Q? Entertainment have announced their next Xbox Live Arcade title - a new version of their DS puzzler Meteos, titled Meteos Wars.

The game will feature 22 planets of block dropping fun, as well as a bit of a new asthetic, and some more concentration on the multiplayer modes.

As with everything Q? Entertainment, James "Milkman" Mielke over at 1UP has gotten all buddy-buddy with Mizuguchi and grabbed himself an exclusive preview of the game.

"New to Meteos Wars is the Meteos "Planet Impact" attack, a supermove that can devastate your opponent once your special gauge is filled. In addition to the single-player mode, there's also time attack, versus mode, mission mode, and 100-Meteo Attack mode, with leaderboard rankings for each. Visually, the game features the usual colorful, fast-moving block shapes in the foreground, which appear even more "Lumines-y" than before. But in the background, the represented planets rotate and spin in beautiful, high-res 3D. If you want to get good at this game, regardless of your past experience with Meteos on DS, you've gotta pay attention to each planet's composition."

Looks good - though I certainly would have expected Gunpey before Meteos. I'd actually like to see what NEW stuff Q? have to offer, in or out of the puzzle genre.

Source: 1UP.com - Meteos Wars (Xbox 360) Hands On Preview

Posted by Ryan Langley at 1:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hudson have officially announced that the "Bomberman Wii" WiiWare game in Japan is coming to the rest of the world - as Bomberman Blast.

Fans of the popular series will be able to compete either solo or as part of a team against the best Bomberman players worldwide, as Bomberman Blast delivers 8-player multiplayer battles online. By using their Miis, gamers will have the opportunity to definitively prove who has the best Mii by sending them into a Bomberman Blast arena, then blowing away the competition! Now who has the best Mii?

Hooray! Though mentioning that you can only play 4 players offline seems a bit weird - You could always use Gamecube controllers in conjunction. Could you still use Wii Remote buttons seperately with the additional Classic Controller? Either way it looks great, and the use of Miis certainly helps.

It looks damn nice too, real sharp. There has been many a WiiWare release that ends up looking a little muddy. Some of that Mario Galaxy sharpness to it.

Check out some more screenshots here.

Continue reading "Bomberman Blast Officially Announced For WiiWare" »

Posted by Ryan Langley at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Fable II Pub Games (+1)
2 Galaga Legions (NEW)
3 Braid (--)
4 BC:Rearmed (-3)
5 Geometry Wars Evolved² (-1)
6 UNO (-1)
7 1942: Joint Strike (-1)
8 DOOM (-1)
9 N+ (-1)
10 Marble Blast Ultra (V)

A sudden fall this week for Bionic Commando Rearmed, it seems. More so I think it means that Everything is selling incredibly strong for the first time in a long time. Galaga doesn't reach the top spot though - Fable II Pub Games still continues to have its free coupons collected, so it makes it to the top of the list. Looks like Fable II is going to sell a ton of copies when it's released.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Castle Crashers ®

Developer: The Behemoth
Publisher: The Behemoth
Genre: Beat 'em up
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: Everywhere

Click here for screenshots of Castle Crashers

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page

Click here for the official NeoGAF forum topic

Posted by Ryan Langley at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

WiiWare World have added a new interview with World Of Goo creators 2D Boy, discussing how their development has been for WiiWare, the differences between the WiiWare release in America and the Retail release in Europe, features such as Cooperative gameplay, online leaderboards and more.

WW: As indie developers what has it been like to work with Nintendo on getting this game ready for release?

Ron: So far so good. They're have dealt with us very honestly and fairly and are perfectly fine with us doing our thing and being totally hands off. They've helped us a lot with publicity, and the terms of their distribution agreement for WiiWare are very fair.

Source: WiiWare World - 2D Boy Interview on World Of Goo

Posted by Ryan Langley at 4:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An inside source over at Bemanistyle.com has gotten a hold of some off-screen screenshots of Konami's still unannounced button-pressing music game Beat'n Groovy for Xbox Live Arcade - and they ain't too happy.

We know through OFLC and USK rating websites that the game is being made by Voltex - the people behind the critically panned Coffeetime Crosswords and Frogger 2 for Xbox Live Arcade that were also released the same week they were announced.

From the screenshots we can see that the game involves pressing buttons on the Xbox 360 controller in tune with the music in either 5 button modes or 7 button modes. Sounds like it could get horribly confusing to me.

The screenshots also show off the style being used for the presentation. It's still using the very simple drawings that Pop'n Music has, but looks more Americanized. On the news topic on Bemani Style they're quite disgusted with it - but agree that the music selection appears to be fairly decent.

Check out all the screens and comments on the link below.

Source: Bemanistyle.com - Beat'n Groovy more like Beat'n Hideous

Posted by Ryan Langley at 4:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rememebr when we stated Sierra Online was still alive? Here is some official proof - Red Baron Arcade has been announced for the PlayStation Network, and will be released on September 18th.

Originally half announced for the Xbox Live Arcade, it seems that the updated ESRB rating has shown that this game will now be a PSN and PC only title now. The trailer above does not mention XBLA at all.

The game will have 20 different planes to choose from, 8-player online dogfights in deathmatch, team and capture the flag modes.

Source: PS3 Fanboy - Red Baron Arcade brings air combat to PSN in September

Posted by Ryan Langley at 4:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Gamasutra's Alistair Wallis sat down with Chris Stockman over at Blazing Lizards and had a chat about their Xbox Live Arcade title Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball.

In the article we find out more about Mr. Stockman - where he started off in the industry, how PvND came about, working with Gamecock and a whole lot more.

I would like to respond to one of the answers given though:

Has the process of getting the game onto XBLA been a difficult one?

No, not really. We had to go through the MS gatekeepers when we first signed with Gamecock, and that took longer than I expected, and then certification at the end - but that's normal.

However, releasing on the platform has been kinda frustrating. We were fully certified and ready to launch on July 3rd but all their slots were full until September 3rd. I really wish they didn't have this hard rule of 2 titles per week - which ofttimes they don't follow either.

Throughout July Microsoft released two games a week, one of them being Double D Dodgeball, a direct competitor to the 'genre'. It would have really been too close together for both to survive.

And considering the releases in September, whether or not PvND end up being a great game, it would have been buried under those releases. It sucks waiting for your game to release, but unfortunately that's how it has to be, I guess. Hopefully a new kind of release schedule might be dreamt up with the new Xbox experience.

Source: Gamasutra - Road to the Austin IGF: Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball

Posted by Ryan Langley at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally, after all the leaks popping up, we're finally able to see Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox Live Arcade. Team Xbox have a brand new interview with George Broussard of 3D Realms to talk about the game, and have a ton of new screenshots and two movies of the first few levels.

Unlike many “classic” games brought to XBLA, you did a lot to freshen up Duke 3D and take advantage of the Xbox 360’s capabilities. How did the hardware and some re-coding time enable you to buff up your hero’s world?

George Broussard: We definitely put a lot of work into the game. It would have been simple to just port it and ship it, but people kept suggesting cool ideas and we just had to do them. Some of it was hardware, as in being Xbox Live, you open the game up to really solid matchmaking, voice chat and multiplayer.

There are other things that we just did, because it was cool or the right thing to do. Small things like letting you remap every button on the 360 controller to larger features like the User Clip feature. There are small features like the concept art gallery or in-game achievement list that we didn’t have to do at all, but we thought they were features we’d like to see in games.

In the end I feel like we added everything possible within reason to update the game and keep it within a reasonable timeframe (a first for us!).

Read the entire interview here, and check the movies out here

Shacknews also got their hands on it, and have also included two videos, showing off the brand new "clips" features as well "rewind", and finally, going through all the options showing that you can resize the game screen and configure every button in the game.

Things get really interesting when you return to the main menu. Not only can you view your saved replays, but you can also jump back in and play from any point on the timeline. You can upload these clips to share with friends, or simply use them as evidence to compete with other online players: an entire section of the leaderboards is devoted to Time Trials, and the top spots will be accompanied by video proof. This is a dream scenario for speedrun fans.

Check out their preview with videos here.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chris Kohler over at Wired's Game|Life has downloaded this weeks Japanese WiiWare releases of Alien Crush Returns and Space Invaders: Get Even. Both are coming out for the rest of the world sometime this year - and both are looking very promising. WiiWare really needs some more decent releases, it's nice to see Hudson and Taito pulling out all the stops on the platform.

Crush does have a purely score-based "Arcade" mode, in which you select from one of three tables that are designed to resemble the gross inner workings of an alien. But Hudson adds more play value with a "Story" mode that takes you from table to table, asking you to accomplish smaller goals: Eliminate all the aliens, defeat a giant boss monster.

It feels pretty good: The camera is dynamic, moving between a few different pre-determined positions depending on what part of the board the ball is on. The ball physics feel alright, although at times when I think I'm really going to smack the ball, I just end up nudging it, and vice versa.

Check out their Alien Crush Returns preview here.

Space Invaders Get Even is only 500 Wii Points ($5), which sounds like a huge bargain until you realize that that only buys you two levels and a boss battle.

If you like Taito's 30th-anniversary re-imagining of its historic arcade game, and you very well may, you'll have to pony up another five bucks per level. There are four available, meaning that the entirety of this WiiWare game will actually run you $20. The crazy thing is that it might actually be worth it -- I had a blast this evening playing through the first batch of Get Even levels.

Check out the Space Invaders: Get Even preview here.

Posted by Ryan Langley at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)