheap and you end up wasting MSP anyway?

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