Posts with tag xla
Posted Jan 4th 2007 5:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Rumors
Recently spotted on the ESRB's website were ratings for Xbox 360 versions of
Ultimate DOOM and
Final DOOM (they're both rated M by the way).
Ultimate Doom is technically already available on Xbox Live Arcade, as it is merely
DOOM with an added fourth episode, "Thy Flesh Consumed." Even though the Arcade rendition is known only as
DOOM, it does contain the fourth episode.
Final DOOM, on the other hand, would be a new entry on the Xbox 360. Containing 2 new 32 level episodes, "Evilution" and "The Plutonia Experiment,"
Final DOOM is an expansion of
DOOM II.
We like us some
DOOM, and a new expansion -- especially with some good multiplayer maps -- would be welcome, but we'd rather see some other FPS action first. And since you asked, we'd like to put in our vote for
Heretic. There's nothing quite like turning your opponent into a chicken, is there?
Posted Jan 3rd 2007 2:45PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade
More Xbox Live Arcade news today, as Live Arcade Portfolio Manager, Ross Erickson, quashes the rumor that Namco's
Katamari Damacy would make an appearance on Xbox Live Arcade. The
rumor originated from an issue of EGM, stating that a new
Katamari would hit Wii, PS3, and Xbox Live Arcade. Erickson decried the rumor in the XBLArcade* forums, calling it "total crap." Some doubt the quote's authenticity, but XBLArcade's Tomacco confirms his identity -- and he's been known to
comment here as well. Sorry, 360 loving Katamari fans, looks like you're stuck with the PS2 version and an unhealthy obsession with cosplay.
[Via Joystiq]
*XBLArcade is one of the fine sites on our blogroll. You've seen our new blogroll, right? It's in the middle of the page under the Blogsmith logo. Check it out, scour those sites, send us tips. The circle of life continues.
Posted Jan 3rd 2007 2:15PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
Yesterday, we
reported on the development of
Eternity's Child, a 2D side-scroller with a unique aesthetic. The games official website claims that the game is headed to Xbox Live Arcade "this year" and its creator, Luc Bernard, told GTR's Godfree that it was on its way to becoming official. We decided to hit up Worldwide Xbox Live Arcade Games Portfolio Manager, Ross Erickson, and get his response. Erickson told us that he "can't comment on that right now." Those familiar with PR speak will instantly focus on the last two words in that statement: "right now." Typically, false rumors are flatly denied, whereas "no comment" could go either way. We know that Ross likes
good games, and we wouldn't be surprised if
Eternity's Child hits the arcade so long as it passes muster.
Posted Dec 27th 2006 11:30AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace, Rumors
Our friends at XBLArcade have informed us that
Worms HD -- an Xbox Live Arcade version of the classic series -- is near completion, according to a forum post on the Team17 website (registration required). The post declares that the game is already on Partnernet (a debug and press only version of Xbox Live) and has only one more bug to be worked out. Furthermore, the game should be available "hot on the heels" of CES, which ends January 11.
Worms HD will be officially announced during the show.
XBLArcade also reports that Team17 is already working on downloadable content -- free and premium -- and that the game is supposedly easier to "pick up and play" than previous iterations. We share their sentiment that this may or may not be a good thing for
Worms, as one of the best parts of the series is its depth of strategy. Hopefully, this will remain intact in the Arcade release. At any rate, we can't wait to get a crack at
Worms HD in all its 2D glory. With any luck, it may wash out the sour taste of the recent 3D iterations. Anyone else excited to pick this up?
Posted Dec 27th 2006 10:30AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade
It was sweet while it lasted, but the Xbox Live Arcade streak has come to an end. We had 4 original Arcade titles in a row:
Small Arms, RoboBlitz, Assault Heroes, and
Novadrome. This week ... well, this week we get
New Rally-X. Think
Pac-Man, only with cars. There's a new assortment of Namco picture packs, too -- one each for
Galaga,
Pac-Man, and
Dig Dug. It's a shame we couldn't see the continued downpour of XBLA goodness (what we wouldn't give to see
Castle Crashers or
Worms HD). Then again, what should we expect? You always get leftovers after Christmas, right?
Here's hoping 2007 brings a slew of original titles to our favorite download service. That's right, a slew. What Live Arcade game are you anticipating the most? Are there unannounced games you'd like to see?
Posted Dec 26th 2006 7:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Reviews, Xbox Live Arcade
RoboBlitz has had a lot going for it from day one. Since it was first
announced, it was something special. Oddly enough, the hype surrounding
RoboBlitz had little to do with gameplay, but rather the fact that the game uses Unreal Engine 3. Of course, that's a huge claim coming from an Xbox Live Arcade title that has a mandatory
size cap of 50 MB.
RoboBlitz's other major bullet point was physics driven gameplay. According to
Tian Mu, co-founder of
RoboBlitz devs, Naked Sky, every element of gameplay is driven by physics, right down to character animation. All in all,
RoboBlitz was trumpeted as a game that could redefine the retro-friendly Xbox Live Arcade. We spent a good week playing
RoboBlitz, delving into its physics, killing baddies, and, ultimately, finding out if it lives up to its promise.
Continue reading X360F review: RoboBlitz
Posted Nov 20th 2006 4:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
Microsoft has officially confirmed what we had all
hoped, Gastronaut Studios'
Small Arms is
finally hitting Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday for 800 points.
Small Arms, for those of you who have somehow missed our near continuous
coverage, is a 4 player fighting game featuring crazy characters that use any means necessary -- from molotov cocktails to sniper rifles -- to blast each other to smithereens. Described by many as
Metal Slug meets
Smash Bros, people (especially us) have been
salivating for its release. The wait is almost over, folks. This Thursday, eat some turkey and look for some 4 player action on Live. That's what we'll be doing. Full press release after the break.
Continue reading It's official: Small Arms this Wednesday!
Posted Nov 15th 2006 3:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
We know, we know. We just won't
shut up about
Small Arms, but Mike from the Xbox Domain just sent us an interesting find. Check out this list of the official Live Arcade game forums at Xbox.com. Look closely, and you'll see that
Small Arms is the only unreleased Arcade game with a forum. What's more, it looks like both the
Defender and
Small Arms forums were created last night. Is it possible that Microsoft had
Small Arms on deck to release and hit a snafu? Was
Defender on standby for just such an occasion? We don't know, but we suspect that MS has a pretty large catalog of old arcade titles that are ready to be published at a moment's notice, just in case a bigger game hasn't made it through certification (and of course there are the
UNO decks to fall back on). The upshot of all this is that
Small Arms just might be releasing next week -- or maybe even as another surprise Friday release à la
UMK3. Will
Small Arms see the light of day before Thanksgiving? We hope so, because it sounds like the perfect way to wind down after a turkey dinner.
Posted Nov 6th 2006 4:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
Alongside the press release for
Contra hitting XBLA, Microsoft sent another press release outlining a slew of Atari classics heading to Live Arcade next year. The six Atari games to be released are:
- Centipede/Millipede
- Battlezone
- Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe
- Missile Command
- Tempest
- Warlords
All of the games will feature both original and "evolved" versions. The evolved versions, similar to Konami's offerings, will feature revamped graphics and sound. All games will have leaderboards and achievements, and multiplayer games will have Live support. Surprisingly, many of these games are receiving some pretty impressive new features, including Live Vision support for
Battlezone and
Warlords. It looks like many of the games will receive three dimensional upgrades instead of simply using high definition sprites, too. Finally, and this is not a joke,
Centipede evolved has motion blur. Motion. Blur. In
Centipede. If that's not worth $5, we don't know what is.
Also worth mentioning, the press release confirmed that the following titles should hit the Arcade before the end of 2006:
- Small Arms
- Assault Heroes
- Novadrome (?)
- Heavy Weapon
- Defender
It should be noted that this isn't necessarily
all the titles we'll be seeing by year's end (we're looking at you
RoboBlitz). Full press release after the break.
Continue reading Atari games on XBLA, holiday titles confirmed
Posted Oct 24th 2006 4:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
There's a small section devoted to Xbox Live Arcade in the latest issue of Konami's newsletter -- creatively titled, "Konami News". In the newsletter, Konami announces that both
Contra and
Gyruss are coming "soon." How soon is soon? We don't know, but there are ten more Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays this year, and we can only hope that these games are destined for two of them. (
Small Arms first, please.)
The article contains some previously unreleased info on both games.
Contra will feature updated graphics and sounds, online multiplayer (!), and leaderboards. But does it have "the code?!" That's all we want to know.
Gyruss will feature updated graphics, new versus and co-op modes, and leaderboards. We have to hand it to Konami for actually upgrading its old arcade games for XBLA. That's the kind of thing more developers should do -- unlike Namco, who actually
removed multiplayer from games like
Pac-Man and
Galaga. So, are you excited for
Contra? Any other Konami games you'd like to see resurrected?
[Thanks, J.Goodwin]
Posted Oct 24th 2006 1:45PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade
It looks like Twelve Interactive's
Crash Dummy Vs. The Evil D-Troit -- currently bound for the PSP, PC, DS, PS2, and Wii -- might be making an appearance on Xbox Live Arcade. According to the game's licensing consultant, SIC, "we have great faith in
Crash Dummy & Twelve Interactive. We are also in discussions to put up the title on 360 live arcade. I am sure our partnership will result in many successful games together". We've never heard of the title before, but any new Arcade game is fine by us. See a video of the game after the break.
Continue reading Crash Dummies on XBLA?
Posted Oct 19th 2006 3:35PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Xbox Live, Fan stuff, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
We know, it seems like all the news is about
Lumines lately. It'll subside, we promise. Until then, however, we have to put in our two cents on a hot topic. No doubt you've read some of the reports about
Lumines Live! and it's
evil downloadable content. Either that, or you've discovered it yourself after clearing
one round of Vs. CPU mode. We all knew that there was an "Advance" pack coming, but if you were under the impression that the "Advance" pack would make your game complete, you're wrong. Three times wrong. We think it's time for a rant.
Continue reading Our Lumines Live! micro-rant
Posted Oct 17th 2006 6:50PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
A day with no Live. Thousands were faced with a difficult proposition. Do nothing ,or
go outside. Fear not, pasty gamers, Microsoft understands what you have gone through. As a reward, you can download
Lumines Live tomorrow! It's finally here! Starting tomorrow at 8:00 GMT (1:00 AM PDT), it's yours for the downloadin'. Remember that constant whining sound reverberating across the internet? That was all the fanboys (us included) just waiting for
Lumines to finally drop. You should all be grateful that the constant droning will finally cease. Just in time for the new whining to begin: "1200 points! Whaaaaa!" And that's
before we get into the soon-to-be-controversial 600 point "Advance Pack." Oy.
But seriously, it's
Lumines. Hooray,
Lumines!
Update: Major Nelson has let the world know that the "Advance Pack" is not available yet. It will come out later, presumably when everyone's addiction will force them to purchase it.
Posted Sep 5th 2006 11:30AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace
Last week we took a look at
Bubble Bobble as a likely candidate for Xbox Live Arcade. This week: Power Stone. One of the first games released for SEGA's ill fated Dreamcast,
Power Stone was a gorgeous and innovative fighter in it's day. Part
Smash Brothers and part Jackie Chan,
Power Stone allowed players to use anything and everything to win a fight. Of course, the eponymous power stones were a big help as well. Read on to see why this overlooked Capcom classic would make a great addition to Live Arcade.
Continue reading That should be on XBLA: Power Stone
Next Page >
It's been a while, but it's time again for another exciting edition of "That should be on XBLA." This week, it's the arcade classic, Raiden (no, not that effeminate guy from MGS). If you've never played Raiden, then all you really need to know is that it's chock-full of shootery goodness. Read on to to discover the joy of Raiden.
