Released to Xbox Live Indie Games yesterday by Stegersaurus Games, Battle Beat is a strategy game that has you commanding a squad of soldiers and defending your world against a strange assortment of aliens -- blue blobs, half-men/half-bulls, and some very sad-looking moles.

The twist with Battle Beat is that it's designed to be played with instrument controllers from music games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band (you can use a standard Xbox 360 controller, but that doesn't seem as fun). Ever since seeing Retro/Grade's rhythm-based shoot'em up levels, I've been dying to see more games adopt this sort of control scheme!

Battle Beat also has segments in which you blasts falling ships (?) and fly through obstacles with a jetpack, both of which seem like decent distractions if you get tired of the main strategy campaign. You can grab the game from Xbox Live Indie Games for around 400 Points, and a demo for free.