Xbox 360 Fanboy

Both Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard, the creative geniuses behind recent XBLA release N+, are furious about how Microsoft has handled the Xbox Live Arcade and how big publishers have taken over the service. So angry, they go as far as to claim that the majority of the XBLA titles are "all sh*t".

Talking with Gamasutra, they mention that their biggest problem with the Arcade is the fact that Microsoft has too much control over what gets published and what doesn't. An issue that they claim has led to hundreds of craptacular games saturating the service. Burns goes on to say that "the real problem, I think, is that the same people who are deciding what retail games get greenlit are deciding what Live Arcade games get greenlit" and that it's "those decisions that are ruining Live Arcade."

To an extent, we have to agree with our N+ creators. It does sometimes feel either crappy retro games or crappy classics make it to the XBLA while we know full well other Indy games have more potential. That said, smaller developers are still a driving force behind the XBLA, with games like Castle Crashers, Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai and Schizoid leading the way. Also, we can't completely blame Microsoft for favoring big publishers, because, as we all know, they are rolling out a community fueled XNA service this Fall.

As an XBLA game, N+ is in and of itself downloadable content, so it seems a bit strange to see that it's getting some of it's own. Announced today, Metanet will be releasing a total of three downloadable content packs for the game, each with around 200 new levels. If we're lucky, the first pack will feature easier levels and some co-op multiplayer and could hit the Marketplace within three weeks. Co-creator of the game, Mare Sheppard, said:

"The other packs will probably contain harder levels, race and survival multiplayer, and some classic N levels from the original game -- we're just not sure how the content will be distributed among the packs yet,"

The team is shooting for a price of 200 points per pack, with at least one pack being free. And it seems we weren't the only one's who saw the news about the game's user-generated content, as Metanet is working on a title update that would enable level sharing among the community at large, instead of just friends.

Place this one in the we'll see category. According to a comment made on the MetaNet Software blog, developers Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns (as poster M&R) hinted at a February 20 release of their upcoming XBLA version of N+. The, formerly free flash based game, promises the standard boost to sound and high resolution graphics found in other XBLA game as well as a multiplayer mode. On the official developer blog for Slick Entertainment, the team behind the XBLA version, N+ passed certification January 10 and has been awaiting a release. The title was nearly released on January 30 but was held back in favor of RezHD and Chessmaster.

In the comments on February 13, M&R told readers, "I don't know.. maybe we can post something tomorrow [about the release], we're still waiting to hear back from Microsoft, because as mentioned it seems like every other game was announced a week early (which led us to believe that was the rule)." Earlier today, M&R posted, "We'll have a proper post soon about the launch party!." While its hardly a confirmation it looks like N+ will be gracing XBLA any time now, we hope.

[Thanks, Russ]