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Things are heating up on Xbox LIVE® Arcade – The 2nd Annual Summer of Arcade kicks off on July 22!

Mark your calendars: Xbox LIVE Arcade is once again bringing you the hottest and biggest downloadable blockbusters!

Last year, Xbox LIVE Arcade marked a new era of quality downloadable games during the first annual Summer of Arcade program with “Castle Crashers,” which was voted Best Game of the Year in the 2008 Xbox LIVE Arcade Awards and has generated more than $10 million in revenue to date. The imaginative and innovative “Braid” peaked as one of the top five selling Xbox LIVE Arcade titles of 2008 and boasts the highest Metacritic rating of all Xbox LIVE Arcade games to date, proving that Xbox LIVE Arcade is home to the best and brightest digitally distributed games available.

This year, Xbox LIVE Arcade is at it again. No matter what kind of games you enjoy, the second annual Summer of Arcade turns up the dial with original Xbox 360 exclusives like the award-winning “Shadow Complex,” the fresh and ridiculously funny award-winner “Splosion Man,” and remade classics like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.”

“The second annual Summer of Arcade continues our legacy of delivering the most popular downloadable games right to your Xbox 360,” said Scott Austin, director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft. “Last year’s program introduced blockbusters that changed the face of Xbox LIVE Arcade. This year, we’re excited to take Arcade to a whole new level and deliver on our promise of quality yet again with all-new smash hits like the highly-anticipated ‘Shadow Complex’ and ‘Trials HD.’”

The second annual Summer of Arcade begins July 22.

July 22: Splosion Man™ | 800 Microsoft Points

(Twisted Pixel Games/Microsoft): Fools they were, to tread where knowledge should stay forbidden.  For what emerged was not a man – it was a Splosion Man. ”And all who saw him were sploded, for he was the fire and they were but meat.” Able to splode himself at will, the Splosion Man launches his way through levels as an uncontainable force.  From Twisted Pixel Games, developer of the award winning The Maw™, Splosion Man will keep you on your toes as you play through more than 50 single-player levels and 50 multiplayer levels. Nominated by GameSpy, Gamespot, IGN, and 411mania, this meat-riddled splosion-fest took several Best of E3 awards including Best Platformer and Best Downloadable Game.

July 29: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 | 1200 Microsoft Points

(Backbone Entertainment/Capcom): One of the most popular fighting games of all time, “Marvel vs. Capcom 2,” arrives worldwide on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Choose from 56 legendary characters from Marvel Comics and Capcom history, including Ryu and Wolverine. With online multiplayer over Xbox LIVE and enhanced HD graphics, decide your own dream team in the ultimate tag-team fighting experience.

August 5: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Turtles in Time Re-shelled | 1200 Microsoft Points

(Ubisoft Singapore®/Ubisoft®): Cowabunga dude!  Marking the franchise’s 25 anniversary, everyone’s favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is back with a brand new look in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.” The arcade classic has been revamped with all new 3D graphics, but the same classic beat ‘em up gameplay.

August 12: Trials HD | 1200 Microsoft Points

(RedLynx/Microsoft): Nominated for GameSpy’s Best Downloadable Game of E3 award, “Trials HD” is guaranteed to get our heart racing.” Put on your helmet, and rev your way through “Trials HD,” a full-featured, physics-based motorcycle racing platformer in stunning HD graphics. Tear up more than 50 tracks and test your metal in two unique game modes: Race and Skill. Create, share and download an unlimited number of free tracks with the level editor, and customize your rider to fit your personality.

August 19: Shadow Complex | 1200 Microsoft Points

(Chair Entertainment and Epic Games/Microsoft): Winner of numerous Best of E3 awards including Best Downloadable Game from 1UP, IGN, GameTrailers and G4TV, “Shadow Complex” is the next evolution in downloadable games. “Shadow Complex” marries the quality and depth of a full retail title with the stunning visuals of Epic Games’ industry-leading Unreal Engine 3, and a classic side-scroller. Set in the world of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel, “Empire,” Shadow Complex provides more than 10 hours of in-depth gameplay and introduces a compelling universe in which you collect items and power-ups, and evolve your character into a force of destruction.”

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Turtles in Time Re-shelled” is available worldwide, excluding Japan and Korea. All other games will be available worldwide.  More detailed information about Summer of Arcade can be found by visiting here.

*This is the current release schedule. As with everything game release related, dates are subject to change.

Game on!

Deploy into World War II combat! “Battlefield 1943™” arrives on Xbox LIVE® Arcade

Attention! Get armed and ready to enter the World War II Pacific Theater of Operations. The fully-featured, action-packed “Battlefield 1943™” is available for quick and convenient download on your premier destination for digitally distributed games, Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, July 8.

Build your rank as a fierce fighter pilot, a steel-fisted tank commander, or even a skilled rifleman. Log on to Xbox LIVE where you and up to a whopping 24 players can engage in historic battle between the US Marine Corps and Japanese Imperial, whether it´s in the sky, on land or across the sea.

Published by Electronic Arts and developed by EA Dice, “Battlefield 1943™” will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points worldwide, excluding Korea. The game is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.  For more details, go here. 

*Xbox LIVE Gold membership required for online multiplayer

Game on!

The third and final DLC for The Maw called Speeder Lane is coming out next Wednesday, April 29th for Xbox LIVE Arcade, Steam, Greenhouse, and Direct2Drive at the usual price of 100 MS points or $1.25. Twisted Pixel saved the best for last, as this level has a new speeder vehicle mode, new boss battle, and new scenes showing Maw being his dumb hungry self.

Teaching kids the value of stealing cars, Speeder Lane follows Frank and Maw after they nab a vehicle from the Galactic Forces and fly a path of destruction through a soldier compound. The level features a new vehicle, new gameplay mechanics, and climaxes in an old-school boss fight.

You can view a trailer for the new level HERE.

Screenshots:

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This is the third of three DLC levels that Twisted Pixel Games has been working on ever since The Maw development wrapped last year. “With Speeder Lane we went in the opposite direction from our previous DLC. In Brute Force and River Redirect we really wanted to push the puzzle elements, but Speeder Lane is all about tearing around on a speeder bike blowing stuff up,” explains Lead Designer Sean Riley.

Each DLC level expands The Maw storyline by fitting in between the original levels as “deleted scenes”. “As with any production, there are always pieces left on the cutting room floor that you wished could have made it into the final cut,” says CCO and Director Josh Bear. “We had a lot of half-finished story elements and gameplay mechanics, so we picked the best ones, polished them up and made new levels that were bigger in size and scope than the ones in the main game.”

So work up your appetite. It’s time to go eat again!

Game on!

Introduction:
The Xbox 360 arcade has given us plenty in the way of great, reworked classics, but finding a good original arcade title, with a few rare exceptions, has been a real challenge. Well, say hello to The Maw, winner of the 2008 PAX 10 Audience Choice award. The Maw is a cute purple blob with one eye and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Despite being only an arcade title, The Maw, the first original title from Twisted Pixel, has very high production values and resembles a full retail game – albeit a somewhat short one.

Gameplay:
You are Frank – a diminutive alien trapped on a spaceship. After a crash-landing, you team up with The Maw to explore a strange world and find a way to escape. You cannot control Maw directly. Instead, you control Frank and lead Maw around with an energy beam/leash device you find near the crash site. You can also call Maw to come to you when he’s off the leash. 

Starting out rather small, all Maw can eat at first are little pink puff balls called Yums. After eating just a few however, Maw begins to grow. The more Maw eats, the more he grows – and grow he will! As Maw eats his appetite becomes more varied, and the larger he gets the more diverse his diet will become.

Using some basic platforming skills and some light puzzle-solving, you and Maw must find your way around eight bright and colorful levels. Each level’s design is unique and helps to add some variety to the gameplay to keep things interesting. In addition, Maw will also take on some of the properties of the creatures he consumes. This gives Maw various abilities, such as belching fire, puffing up like a floating balloon, growing a horn to ram objects and enemies and even the ability to fire lasers. Each of Maw’s new abilities are well suited to the particular level you are playing, but Maw only gets to have one ability at a time.

Rated E 10+, The Maw is intended as a relaxing game and it certainly is. In fact, you can’t even die. You will encounter various obstacles and have some enemies to take out along the way, but these enemies are only minor annoyances. They are not lethal. Some gamers may not like that you can’t die, but the overall simplicity of the gameplay keeps things moving at a nice pace and helps the gameplay and puzzles from getting monotonous.

Visually stunning, you may have to remind yourself that The Maw is an arcade title. With crisp and colorful graphics and unique and entertainingly animated characters, The Maw looks top notch. Sound in The Maw is equally impressive – especially the original music. It’s whimsical and well varied, and lends just the right feel to each level of the game. Frank and Maw don’t really speak (though Frank does yell out “Maw” when he’s off the leash and you call to him), but their sounds and reactions give them each a unique and fun personality.

Extras:
The Maw is a single-player only game, and does not feature play on Xbox Live. However, Twisted Pixel is already hard at work on three new levels. There’s no release date for the DLC yet, but let’s hope it’s sooner than later. There isn’t a lot of replay value to The Maw, though I have played through the game twice already and still find it enjoyable. It may also take you a few plays through to find everything and solve every puzzle.

Conclusion:
In a gaming world filled with kill/death ratios, online leaderboards and intense competition, it’s nice to have a fun, relaxing game like The Maw when you need a little break from the madness. The only real drawback is the game’s short length, but then it is only a small arcade title and the first DLC is on the way. With its high production values, excellent graphics and sound and memorable characters that make the gameplay fun, The Maw is a great game for your 800 marketplace points.

Score: 8.8

Twisted Pixel Games, working in conjunction with the Galactic Council, mistakenly let The Maw escape from his quarantine early Monday afternoon. Scientists predict the destruction of all life in the galaxy “probably by next Wednesday.” Twisted Pixel’s CEO Michael Wilford responds: “Real sorry about that. That’s totally my bad.” Twisted Pixel refused further questions, instead announcing the award-winning game’s release date, price point, and website location. The Maw is the company’s first original IP, a product of monumental effort by a passionate and loving team, and also their first venture into galacticide.

The Maw is coming on January 21st to Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade. The game will be localized for a wide range of languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Traditional Chinese. Pleas for help in any of these languages have all gone ignored by this one-eyed purple beast of the apocalypse, currently measuring the size of a basketball.

The Maw will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10 USD). “We set out from the very beginning to create the most content-rich and impressive game that we could for ten bucks and 150 megabytes,” said CCO and Director Josh Bear. “There are over 900 animations, 1000 sound effects, 25 music tracks,  200 visual effects, and 150 models, making this an incredible value for your $10… in the time that we have left.” Bear then wept bitterly.

The Maw will weigh in at a slender 150MB due to the superpowers of Granny 3D and its stupefying 85:1 compression ratio for animation data. Without it, The Maw would require more than 2GB of space, a size more attributable to retail titles. “I don’t think we could have done it without Granny,” says CTO Frank Wilson.  “The simplicity of integrating the technology into our engine, the artist-friendly tools, and the brilliance of their compression algorithms are unbeatable.”

The Maw will offer the rare opportunity for players to win a free premium theme as an in-game unlockable.  The only way to get the theme (and free gamerpics too) is to play The Maw and find them.

So get ready – The Maw is coming.

Game on!

The organizers of The PAX 10 announced on Monday Twisted Pixel’s The Maw as winner of the 2008 Audience Choice award. The PAX 10, a showcase of ten independently developed games, were selected by a panel of 50 industry experts out of over 80 submissions as the best in terms of gameplay and “fun factor.” The PAX 10 winners displayed their games at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), allowing attendees the opportunity to view each of the titles and cast their secret ballots, earning The Maw top honors for the inaugural year of the showcase event.

“It’s always awkward to compete against other indie developers, especially
ones as cool and friendly as the PAX 10 teams.  So we’d like to make sure
the other PAX 10 developers continue to be recognized for their monumental
achievements.  The complete list of 2008′s The PAX 10 (in alphabetical
order):

   – The Amazing Brain Train by Grubby Games (puzzle/strategy)
   – Audio Surf by Dylan Fitterer (rhythm/action)
   – Chronotron by Scarybug Games (puzzle/platformer)
   – Impulse by a team of Rochester Institute of Technology students
   (puzzle)
   – The Maw by Twisted Pixel Games (action/adventure)
   – Polarity by a team of Carnegie Mellon University students
   (platformer/puzzle)
   – Project Aftermath by Games Faction (tactical/action)
   – Schizoid by Torpex Games (action/strategy)
   – Strange Attractors 2 by Ominous Development (puzzle/strategy)
   – Sushi Bar Samurai by Molly Rocket (exploratory puzzle)

-Michael Wilford; Creator of The Maw”

Congratulations to Michael!  We’ll continue to provide coverage about The Maw until it’s release on the Xbox 360 Marketplace.

Game on!

And he’s all out of gum. 

Now don’t get too excited.  No.  Duke Nukem Forever is not getting ready to release (will it ever)?  However, word is that the original, in all it’s glory, is set to finally arrive on the Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday, September 24th. 

MS has not confirmed this date as of today, but the buzz has grown loud enough that it seems like a pretty sure thing.  Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but 360 Rant Rave would guess 800 points. 

Hail to the King, baby!

Game on!

LucasArts announced today that a demo for their highly anticipated upcoming title, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, will be available this Thursday, August 21st, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.

The demo will allow you to play a level that takes you through a Tie Fighter construction facility and you’ll get the chance to test your wits against a Jedi General.

Since Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of 360 Rant Rave’s most anticipated titles for 2008, we are obviously very excited about this news.

 Look HERE for a few screenshots and hands-on impressions from The HD Room. 

Game on!

Bizarre Creations has moved the release date for Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 up by a week.  It is now set to arrive on the Xbox Marketplace on Wednesday, July 30th, for 800 points.

You’ll also be happy to hear that the trial version of the game will include the full ‘Deadline’ game mode in both single-player and multiplayer.   

Here is more info on all the different game modes:

Deadline

The first mode is Deadline. This is also the mode which is unlocked in the trial version of the game (both single and multiplayer). The idea is simple: score as many points as you can in 3 minutes. You have as many lives as you want, but of course if you die a lot then you won’t be scoring as many points as the next guy. You also have bombs, but these are limited (you start with three).

Destroyed enemies drop Geoms (little glittery yellow things) which you can pick up by driving your ship over them. These Geoms increase your score multiplier, so grab as many of these as you possibly can! Every game mode has Geoms, and you should always pick them up. I can’t stress this enough: pick up the Geoms to score big! Your multiplier is no longer capped at 10x either, so having multipliers of many thousands is quite normal (if you’re good enough)!

King

This mode is easy to explain, but very tactical once you start to really get into it. Again the premise is very basic: circular “zones” appear all over the grid. You can drive into these zones, and whilst inside them you are safe (the enemies can’t enter the zones). You can shoot outwards, destroying the baddies outside your zone. However (and it’s a big HOWEVER), after a short time the zone will collapse and you’ll be left exposed.  Whilst outside a zone you can’t shoot at all, meaning that you had better hot foot it to another zone as quickly as you can!

Try to collect a bunch of Geoms as you move between the zones. If you’re playing with a friend in co-operative mode, try this tactic: one of you stay inside the zone shooting outward, whilst the second player collects the fallen Geoms. Then swap when the zone decays. That’s the trick to scoring big in co-op!

Evolved

You can think of Evolved as a super charged version of Retro Evolved 1.  You start with three lives and three bombs, and you keep playing until those lives run out. There are quite a few changes this time though…

Here’s the short list:

*        New enemies make an appearance, like the gates, rockets, etc.
*        Overall balance has been changed, so the game gets more exciting after a shorter amount of time (no more spending the first three minutes of the game waiting for it to get intense!)
*        No more multiple weapon types. We nuked the first “starter” weapon from GWRE1, as well as the big, slow gun. The only weapon that you’ll use throughout GWRE2 is a tweaked version of the faster-firing weapon (which was pretty much the fan favourite to begin with anyway).
*        Tiny spinners (the little purple guys which split from the big spinners) no longer track the player. They stay rotating in one spot, acting more like a “blocker” than a normal “follower” type enemy.
*        Gravity wells now destroy enemies on exploding! Not only that, but it’ll give you 5x the score for the privilege! Gravity Wells should now be a priority to take out when things get busy. Note: destroying enemies in gate explosions (and bouncing bullets off of gates) also gives the same 5x score bonus.
*        Repulsars have a new look, and slightly changed behaviour. They no longer repulse your bullets, but they are still only vulnerable from the backside.
*        Lives and bombs are still given once you reach a set score, but this time the gap between them gets exponentially larger each time. In other words the first extra life/bomb is given at 100,000, then the second at 10 times this amount, and the third at 10 times that amount.
*        Of course, “Snake spawn” is no longer an issue.

Pacifism

Everybody remembers the Pacifism achievement from Retro Evolved 1. At the time it was hailed as the first of a new breed, encouraging a different way of looking at the game. Well we couldn’t just leave pacifism in the past… in GWRE2 it’s been promoted into a full game mode of its own. Yay!

As you might have already guessed, you can’t shoot whilst playing Pacifism. Oh, and you only get one life and no bombs. The only offense you have against the infinite blue shapes is to drive through the gates (a new enemy type), which triggers a big explosion deadly to the bad guys. Driving through multiple gates in a row will give you bonus points, so try to chain together as many as you can without stopping.

One word of warning: avoid the deadly yellow gate ends! Make sure you drive straight through the middle of the gate, without touching the sides!

Waves

If you’ve played the hidden Geometry Wars mini-game in PGR4, then you’ll have an idea of what to expect here. The Waves game mode gives you one life (and again, no bombs), and asks you to survive as long as possible against wave after wave of incoming rockets. The rockets travel either horizontally or vertically, so you’ll need to pick your route through them carefully in order to come out the other side unscathed.

If you’re having trouble mastering Waves, bring some friends along and quadruple your firepower. Oh and check out the Surf achievement, where you must stay alive for 8 wave spawns without firing a shot. Sound tough? It is!!

Sequence

The final game mode is Sequence… and this is one for the professionals. There are 20 levels, and the aim of the game is to make it through all twenty without dying. On the plus side, each wave is identical every time you play… so if you remember the spawns then you’ll be at a great advantage. The bad news is that each wave is pretty freakin’ hard, and you only start with a set number of lives and bombs to do them all with.

Every level must be completed in 30 seconds, and if you lose a life you skip to the next level (thus forfeiting the points you could have scored if you had stayed alive).

Sequence gets interesting in multiplayer, especially when you’re playing competitively to beat each others scores. More devious players might experiment with the green Weaver enemies… try pushing them into another player to kill them off early in the level! When one of you dies you have to sit out for the remainder of the time, meaning your opponents can really score big whilst you’re on the sidelines. Ouch!

Game on!

1942: Joint Strike takes inspiration and influence from the ‘80s 194X series of World War II-themed vertical arcade shooters. The art, sound and gameplay of the new game take cues from the original 194X games, but will stand out as its own unique entry. Gameplay will resemble the classic 2D style that gamers expect, but the game utilizes a fully 3D engine. Set in a World War II-themed locale, stages, vehicles and weapons have the look and feel of WWII with some stylistic differences.

The new 1942: Joint Strike features 2-player online cooperative play. Graphics and music have been similarly updated by Backbone Entertainment, the developers of this latest entry into the 194X series. There’s also a brand new score for the game created by Norihiko Hibino, an international composer well-known for his work creating music for the Metal Gear series.

Screenshots:

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Shot 5

Game on!