During their last community address, Ronimo Games teased a brand new character soon to join the ranks of the Awesomenauts crew. The new characters, (yes, plural,) will be showcased at the team’s studios in the Netherlands during an open invitation to players around the world. So if you’re in the neighborhood, visit the community forum for details.

Next week, the game’s catchy soundtrack, inspired by 80s Saturday morning cartoons will be available for download on bandcamp. Until then, you can always download the game’s catchy theme song free of charge.

Ronimo is also getting ready to dish out a balancing patch that it hopes to get in our hands “in a few short weeks.” Some of the changes include: ”Leon’s slow upgrades & tongue, Voltar’s drones & healing, Yuri’s timebubble and Froggy G’s whirlwind shield. Apart from tweaking existing values, we will also be replacing a couple of upgrades.”

Jet Set Radio first came out on Sega’s Dreamcast twelve years ago and gave players the chance to be Tokyo graffiti artists. The game is releasing digitally on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC, and today Sega announced that it will also be releasing on PlayStation Vita.

The handheld version of the game will give players added gameplay options including touchscreen controls for faster graffiti tagging and Vita camera integration. Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA, said “As Jet Set Radio is focused on creativity, the touch capabilities of the PlayStation VITA are proving to be a perfect fit.”

We played the game’s XBLA version at PAX East this year, and it felt quite the same as it did playing it back on the Dreamcast, which is a good thing. We’ll see how this new Vita version compares to the original when we get our hands on it at E3 next week.

Having broken records for the most units sold in a single day and being the highest rated Xbox 360 game on Metacritic this year, it’s no wonder Trials Evolution has already been played by over 500,000 players a month after launch.

One of the reasons the game has drawn so much attention (aside from its great reviews,) is that the game offers an engaging sharing system called Track Central that lets players upload their own custom levels and download new ones. The game’s leaderboards have also been keeping players busy.

“To date, players have created more than 60,000 custom tracks and skill games, using the exact same editor we used to build our own levels within the game,” said Tero Virtala, Managing Director of RedLynx. “Those same players have recorded more than one million entries on custom Leaderboards associated with user-created tracks, they have given more than 800,000 reviews of UGC within Track Central.”

Trials Evolution is out on Xbox Live Arcade. Check out our review for the game and find out why this game’s so popular.

Despite encountering some problems with its German publisher, Awesomenauts was released to great reviews. Since its launch last week, over half a million games have already been played.

Listening to its fans, Ronimo will be releasing a patch next week that will address some of its balancing issues. While we didn’t encounter much of an unbalance during our review, some characters like the game’s healer could get overpowered in the hands of skilled players. Ronimo is also looking into communication issues that prevent some players from joining matches. The developer recommends resetting your console and router until they work on solving this issue.

Ronimo is also working on new character DLC and gave us a sneak peek at the game’s first female Awesomenaut coming soon. Get excited!

Notch’s wacky world-building adventure has finally arrived on the Xbox 360, bringing sprawling open worlds, hissing anthropomorphic time bombs, and a menagerie of other beasts to a brand new audience with cooperative play, leaderboards, and a bevy of features that should delight fans, both new and old.

Bringing Minecraft to consoles was certainly a fantastic move — functions that may have seemed difficult to understand for new players before or gamers primarily enjoying console adventures, unfamiliar with PC controls, have been optimized and simplified for console play.

Both creating worlds and exploring them feels natural and much like the sandbox-adventure game hybrid was built for the console in the first place. Whereas Minecraft on PC was quite often an intimidating and confusing experience — asking friends for help, viewing YouTube tutorials, etc. was usually a given if you wanted to progress. The XBLA edition is a quicker, more streamlined beginning with tutorials, helpful toolbars, and plenty of assistance to get things rolling.

From there, it’s easy to predict the backlash: seasoned crafters will claim this port is simply a “watered-down” copy, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You’re still able to choose which difficulty you’d like to submit yourself to, as well as variables that will determine the type of terrain rolled for your brand new adventure. The rules are still clear — as clear as they can be, anyway: keep safe from the various beasties that roam the landscape at night, and survive. All other rules and objectives come from you. If you wish to build an industrious empire that exists solely on a diet of pork and occasional delicacies, that’s your prerogative.  If it’s your goal in the world of Minecraft to create a gigantic slot machine powered by pigs, you can do that too.

For those with less “interesting” ambitions, living to survive is the basest of options, eventually culminating (if you choose) in a battle within the Ender to rival all previous scuffles. The world is literally yours to shape as you see fit. There’s no option now for creative mode, in which there’s no pressure to stay alive, but the main mode of play can still act as such, if difficulty is set to “peaceful.” Monsters won’t populate, and you’ll still be free to roam, build, and destroy as you see fit.

The only limits to what you can create are those you set for yourself. You can chop down trees for wood, shear sheep for their wool, mine for ore, and even reshape entire islands around your own personal whims. With the Xbox Live Arcade version, you needn’t even rely on guesswork.

Say you gather plenty of wood and cobblestone but aren’t sure of what you can do with it. An entire network of submenus is available that automatically lets you know which materials are needed for, say, a sword or a pick axe, out of the items in your inventory — even a crafting table, if you haven’t built it already, and it will be crafted for you. It’s a much simpler and less tedious process than stopping to consult a Minecraft wiki on creation and allows more time to assemble shelter and some semblance of a plan for survival. All potential options of possible equipment are laid out for you.

You know what you ned and what you want to work toward, giving you more time to explore and establish your own settlement. While it does, in essence, remove some of the trial-and-error exploration and pioneering veteran players were subjected to, in an avenue like Xbox Live Arcade where the focus has been shifted to accommodate new players and multiplayer sessions, who wouldn’t want to spend less time tooling around, confused, when they could be double-teaming creepers and Endermen?

But even still, it isn’t a perfect beast — there is still a fair amount of solo exploration and tinkering required before all the puzzle pieces start falling into place. You’ll likely still need to consult one of the many online Minecraft resources for ideas on what to try next, where to go, or how to react in certain situations. With all the assistance available, there could even stand to be more, coming from personal difficulties when getting started in the PC edition. A primer on what type of shelter best suits your needs or what certain beasts are capable of would have been welcome additions.

But the built-in toolbars and tips go a long way to make any player comfortable, and so does the interface. All, barring content (villages aren’t found in-game, as well as other Minecraftian content pieces,) is as it is in the PC version, save for some unusually sluggish rendering of blocks off in the distance. In a way, this port feels a bit more comfortable, like a modern Wolfenstein or similar game in terms of visuals. Camera work is smooth, as well placing blocks (mapped to the triggers) — it feels effortless. There’s the simple pleasure of not having to turn down the graphics to accommodate your laptop or older PC. Everything just works, and swimmingly.

So too does local cooperative and online play. It’s an absolute blast to erect new civilizations, power through stubborn rock, and team up on pesky monsters with a friend, as easy as inviting another Xbox Live user to play, or hooking up an additional controller. Local couch co-op with my father was particularly intriguing — something I hadn’t yet been able to try, and an absolute hoot. The situations that arise when tossing in another player to the equation always serve to improve the experience. You may have seen all there is to see in Minecraft before, but it’s always new again with friends involved, something this port does quite well.

This enhanced port may be devoid of some of the newer patched-in features (there’s more to come, the hints on the loading screens proclaim) and is intended to satisfy both new and old players, but it’s an excellent and full-featured version of Mojang’s smash hit that deserves all the praise its big brother gets, if not more, for bringing the phenomenon to a wider audience. Hopefully this means bigger and better things for the game in the future — and more for console players as well. Long live Minecraft!

Any PC gamer out there can tell you that multiplayer online battle arena games are taking the online gaming scene by storm. In just the past year, giants like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients have seen favorable success with players eager to experience their fusion of RPG and competitive real time strategy mechanics. Console players, however, have yet to get a title that lets them experience what this hype is all about. That is, until now.

Despite being an obvious portmanteau, Awesomenauts is also a blend of different elements that lets it work effectively on consoles. Instead of teams of five, you get teams of three. Instead of an overhead map, you get a 2D scrolling arena. While at first glance it may seem the game is a watered down version of the other MOBA games out there, players need to realize Awesomenauts isn’t trying to emulate the big boys on the PC. It’s simply trying to give console players a taste of what a MOBA game feels like. And, boy is it tasty.

The game offers both online and split-screen matches and also lets up to three local players take on another team online. Matches consist of two teams of three trying to take down their enemy’s base while also defending theirs from attack. Each team has its own set of powerful turrets that also provide barriers for the other team, so once these turrets are down, the opposing team can easily waltz into an enemy base and take it down. Each team is also assisted by friendly bots that are constantly making their way to each turret, but without the help of the Awesomenauts, they will quickly get shot down.

A lot of the game’s charm comes from its colorful cast – the Awesomenauts themselves. While the core of the game consists of winning as many matches as you can, there isn’t much room for character development. This didn’t stop Ronimo Games from giving each Awesomenaut his own personality, clearly evident after watching the opening cutscene and listening to their witty lines of dialogue during matches. Each character even has his own unique theme song that plays when you select him, and like any MOBA title, each one has his own unique bag of tricks.

During matches, your characters can pick up in-game currency called Solar that lets them purchase power-ups and abilities. Everyone starts with the bare minimum, and as matches progress, the more Solar a character picks up, the more powerful he can become. Before a match begins, you can change the loadout of your characters, furthering creating an element of strategy to the abilities you choose to upgrade. Sheriff Lonestar, for example, has both a dynamite throw attack that does splash damage and a ramming bull attack that helps clear the area by pushing enemies away. You can choose to level up both of these to give you a well-rounded character or focus on one to prioritize your role on your team. These simple choices make each gameplay session a unique experience since players can customize their characters to their liking.

Starting a match in Awesomenauts is also a painless procedure, and the game never lets you wait to get into a match. If a match doesn’t have enough human players, the computer will control any remaining teammates and continue to search for incoming players. These bots actually do a pretty good job, and I often found myself in hot water after underestimating them. Players who start a match already in progress are given extra Solar to catch up to everyone else. While I did like the ease in starting a match, I wish there had been an option to let players wait until they had a full team of people as I often ended up in matches that were close to finishing and on teams nearing defeat.

Every match you play through, even the ones you lose, will get you experience points that levels up your Awesomenauts account and unlocks more characters and abilities to buy during matches. The game starts you off with three characters, but three more elaborate classes such as the tank and healer get unlocked later on. I found that because of this, lower leveled teams may be at a disadvantage. Maybe this is why even a loss gets you lots of experience points. Of course, your account’s level has nothing to do with your in-game level that always resets with each match, so even if you’ve maxed out your experience points, you still need to use your plethora of abilities effectively to win.

Players can jump, shoot in eight directions, and do things you normally don’t do in other MOBA titles, so Awesomenauts may look more like a 2D platformer than a game like League of Legends, but Ronimo’s approach to creating a MOBA experience on the consoles actually works. Some matches can last up to thirty minutes, and are as engaging and addicting as those in other PC titles. The success of an online game is also measured by how big its online community is, and because the game is accessible to even the most casual of console gamers out there and because Ronimo plans to release more content and characters in the future, I’d say the fun won’t be over anytime soon.

Is The Avengers the best superhero movie of all time? (Read our reviewand find out!) Does the same hold true for The Avengers pinball table?

Zen Pinball is releasing Marvel’s The Avengers, a unique pinball table based on the film, and will be included as part of Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles, a brand new four-table pack for Pinball FX2 on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

This unique table features digital assets and events taken directly from the film as well as pinballs that are unique to each Avenger. Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor are all aboard the Hellicarrier with Nick Fury leading the charge into battle!

When Skullgirls released on consoles last month, many players were left wondering where their characters’ move lists were. Today, Reverge Labs and Autumn Games announced plans to release updates to the game (including this simple option) as well as plans to make the game available on PC.

Coming later this year, the game will be available to download through Steam, Origin, GameFly, GamersGate, and GameStop PC Downloads. It will include updates such as in-game movelists, additional tutorials, better single player AI, and username display for online matches. If you already have Skullgirls on the consoles, these updates will be coming to you for free as well.

“We’re thrilled with the very positive reception the game has received and the great support and feedback we’ve been getting from the community on a number of ways to make the game even better,” said Jason Donnell, president and COO, Autumn Games. “We’re excited to be working on answering those requests.”

Skullgirls is currently available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Following reports about German publisher dtp Entertainment’s insolvency filing this weekend, it seemed like Awesomenauts would see issues launching on time. Today, however, developer Ronimo Games has confirmed that its game is releasing right on time.

Awesomenauts will makes it way onto both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network  on May 2.

The game can be best described as an outer space version of League of Legends with 2D shooter and RPG elements thrown in. Both teams must try to destroy their enemy’s bases before theirs gets destroyed as well. Featuring a colorful cast of unique characters and settings, Awesomenauts definitely got our attention.

Read our preview for more on this indie title, and get ready to launch into space battles this Wednesday.

dtp Entertainment, German publisher of the upcoming Awesomenauts downloadable game, has filed for insolvency. In an email sent to us this morning, developer Ronimo Games said it is “unsure of what this means for the game” but is working hard on resolving this issue.

Insolvency occurs when a company cannot meet its debt obligations on time. These issues can be fixed and restorative measure can be taken to prevent it from ultimately going bankrupt.

Awesomenauts has a release date of May 2 for both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, but after today’s announcement, there is no news whether this will change or not. We’ve contacted the developer for more details.

The game can be best described as an outer space version of League of Legends with 2D shooter and RPG elements thrown in. Both teams must try to destroy their enemy’s bases before theirs gets destroyed as well. Featuring a colorful cast of unique characters and settings, Awesomenauts definitely got our attention. Read our preview for more on this indie title.

Diabolical Pitch first made an appearance back in 2010 with only a vague trailer and project name: Codename D. Despite the lack of information, one concrete fact was obvious: it was Grasshopper Manufacture’s brainchild. This was more than enough of a reason for potential players to get excited, as the developer has a particularly impressive track record when it comes to combining style, innovative concepts, and the ever-fleeting concept of “cool.” Now that the latest and zaniest release has finally been unleashed, does it hit a home run or swing and miss?

Step up to the plate as McAllister, a former championship baseball player who finds himself stranded in an abandoned amusement park. Having suggered a debilitating injury to his arm that keeps him away from the sport he loves, this freakish amusement park is just one more stop on the road trip to hell his life seems to have started on. However, a bizarre new acquaintance was offered him the deal of a lifetime: a special cybernetic arm that could very well give him back his career. The catch? McAllister must escape the amusement park with his life intact.

Easier said than done, of course. The eerie park is crawling with demented dolls and disturbing enemies that would like nothing more than to have your head. That’s where McAllister’s former glory as a pitcher comes in. His brand new pitching arm doesn’t so much send balls whooshing past enemies’ heads, it fires them like rockets. The typical laws of gravity and physics need not apply here — and that’s the beauty of it all. Grasshopper Manufacture sprints right past the limitations of reality and adds a delectable layer of polish and style that makes Diabolical Pitch a visual and aural treat. Only when you get to the specifics of playing the game do things falter.

McAllister can fire off fastballs to the left, straight, and to the right of the screen as you mimic a real windup and pitch via Kinect. Locking onto enemies is done with your free hand, in addition to a truly malicious headshot that’s quite destructive but damagingly time-consuming. All your bases are covered, so to speak, except for accuracy. No matter the amount of space in your open area or optimal lighting conditions, the Kinect fails to detect so many proper pitches and movements that defending yourself becomes a colossal disaster.

When you’ve missed an entire swarm of enemies (though a life-saving kick to clear your area is available to you as well) failure is practically guaranteed. Timing is everything, especially when faced with completely intimidating boss encounters and the occasional quicktime event that requires swift movements and impeccable precision. The Kinect fails to deliver this, and thus transforms what is otherwise a wholly entertaining premise into a frustrating slog.

When your pitches are on point, though, it’s easy to feel as though you’re on top of the world. After dispatching a bevy of baddies, McAllister is often afforded one of the game’s titular Diabolical Pitches as a special attack. It’s prudent to use these attacks when you’re being assaulted on all sides, though the moves’ prompting do tend to impair your vision as to the enemies approaching and what’s going on in your surroundings. They are, undoubtedly, one of the most entertaining portions of the game, especially the Dragon Ball Z fusion dance-esque poses that are required to unleash them.

You’ll look and feel ridiculous, but in a great way — little else beats some of the hilariously awkward poses (especially when playing with friends) and it quickly became a personal draw to continue playing. Unlocking Pitches is as simple as earning coins and subsequently purchasing baseball cards — you can also increase your stats and toss multipliers into the mix.

Multiplayer makes the game feel like much less of a struggle against the peripheral, and it’s great fun to double up on poses for special attacks and revives, but when the game itself lasts only a couple of hours, playing with a friend only makes the time go by quicker — assuming you aren’t fighting against the motion control the entire time.

Top-notch presentation, signature Suda51 craziness, and that over-the-top style you’re likely used to if you’re at all a fan of Grasshopper Manufacture’s catalogue of releases are fantastic selling points, but the spotty motion control mars the experience entirely.

The Blast Factor: While this arcade-styled shooter doesn’t necessarily knock one out of the park, it plays a fantastic ballgame, especially on the Kinect front as a frantic, over-the-top alternative to classics such as House of the Dead. A fresh, modern spin and a rather psychotic coat of paint makes a world of difference when applied to old-school mechanics, and it really shows. It’s unfortunate, then, that the very peripheral meant to give it life is also the same reason the game misfires. The exact science and precision of a real pitch is something the Kinect simply cannot, at this point, afford, despite the fantastic foundation provided to work with.

There was a small indie booth at PAX East that players kept revisiting throughout the weekend. That booth belonged to the team at Ronimo Games who had flown all the way from the Netherlands to showcase Awesomenauts, their newest title that can best be described as an outer space version of League of Legends with 2D shooter and RPG elements thrown in.

The core of Awesomenauts is its deathmatch multiplayer that puts teams of three players against one another. Each team’s goal is to make its way across the other side of the map destroying the opponent’s defense turrets and ultimately its base. You’ll also need to be mindful of your own base’s defenses and juggle offense and defensive strategies to survive.

You can choose from six different colorful characters, each one having a specialized set of talents and skills. Froggy G excels at moving quickly, Leon is a stealthy backstabber, Sherrif Clunk is the game’s tank, Yuri kills from a distance, Voltar is the healer, and Sherrif Lonestar is great at crowd control. Once your team selects its characters, you can then choose their load-outs and abilities they will have at their disposal.

Once the match starts, your goal is to destroy the opposite colored turrets and enemy robots coming from your enemy’s base. Each robot or human player you kill will also drop currency you can use to purchase those abilities you chose for your character at the start of the match. They’re not automatically unlocked until you buy or upgrade them, so the more enemies you kill, the more your character can “level up” and get stronger.

Awesomenauts’ seamless matchmaking system also means you won’t have to wait too long to enjoy matches as computer controlled robots will take over slots on your team until you find another human player. Of course, these robots aren’t as smart as human players, so the game continues to search for teammates while you play. The game lets you go online with up to two local buddies or play local multiplayer split-screen matches too.

Matches can truly last a long time if both teams know what they are doing. I noticed a few players kept coming back to play several times and while their first few matches only lasted mere minutes, their third match must have lasted at least fifteen minutes. The game really promotes replayability and I can tell its painless drop-in drop-out system will make finding matches a breeze.

Look for Awesomenauts next month when it launches on PlayStation Network May 1 and on Xbox Live Arcade May 2.

Aside from being a clever portmanteau that makes me think of brawling avocados, Guacamelee is an incredibly charming platformer by Drinkbox Studios that was as much of a joy to play as it was to just watch. What really drew me into the game, aside from its tried-and-true “Metroidvania” genre, was its colorful art style and the fact that the game is inspired by Mexican folklore.

The game’s main character is Juan Aguacate, an agave field worker who gets killed and finds a magical luchador mask in the world of the dead that not only brings him back to life but also grants him the wrestling powers he needs to stop his killer from uniting the world of the dead with the living. One of the animators working on the game is himself Mexican, and serves as the team’s go-to person for reference questions. Of course, the team has taken liberties with its game, but you should definitely expect to see various motifs and cultural allusions as you play.

Combat in the game revolves around, appropriately enough, melee moves that you can expand. Juan can do basic punching combos, but he can also grab and throw enemies onto each other and roll to dodge attacks. Common wrestling moves like pile-drivers and uppercuts also appear in the game, but these moves are unlocked with the story and make Juan not only stronger, but also let him explore areas that are initially blocked off. Other moves like turning into chickens to explore small areas are as funny as they are helpful.

My time with the game let me explore a large part of the world that included as much wall jumping as it did combat, but it also introduced a unique ability that let me switch between the world of the living and the world of the dead in an instant. Once Juan gets this ability, you can press a button and dimensions will change causing lava, for example, to turn into water or an invisible platform to appear. This feature reminded me a lot of Mighty Switch Force since you sometimes had to time your jumps with the dimensional shifts. Not only does this set the stage for puzzles and exploration, but it also affects combat since some enemies will also escape into the other dimension during fights.

I played through the demo with the game’s technical director via local co-cop who took on the role of the game’s female protagonist. As we were individually fighting our own targets, he told me his team is working on implementing more co-op moves that let players combine and link attacks more dynamically.

Drinkbox hopes to release the game on all consoles by the end of the year and is working on finishing up the game by building their world even further. If the demo is any indication, Guacamelee is another great example of how studios can expand on a genre and still keep their games feeling fresh. (After all, the best guacamole is, in fact, made with fresh avocados)

Hell Yeah! is a game about a rabbit named Ash, the prince of Hell who had some racy photos of him and his rubber ducky spread all over the internet. He also happens to have a short temper and could be considered clinically insane because his way of restoring his reputation is to simply kill everyone.

Developed by Arkedo Studios and published by Sega, Hell Yeah! is a colorful, gory, and energetic platformer that shares similarities to games that encourage exploration and backtracking, a genre often referred to as “Metroidvania.” As you make your way through the game, you’ll encounter areas you simply cannot pass through until you find a new weapon, power-up, or simply trigger a reaction in another area of your map.

As I played through the demo, Ash eventually picks up a rotary drill that not only serves as his main weapon, but also gives him the ability to “spin-dash” his way through the stage and off walls and ledges. I was instantly reminded of Sonic the Hedgehog. When I brought this up with Camille Guermonprez, Arkedo’s co-founder, he nodded and verified that this was in fact a reference to his studio’s relationship with Sega and, in a way, makes Ash out to be a “a bad Sonic with anger management issues.”

Once I got my rotary drill, Ash was also able to drill through pink crystals that blocked pathways and also held gems, the game’s currency, which I could later use to purchase missiles to defeat enemies that took no damage from my drill’s attacks. Guermonprez told me the game has 100 unique enemies, each with its own weakness and attack style. Some of these enemies also can’t simply be killed by running them over or shooting them with missiles so when you try to kill them, a mini-game will pop up on screen for you to play. Succeed in these game, whether it’s tapping buttons quickly, pressing them at a specific time, or hitting them in a specific order, and Ash will completely massacre his foes and gore will spew all over your screen. It’s quite colorful and also very graphic.

But that’s what also caught my attention about Hell Yeah! While the game may deal with sensitive topics, not every player will get its potty humor. Guermonprez compared this to Pixar movies where parents laugh at the subtle humor while kids may simply miss it altogether. His daughter for, example, has an innocent viewpoint as to why Ash is not happy that people saw him with his ducky. For her, he is simply angry. Still, the game will be rated M in the US but PEGI 12 in the UK. Localizing some of the game’s jokes has also proven difficult, he mentioned, as the subtle punch lines are often lost in translation.

My brief demo with the game took me a while to complete simply because there was so much to explore and many areas that would require revisiting. There were a few instances of trial-and-error, and I was constantly looking at my map to see where I had to go next because there were so many interconnecting paths. When I defeated a monster, more paths opened up for me to discover. This, coupled with the various weapons you unlock, provided for a much layered experience.  Guermonprez promises Hell Yeah!’s single player mode is so huge and full of customization that he did not see a need for it to have a multiplayer mode.

While Guermonprez told me he literally finished the game on Thursday, the same day he left France to head to Boston, Hell Yeah! doesn’t have a definite release date yet. Expect the game to come out sometime this summer on both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network and expect to experience Hell in a whole new light.

Good news for fighting game fans: Skullgirls has just passed Microsoft certification and will be available on Xbox Live Arcade on April 11 for 1200 Microsoft Points.

Reverge Labs community manager David Barthlow posted the news on NeoGaf forums and also stated that the game’s PSN release date was yet to be determined but would most likely be April 10. The PSN version will be $14.99.

Ronimo Games announced today that Awesomenauts will hit consoles next month. The game will launch on May 1 on PlayStation Network in the US and on May 2 on Xbox Live Arcade everywhere else.

Awesomenauts is a 2D combat online shooter that puts teams of players against each other in a massive online multiplayer experience, combining 2D gameplay with 80s-inspired cartoon humor.

The game will also be available to try out during PAX East, so if you’re going, be sure to stop by and experience the awesomeness that is Awesomenauts.

I had always been an advent South Park fan, and my main concern with Tenorman’s Revenge was its inability to capture the humor that makes South Park so unique. However, when the game opens with  future sea otters retelling the story of Eric’s awesomeness and his plight against his evil ginger half-brother Tenorman , I already knew my fears had been squelched.

The story is simple. Tenorman has stolen Cartman’s X-box hard drive, and as any X-box player will tell you, we are more than willing to time travel and battle ginger robots to get it back. The game says it the best: ‘Who really wants to watch all those L.A Noir cut scenes all over again?!’

As a platformer, I truly find this game to excel. I found myself… frustrated, more than once and while this may seem like a complaint about the game, it is indeed, quite the opposite.  Growing up, I loved Battle Toads and Megaman, but I use to curse up a storm playing them, (granted I was pretty young so my selection of words was limited and well out of the ear reach of my mother). There are many moments in Tenorman’s Revenge where I found myself using my mature selection of swear words frequently. This is the greatest compliment I think I could use for a platformer; Revenge challenged me, it forced me to think past the idea of button mashing, it retaught me the importance of patience, and when I succeeded, I felt empowered, as though it was my true skill that allowed me to win. Too many times are we faced with a platformer that is mundane, and blatantly points out some simple mechanic that allows us to pass a level, but Revenge, refuses to do that. It keeps it fresh, with challenging levels, unique bosses, and so many hidden gems that it taunts us to find them.

Speaking of which, the replay value of this game is quite high. The game gives you the choice to replay all of its levels using one of the four South Park boys we have come to love. This may seem like a nice, if unneeded feature, but Revenge, gives you incentive. Each boy has a unique power, and if you’re an achievement junkie, this game demands that you replay these levels. In order to collect all the time coins, you are faced with certain obstacles only certain characters can overcome. Only Cartman can burst through walls with his girth, and only Kyle can transform into ‘Kite’ to float around. If you don’t like the idea of replaying every level by yourself four times over, you are more than welcome to the games multiplayer function, rather it be online or locally. At the time of the review, I found the online multiplayer to be a bit slow and unpredictable, but I can say, having my brother join in locally was a tremendous help. I can see this being a great game to enjoy with friends, or an excuse to yell at each other for ‘nubness’ as my brother and I quickly found out.

The Blast Factor: This game truly captured what it means to be a platformer. Challenging levels, annoying enemies, and remembering what precise timing actually is. That being said, I still feel this game falls short of the 5 star mark. There are too many control issues I was running into consistently, and the humor aspect of the game did tend to lose its luster throughout the hours. There is a reason the episodes of South Park only run 30 minutes, and it is to avoid comedic stale meant as this game ran into. Still, this game is well worth the time to sink into it, and it is refreshing to see a game that remembers what it means to be a platformer.

This review is based off a copy of the game provided by the Publisher. South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge is available now for Xbox Live Arcade.

Sine Mora, roughly translated from Latin, means “without delay.” It’s a stark warning as to what you’re getting into, with this frenetic shoot-’em-up brought to us via Grasshopper Manufacture. It’s quite a departure from the developer’s typically raunchy style — Killer7, Flower, Sun, and Rain, and No More Heroes to name a few.

But its calm exterior and svelte presentation belie a particularly menacing bullet hell shooter that’s a delightful mixture of dieselpunk sensibilities, intriguing mechanics, and time. While you usually face off against psychopathic assassins, bloodthirsty demons, or zombie rockers as in the case of the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw, time’s the enemy in Sine Mora. Each time the timer ticks down closer to zero, you’re closer to death.

Across a tale that unfolds via text and brief expository scenes, you investigate strange time abominations and other anomalies brought forth via the unauthorized manipulation of time. It’s your job to fly through several expansive areas using three ships and seven different pilots to safety, setting things right along the way.

You’ll excavate undersea caverns teeming with mutant worms, power through a town terrorized by a shape-shifting train rife with missiles, rocket launchers, and various arms, and gun down the opposition in the unfriendly azure skies. All of this is tied directly to each stage’s timer, which acts as your life gauge.

Sustaining damage subracts from the timer, and destroying enemies adds precious seconds. Should the timer hit zero, it’s game over, leaving you to replay the section from the previous checkpoint or beginning of the area. Luckily, an array of power-ups and shields are up for grabs to keep you afloat.

Red and blue shields are available that protect each ship (three ships with unique sub-weapons) from the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of bullets heading your direction. If you’ve played through Ikaruga, you should have an inkling as to how the respective shields offer protection from energy blasts of the same color.

Should things become too dire and skillful dodging is no longer an option, you may manipulate time by pulling the right trigger. A type of “bullet-time,” restricted via refillable meter, allows you to shift through a torrential downpour of blasts. Strategic usage may just save your life, and depending on the difficulty, is an invaluable power-up.

The action is sustained well and swells up fantastically during the game’s seven stages, spanning several challenging boss encounters and a ranking system that provides an addictive challenge. Story and Arcade modes are both viable options for an afternoon’s worth of bullet hell fun, and higher difficulties propel the game into infamously frustrating territory — a great option for fans of the genre.

But it’s clear to see where Sine Mora truly excels. Combining lush, gorgeous imagery with a palette that absolutely pops and a score from Akira Yamaoka that simultaneously disturbs and enthralls was a design decision I can certainly get behind, and surmise will quickly become one of the game’s biggest selling points.

Certain landscapes such as the first stage’s verdant mountaintops and dazzling seas are so visually arresting you wish there were an opportunity to explore via land rather by air. It’s clear that this was a labor of love, both in terms of aesthetic and auricular appeal, and the usage of striking crimsons and sapphires against otherwise nondescript, arid environments is a bold move.

It’s a shame that this beautifully presented shooter is such a short ride, however, and its story can be less than engaging at times. But at its best, it’s perfectly capable of securing a spot at the top of your list of addictive schmups. Akira Yamaoka and Grasshopper Manufacture are a dream team, and Sine Mora is a fantastic diversion, even if it is a fleeting one.

The Blast Factor: It’s a shame that this beautifully presented shooter is such a short ride, however, and its story can be less than engaging at times. But at its best, it’s perfectly capable of securing a spot at the top of your list of addictive schmups. Akira Yamaoka and Grasshopper Manufacture are a dream team, and Sine Mora is a fantastic diversion, even if it is a fleeting one.

Videogames have come along way since the days of Pacman and Atari, but there’s one thing that eludes developerseven today; water. Microsoft and Dark Energy Digital’s newest arcade title Hydrophobia has fixed that problem and has some amazing water physics, even if that’s all it has.

I really wanted to like Hydrophobia, but it’s lack of soul and frustratingly broken elements kept me from doing so. At it’s best, it’s a surreal adventure game that keeps you on interested throughout but most times its a clearly flawed and unimpressive platformer.

Hydrophobia places players in the role of Kate Wilson, a systems engineer on the Queen of the World, a massive luxury liner ocean vessel that has taken the place of cities after the world has fallen into the “great population flood.” All is not well though as a group of terrorists known as the Malthusians have carried out an elaborate terrorist attack on the ship, leaving the once proud vessel in chaos and flames. The only problem is that this really isn’t explained to you early on, and when the game finally gets around to letting you know what’s going on, you find yourself not caring.

There’s also a strangely eerie feeling throughout the game that’s reminiscent of the September 11 attacks. Now, I understand that any game dealing with a terrorist attack is going to have that feeling, but here — it’s a bit overwhelming. As Wilson, you’re left racing around emblazoned wreckage, trying to find a way out as your friends and coworkers are dying around you.

Hydrophobia is filled with some of the most dramatic moments in recent games, and a good portion of that is as a result of the game’s HydroEngine, created exclusively for Hydrophobia. In simplest terms, the engine allows for water to move more realistically than ever before. As you’re racing though the ship, water begins to rush in and rise at a rapid and impressively realistic pace. The best part about the engine is that its completely unscripted which means that it acts differently during each play through depending on the environment.

So far so good right? If only the tense moments weren’t filled with mechanical issues and frustrating shortcuts taken by the developers. Chief among these concerns is the game’s unresponsive and nonsensical control scheme. When a game is built so tightly on edge-of-your-seat moments, the controls can’t lag, but sadly that’s the case throughout most of Hydrophobia. Take for instance a sequence where you’re asked to jump over a fiery balcony to a nearby section of scaffolding; the button combination they ask you to do is unnecessarily complicated and what’s worse, it sent me jumping the wrong way, into the fire.

The game also features a rather annoy pace. Go five feet, cutscene, go five feet…cutscene. Gaming is an interactive activity, and my pet peeve is when you we’re shown these cool sequences, but not allowed to do them. It makes me think — why can’t I do that? Add that to the fact that the game features very dated last gen visuals and you’re in for a a rather uninspired gaming experience.

Hydrophobia could have been a great game, hell — it could have been a great game, but instead, the developers decided to put in overly complex control schemes and frustrating gameplay elements. There’s a ton of awesome games on the Xbox Live Arcade like Limbo, Splosion Man and Trials HD, it just doesn’t make sense to spend your money on such a lackluster experience.

Sony has had the lock on truly original and experimental downloadable titles on their PlayStation Store since the start. Microsoft, on the other hand, has tended to play things more traditional side with their releases. Limbo, however, is a distinctive step to the dark and nontraditional side for the 360. At heart, the game is a simple, challenging puzzle-based platformer—and a good one—but the execution is anything but traditional.

Fans of the genre might feel nostalgic tugs toward the original innovators of the genre—Out of this World, Flashback, Heart of Darkness… All games that mixed platformer gameplay with intelligent and often extremely difficult puzzles, amidst a menace atmosphere. Limbo is absolutely an exercise in style more than anything else. The game takes simple, familiar gameplay into a dark, amazingly disturbing environment.

There’s no real set-up. In fact, the description in the Live store is the only real bit of information you’ll get on the game’s story. You play a young boy whose sister has disappeared into, presumably, Limbo, or at least some dark, horrible place where gory death is a constant companion.

Limbo is distinctive entirely due to its minimalistic presentation. The game is completely black and white. There’s almost no music at all, no dialogue, and the sound effects are nearly completely ambient in nature. The landscape is dark and depressing, and the aural effects are perfectly tuned to convey the stark nature of the game’s world.

Although the visuals might be simple, Limbo is still gorgeously macabre. The character animations are fluid, the eerie forests and bizarrely, primitive structures have just enough detail to invoke an almost primal sense of dread. This dread is further compounded by the main character. The nameless little boy you control might not be completely helpless—he’s a hell of a jumper and climber—but he’s still a child completely lost in a hostile environment.

The boy has no weapons except his wits, and the gameplay boils down to jumping, climbing, and pulling or pushing objects to continue onward. There’s no attack mechanism here, and the design of the game makes no special allowances for the poor kid. Brutal death is everywhere, especially since your first time through with be almost entirely reliant on gruesome trial and error.

Huge bear traps will pop the boy’s head off, trap spikes impale him, a giant spider will make a lunch out him, along with other traps and the frequent danger of drowning. Limbo is absolutely not a game for children. In fact, if there’s a chance a kid might run through the room while playing, it’s recommended to have the parental controls on, which make the constant deaths less graphically brutal.

If such matters aren’t an issue, the only real complaint in Limbo is its short and sudden nature. Thorough explorers will probably get to the end in, at most, four or five hours. Future playthroughs will likely take little more than an hour. The lack of any narrative structure means little resolve or explanation of the how and whys of this boy’s terrible, therapy-inducing journey. For a cheap downloadable game, such shortcomings are acceptable. But given just how polished, deep, and beautifully disturbing Limbo is, most gamers will be left wanting something more than merely a short exercise in demented atmosphere and puzzle-solving.

The Blast Factor: It’s hardly a terrible thing to say that players will love the game so much that they’ll be left wanting more. Such is the case with Limbo. It’s artistic, challenging, and, despite its utter sense of minimalism, more emotionally involving than almost any game you’re likely to find.

The first in a recently announced series of DLC packs coming up for the critcally acclaimed Red Dead Redemption, the ‘Legends and Killers’ pack will be released into the Wild West sometime in early August. It will feature 9 new multiplayer map locations – more than doubling the amount of territories in the existing multiplayer modes, 8 new multiplayer characters from Red Dead Revolver, and a new Tomahawk projectile weapon with corresponding Challenges/ Achievements/ Trophies for both single and multiplayer. It will run $9.99 on PSN or 800 MS Points on XBLA.

In case you haven’t logged on to Xbox Live or the Playstation Network this week, Electronic Arts and Hothead Games have made available a new game called DeathSpank.

DeathSpank is an action-RPG, which blends epic storytelling, addictive gameplay, a whole lot of humor, and randomly enough, evil chickens. The game was developed under the direction of Ron Gilbert, who’s otherwise known as the guy who created the amazing (and hilarious) The Secret of Monkey Island series, so I’ve got to imagine that it’s on-par with some of those great games.

“While DeathSpank is definitely one of the funnier games out there, it’s more than a one trick pony,” said Vlad Ceraldi, Director of Game Development for Hothead Games. “We’ve built a game with fast-paced, addictive combat set in a world that has a tremendous amount of depth that is filled with dynamic characters, colorful environments and tons of cool weapons and loot. And yes, we still have ponies too– trick ponies!”

DeathSpank is rated “T” for teen, and is available now via the PS Network for $14.99 or on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft points.
For more on DeathSpank, please visit, www.deathspank.com

Bethesda Softworks/id Software announced Wednesday that Doom II is now available for download on Xbox Live Arcade.

Doom II adds new weapons, monsters, and a mix of space, urban, and hellish environments over 32 levels. It is the classic PC title and part of one of the most popular video game franchises in history.

The Xbox Live edition comes complete with 5.1 surround sound, high-definition graphics, achievements, deathmatch and co-op play.

There are six new enemies and a brand new bonus chapter that’s never been seen before.

It can be downloaded for 800 points.

Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade, a download hot-spot for bite-sized games, had a stellar 2009, led by grand success of Battlefield: 1943.

According to research group Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment (FADE), Microsoft is making bank off your digital dollars.

The research group reported XBLA revenue of $103.4 million for 2009, which represents a 34-percent spike from 2008. The group also reported the average price for an XBLA game jumped from $8.33 in 2008 to $9.12 in 2009, so that explains the overall jolt at least a little. The other key component? The games made available in 2009.

Trials HD, Shadow Complex, Battlefield: 1943 and others released on XBLA in 2009 and saw grand success, not to mention The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers, a 2008 runaway hit, still at the top of the charts.

FADE’s complete top ten for estimated XBLA sales in 2009 is below.

* Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) – $12.5 million ($15.00)
* Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $7.3 million ($15.00)
* Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) – $7.1 million ($15.00)
* Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) – $6.1 million ($14.38)
* Family Game Night (Hasbro) – $4.2 million ($9.53)
* Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $4.2 million ($15.00)
* Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $2.8 million ($10.00)
* Worms 2 (Team 17) – $1.8 million ($10.00)
* Peggle (PopCap Games) – $1.8 million ($8.86)
* Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) – $1.7 million ($10.00)

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

It’s rainbow time! Rainbow Islands, one of the world’s most underrated platformers, has now made its way to the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Arcade. For those who are unaware, Rainbow Islands is a sequel to the immensely popular Bubble Bobble, which was initially released in 1987 for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, among many other platforms.  Though I would be hard-pressed to say that Rainbow Islands is cuter than Bubble Bobble, this Taito Corporation title gives everyone its share of warm-and-fuzzies.  Hell, even the rating is cute: E for Everyone due to “Comic Mischief”.

The basic premise of the XBLA release, Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure!, is similar to the original in that you must make your character climb as high as he can to escape the sinking city within a certain amount of time.  Using magical powers to create rainbows, players will be able to jump higher and higher, while also attacking dangerous enemies (such as caterpillars, mini-tanks and giant blue bees!) in the process.

The gameplay for Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is incredibly simple: pressing the B-button makes your character jump and the A-button makes your character shoot out a rainbow.  While it isn’t the most fluid gameplay, with a title that is based on clearing stages in limited time allowances, simple controls are more than welcome.

What I really like about Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is the fact that your character has no life meter, which has been replaced with a timer.  This timer counts down for every second spent enjoying the rainbow-ey goodness; when the timer runs out, the game is over.  Instead of losing life, being attacked by enemies results in a subtraction of time.  Likewise, when a player defeats an enemy, their character can collect not health, but more time.  I thought this was a very fun and imaginative way to make a game finite without bringing the whole life-and-death scenario into play.

Another somewhat unique thing about Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is the fact that the rainbow magic can be used as both a climbing tool and a weapon against the evildoers that have overrun the town.  This becomes especially helpful when a platform you are jumping to is a bit out of your jumping range as you can just shoot a rainbow, use it as a stepping stool and be on your merry way.  Advantageously timed rainbows will allow players to jump higher, get rid of enemies and let your character collect the bonuses your fallen foes have dropped.

Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is also full of entertaining game modes as well, complete with Story, Challenge, Time Attack and Xbox Live Match modes.  In Story mode, players take control of Bub and Bob, whom were also the protagonists in previous games.  Bub and Bob must escape the city before the evil Dr. Crescent submerges it compeletely.  Bub and Bob will be able to collect gems throughout the game that will help them do a super move that can combat Dr. Crescent and his large destructive ship.  This mode can be played in single player and two-player cooperative styles.  In Challenge mode, players simply try to get as high as they can with a set number of lives, while Time Attack mode tests players’ speed by seeing how quickly they can complete a stage.  In Xbox Live Match mode, players race against other Xbox Live users on certain levels.

In the Challenge and Time Attack modes, players can actually use their Xbox Live avatars to take part in the action.  Unfortunately, those are the only modes that this feature is available in.  One could imagine that letting Xbox Live users incorporate their avatars would increase the entertainment value of both Rainbow Islands and the avatars themselves, but obviously the developers seemed to go in a different direction.  To many, this will seem like a pretty simple idea that was just not capitalized on for whatever reason.

In terms of aesthetics, this game brings as many colorful graphics as you would expect from an old school Japanese platformer inspired by rainbows.  At first look, players may confuse this title with one of the Sonic games for Sega Genesis as they seem to be designed with very similar graphics and stylization.  Each of the levels has many different shades and tones of pastels, while the enemies look like cute and colorful toys in lieu of anything threatening.  I wouldn’t consider this a negative, however, as I think most of use fell in love with Bubble Bobble for more than its gameplay.

Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! implements what many gamers have referred to as "2.5D" graphics, which is a sort of blend between the 2D and 3D styles.  Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is a good example of this because of the use of 2D scrolling environments and 3D character models.  Though I think 2.5D is a good strategy, especially for updating older games like Rainbow Islands, I thought the stylization of this title was a bit lackluster.  I’ve seen many iPhone adaptations of old games that make Rainbow Island: Towering Adventure!’s graphics pale in comparison.  For a system like the Xbox 360, I think the look of this game could have been stepped up at least one or two notches.

Blast Factor: Overall, Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure is as cute a game as you’ll find in the Xbox Live Arcade.  However, with flaws in the aesthetics, gameplay and general development of the game, it’s hardly the best value one can find.  For fans of the original, coughing up 800 points (about $10) will probably not sound too bad.  For everyone else, it’s probably not worth it.

Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure! is available for 800 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Arcade. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

It’s almost time for The Warriors to come out and play.

Thanks to the folks Paramount Digital Entertainment, soon Xbox 360 owners will be able to feel like they are inside one of the most beloved cult classic films of all time.‚  Starting sometime in September, gamers will be able to buy The Warriors: Street Brawl on Xbox Live Arcade for a mere 800 Points.

However, before we get too excited, a thorough examination of the features and gameplay must be performed.

Luckily, Paramount Digitial Entertainment was kind enough to let me have an intimate, hands-on preview with The Warriors: Street Brawl.‚  Below are some of my thoughts, impressions and gathered information of the upcoming Paramount title.

First, let’s have a little refresher course on what exactly The Warriors movie is all about.‚  Released in 1979, The Warriors is a film based around a gang of the same name.‚  During a gang summit in New York City, Cyrus, leader of The Gramercy Riffs, the most feared and respected gang in New York, was assassinated during his speech.‚  Wrongfully accused as the murders, The Warriors must make their way through the streets of New York and reach the safety of their home turf, fighting numerous other gangs in the process.

Making a video game from a movie of this fashion is no easy task, but Paramount did a service for The Warriors: Street Brawl by implementing the most logical game style for the title: side-scrolling brawler.‚  With this approach, players can get a true feel of what The Warriors movie was all about.‚  Whether it is used to introduce new fans to the film or just for old fans to get a closer look at the action, the side-scrolling style of Street Brawl is a perfect fit for a game inspired by a film such as The Warriors.

I really liked the dynamic nature of the side scrolling, as well.‚  As I fought my way through groups of Baseball Furies and Turnbull AC’s, I noticed that the screen would zoom in and out as I progressed through the level.‚  This would allow the side scrolling to be functional while also being something other than boring.

The makers of The Warriors: Street Brawl also did their due diligence in regards to staying accurate to the movie that inspired it.‚  When starting a new game, players can select from some of the main members of The Warriors, including Swan, Cochise, Vermin or Rembrandt.‚  Each of these characters will have certain strengths and weaknesses in their speed, strength and fighting style, which could greatly help them in their quest to get back to Coney Island.‚  Also, the environments and enemies also come straight from the film as well.

Speaking of environments, I’d have to say that the backgrounds for Street Brawl were probably my favorite parts of the game.‚  Each environment had a very gritty, dark comic book feel to them, making it clear that my character was traveling through a very dangerous place.‚  The fights taking place on the subway and in the subway station were by far the most detailed and intriguing backgrounds I’ve seen in a side-scroller in a long, long time.

However, not everything in Street Brawl was quite as aesthetically pleasing as the environments.‚  What especially stuck out to me as a let down were the character models.‚  Unlike the game’s backgrounds, the character models were very bland and lacked detail.‚  The motions of Cochise, the Warrior I chose to play with, were scripted in a way that made every attack and step seemed unnatural and stiff.‚  A special move that stuck out in my mind (a long-reaching spinning kick) looked good, but fell short of redeeming the overall motion flaws in Street Brawl.‚  Perhaps I’m overlooking they comic book stylization of the game or maybe I’m just simply spoiled by my experiences with Battlefield 1943, but it just seems like XBLA games should have better graphics than what I saw with Street Brawl.

Still, I think the main entertainment value from The Warriors: Street Brawl will not come from the way the game looks, but how the game plays.‚  Street Brawl is a title that uses very simple controls.‚  Toggling the X, Y, A and B buttons serve as a medium to punch, kick and pull of special moves.‚  Players will also be able to pick up and use weapons, such as knives, bats, crowbars, 2×4′s and pool cues, to deal more damage against the rival gangs.

Street Brawl also has a wide variety of game modes.‚  First, there is the campaign.‚  Though I only got to play the single-player campaign, Street Brawl has single player, local multiplayer and Xbox Live co-op campaign modes.‚  As described towards the beginning of this preview, campaign allows players select a character and fight their way through New York and reach the safety of Coney Island.‚  Each player will be able to accumulate points by defeating enemies, picking up bonus items (rings, coins, gems) and advancing further into the game.‚  Players must continuously fight throughout the campaign or else the AI will punish you for stalling by sending in many enemy reinforcements.‚  Also, the longer you can survive through the campaign, the more characters you can unlock and fight with in future Street Brawl sessions.‚  Other game modes include Boss mode and Versus mode.‚  Boss mode lets players fight every boss they’ve seen in the campaign in succession.‚  This allows players to be immediately challenged without having to complete the entire campaign again.‚  Versus mode allows players to fight their friends to see who is the most skilled gang member.

Overall, The Warriors: Street Brawl looks like it could be a pretty swell XBLA title.‚  Running for just 800 Points (about $10), Street Brawl wont convince people to buy an Xbox 360, but it is an affordable option for those who don’t want to buy an entire $60 game.‚  Fans of those classic SNES and Sega Genesis side-scroller titles should keep an eye out for Street Brawl in September.‚  Those who are not quite familiar with the genre might want to just check out the demo.

And, well, for the true fans of The Warriors, the question isn’t whether or not they will buy Street Brawl.‚  The real question is: Can they dig it?

Get your hiking gear ready — we’ve got conquesting to do.

Sierra Online, the studio behind a number of Xbox Live titles including Switchball and Assault Heroes 2 announced Monday that it would be bringing popular card game Lost Cities to the Xbox Live Arcade this spring.

Designed in 1999, Lost Cities places players in the shoes of explores as they lead expeditions to one of the game’s five “lost cities” (The Himalayas, The Brazilian Rain Forrest, The Dessert Sands, The Ancient Volcanoes and Neptune’s Realm).

Lost Cities is widely known as a fast-paced game, with anywhere from 2-4 participants playing and discarding cards representing each of the expeditions. When a player or team decides to undertake an expedition, it garners points by playing a series of increasing value.

Lost Cities won the 2000 International Gamers Award, given to the best in strategy board and historical simulation games. More information on the rules of Lost Cities can be found at Funagaingames.com

Just a short post this Saturday morning.

Sierra has released new screenshots and a brand new trailer for Assault Heroes 2.

“Re-imagined for an even more intense arcade shooter experience, the Assault Heroes 2 game expands its horizons into outer space,” Sierra Online said in a statement this week. “New features include hi-jackable enemy vehicles, many more levels and an enhanced co-operative gameplay mode.”

The Wanako Studios-developed sequel to the hit arcade game will launch in the spring on Xbox Live Arcade.

Sierra announced today that anticipated space combat game Battlestar Galactica will hit stores Oct. 23 and come to Xbox Live Arcade on Oct. 24.

“Leading up to the launch of the game, fans of the series can also watch Razor Flashbacks on www.scifi.com/battlestar that will whet their appetites for the upcoming SCI FI Channel special two-hour Battlestar Galactica episode: Razor. Razor, which will serve as a backdrop for the events of season four of Battlestar Galactica,” the company said in a statement today.

Game features:

• Single-Player Campaign — Pilot various ships and complete 10 memorable missions from the TV series.
• Multiplayer Game Mode — Play online in this relentless space-based action shooter in Domination, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes. (8 players on Xbox LIVE Arcade and 16 players on Windows PC)
• Legendary Spaceships — Fly 4 Human and 4 Cylon ships from the Viper II to the Cylon Raider, each with unique weapon capabilities.
• Special Weapons — Coordinate attacks with an arsenal of destructive weapons including the missiles, guns and more.
• Defensive Maneuvers — Avoid annihilation with the barrel roll, flip turn and other aerial moves.

The game is rated E-10+ and will be available for $19.99. The Xbox Live Arcade version of the game will cost 800 Microsoft points.