Penny Arcade First 150MB+ XBLA Title

Well, we didn't have to wait long for the first game to break the previous XBLA glass ceiling of 150MB, as today's release of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick...blah blah blah, clocks in at the record breaking size of 165MB. That looks to me like the game would've been squeezed under 150MB with some added compression but the new size limit saved Hothead Games the bother.

I gave the demo a run through and was rather impressed with the game, especially the awesome HD Penny Arcade art in some of the cutscenes and particularly the way the character you create is implemented into them. The battle system will be comfortable for anyone who's played a Final Fantasy game and it's actually a bit more frantic because it takes place in real time.

Still, with reviews citing an average length of 6 hours (some people say it's 4-5, other say it's 6-8) along with an insultingly easy difficulty level for a game geared specifically at hardcore gamers (i.e. Penny Arcade readers), I just can't get over that $20 price tag. At $10 I would've bought it, beaten it already and likely been eagerly awaiting the next episode. At $20 all I can think is, "Well, there's supposed to be at least 4 episodes; that comes out to $80 for an RPG that even by the most liberal estimates will be about 30 hours, but more likely around 20."

I'd gladly pay $40 for that game. $80? No way in hell. I don't even like paying $60 for retail releases that I can sell for cash later on. I'll wait for all the episodes to be released on disc for $40 next year. Publish Post

Xbox Live Arcade Size Limit Raised to 350MB

Here we go again. We learned a couple months ago that Microsoft would be granting a dispensation to Capcom to allow it to break the 150MB barrier for Bionic Commando ReArmed and Street Fighter II HD. What we didn't know was how big those games were going to be. 200MB? 250MB? 500MB?

Today, we know they're not going to be bigger than 350MB, as that is the new file size limit Microsoft has set for XBLA games.

I find the timing of this revelation interesting because it comes only days after The Behemoth announced that Castle Crashers, which was infamously delayed for a year to take advantage of the previous increase to 150MB, has finally been completed.

Now, it's all well and good that MS is increasing the size cap yet again, but honestly, why couldn't it have been raised to 350MB last year? Or even 450MB? The current 512MB memory cards could handle it. We all know that in another year's time we'll be hearing about it being raised to 700MB and MS will have a new 1-2GB memory card that'll sell for $50.

I really hope that the timing of these announcements aren't a coincidence and Castle Crashers will be among the first to utilize the extra space. It was clear they really needed the extra 100MB so an extra 200 on top of that would no doubt have been a godsend. I can't imagine it's fun to repeatedly have the rug pulled out from underneath you. It'll be a real damn shame if the game isn't everything it could have been simply because of an arbitrary size limitation.

Just as likely is that the announcement simply precedes the release of Bionic Commando ReArmed, the first game to break 150MB, which should be released any Wednesday now. Remember that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night brought with it the news of the fall of the 50MB barrier.

[via XBOX360 Fanboy]

Castle Crashers Development Wraps Up

The wait for Castle Crashers has been a long one. Originally scheduled to be released over a year ago, the game's developer, The Behemoth, decided to delay the game in order to take advantage of the 100MB of extra space Microsoft lovingly bestowed upon XBLA developers. So while the delay was painful, the end result should be a much bigger, deeper game. And now, the wait is almost over because the game is officially complete.

The Behemoth's Dan Paladin wrote on the Castle Crashers blog,

This game is undoubtedly the largest 360 XBLA game that has any kind of story; Large in scope, takes hours and hours to go through with your buddies. Lots of little treasures and secrets hiding around the levels, many unlockable characters all with a different feel

Unfortunately, due to the way XBLA works: certification, fitting the game into the release schedule etc., it could still be a couple months before the game is actually made available for purchase.

On the bright side though, what a summer this looks to be for XBLA: Penny Arcade Adventures, Bionic Commando ReArmed, Commando 3, Super Street Fighter II HD, Braid. Even with all the garbage that usually ends up released on a weekly basis, we shouldn't go more than a couple weeks without something really cool.

It's nice to see that the Big Three have all realized that their online services are the perfect venue to combat the annual summer drought. 360's got a great XBLA lineup, Nintendo just introduced WiiWare, with games like Alien Crush and Eternity's Child on tap for the Summer, and Sony has the intriguing looking PixelJunk Eden as well as the episodic Siren: Blood Curse coming to PSN.

I'm looking forward to most of these games more than anything that's coming out at retail until Too Human hits in late August and my excitement for that has dropped dramatically in the wake of the complete neutering the co-op has gone under.

4-player co-op lives on in Castle Crashers!


[via Joystiq]

Penny Arcade Adventures Strikes Gold

You would think that a game that is going to be exclusively digitally distributed couldn't really "go gold" but apparently you'd be wrong, as Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rainslick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One or PAA:OTRSPOD:E1 for short, has done exactly that.

The game is currently targeted for the not at all vague release date of "by the end of this quarter" for PC, Mac and Linux, but the press release doesn't mention the XBLA version except in regards to price: 1600 points ($20).

I'm still of the opinion that $20 is asking a bit much for a single installment of an episodic game, but I'll wait for the reviews to sort that out. The game looks like a lot of fun so hopefully the gameplay and content will justify the price.

[via Joystiq]

XBLA On Vacation This Week

Reading that headline, you probably got all excited for a moment, thinking there is actually some news that doesn't relate to Grand Theft Auto IV, and you'd be forgiven for being wrong.

In light of Tuesday's launch, Microsoft has decided that any new XBLA title would likely be ignored by the millions of 360 players who will be wreaking havoc in Liberty City.

A safe bet, especially if they were planning on continuing their streak of titles like Lost Cities and Rocky and Bullwinkle. Then again, I suppose the kind of person who would play such games probably aren't picking up GTA anyway.

May 7th will see the return of weekly updates but which game will have the honor is up in the air. I'm hoping for the release of Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, which was supposed to be out by the end of April.

Assault Heroes 2 has previously been confirmed as May 14th's release, however, and the two games share very similar gameplay.

I've still got my fingers crossed that Bionic Commando ReArmed will make it out by the end of May as well.


[via XBLArcade.com]

Microsoft Shot Down Portal for XBLA

Portal was, without a doubt, the biggest surprise of last year. What was essentially a "bonus" game in the Half-Life 2 showcase, The Orange Box, completely stole the show, and the hearts of gamers everywhere.

You'd think then that MS would jump at the chance to make Portal available as a standalone downloadable title for XBLA. Then you'd remember that Microsoft has rules. Rules that they break when they see fit, but apparently Portal is not such a case.

Valve wants to see it on XBLA, but just like the free maps they want to offer for Team Fortress 2, Microsoft is having none of it.

Valve's Doug Lombardi has hope though, telling GameIndustry.biz that, "It always happens once it's been proven and I think it's been proven now on Steam, so I'm sure it'll migrate back to the consoles just like everything else does."

I say, put Portal up on PSN. Just as with Bionic Commando and Street Fighter II HD, Microsoft will change their tune when Sony has something they don't.



[via Destructoid]

Bionic Commando ReArmed Almost Finished

Simon Viklund, Creative Director on Bionic Commando ReArmed announced today that the game is only a matter of weeks away from being submitted to Microsoft for certification, which means it could very well make it out by the end of May if all goes smoothly.

Viklund decribes the game as a "love letter to the entire sidescrolling genre and its fans, and the original Bionic Commando and its fans in particular" and that they've already started dreaming about what retro love letter they'd like to work on next.

I really hope the game does well enough for Capcom to continue to fund remakes like this because games like 1942: Joint Strike and Commando 3 just look too damn cool. I'm stingy with my virtual dollars, the last game I dropped any MS Points (or Wii Points, or PSN Dollars) on was Rez back in January but I'll be buying BCR day one for sure.

[via XBLArcade.com]

Ikaruga Finally Blasting Off This Week on XBLA

One of my first posts on this blog was about Ikaruga heading to XBLA. At that point I would've expected the game to be out sometime during the summer, maybe the fall. Yet here we are a year later and the game is just straggling out now.

I just finished up Dark Sector (awesome) and Condemned 2 (even more awesome) and there isn't really much else this week so I might actually snag it when it drops on Wednesday for 800 MSP.

Since it has taken so long for it to arrive I'm hoping they went all out for the release, maybe including some bonus unlockable galleries and stuff (in addition to what the game had originally). The achievements were revealed a while back and for the most part are all pretty reasonable except the 1CC (1 Credit Clear) one, which is exactly as hard as it sounds. I can't fault them for that though, that'll be a true achievement for Ikaruga diehards. A shoot em up game pretty much has to have an achievement like that because it's the kind of thing fans will attempt to do anyway.

[via Kotaku]

Darwinia Confirmed for XBLA

With the cat out of the bag courtesy of the ESRB, Darwinia developer Introversion has officially announced that Darwinia+ Survival of the Flattest will be released for Xbox Live Arcade this Fall. Why the +? As I speculated, Darwinia for XBLA will also incorporate the awkwardly (yet appropriately) titled Multiwinia, which adds a multiplayer component that the PC original lacked.

Introversion has a couple of other unique titles currently available for PC including one I've always wanted to try called Defcon. It's a game about nuclear war in which you can't win, so the goal is to "lose the least". How awesome is that? Maybe it'll come out on XBLA at some point too...

[via Introversion]

Darwinia Heading to XBLA?

I was just spending some quality time over at the ESRB ratings page and noticed that the critically acclaimed PC strategy title Darwinia has received a T rating for Xbox 360. This is the first I've heard of the game making a 360 appearance (although a quick search shows that there were rumors going back almost two years) so I'm assuming it's going to be an XBLA title.

I played a bit of the game a couple years back and came away impressed by both its cross genre gameplay and its minimalistic graphics (think Tron meets Populous) but I haven't been convinced by titles like Battle for Middle Earth II or Command and Conquer 3 that RTS games can be done well without a mouse and keyboard.

Perhaps not coincidentally, developer Introversion began a closed beta test of Multiwinia, the long awaited multiplayer version of the game just two weeks ago, so one has to wonder if the multiplayer component will make it into the 360 iteration.

Among the other titles rated in this ESRB update are Silicon Knights' long delayed and even longer in development action-RPG, Too Human (Rated T), and indie developer Jonathan Blow's time manipulating XBLA platformer, Braid (Rated E).

Capcom Reveals 1942: Joint Strike

Capcom is quickly becoming the leader in updating old (and damn near forgotten) franchises for next-gen systems. Most developers are content to just throw emulated versions of their classic games up on XBLA and charging $5-$10 for them. Not Capcom. Not only are they releasing the 3D remake of Bionic Commando in May as well as Commando 3 in April (the XBLA version of which will include a Ken v. Ryu beta of SSFIIHD no less!), they have now announced a remake/sequel to their classic WWII vertical shooter, 1942.

Subtitled Joint Strike, the game features 3D graphics and 2D gameplay in the same vein as Commando 3 and Bionic Commando ReArmed. The title refers to special attacks you and a partner can perform after powering up a special meter. Yes, the game will feature 2 player co-op play, both offline and online. IGN has a bunch of screens and some video if you hit up the link. They're well worth checking out. I wonder if the yashichi will make an appearance?

Hopefully Capcom will be able to make some profit on these productions so we can continue to get updates to old classics like this. Their 3D updates to Mega Man and Ghosts and Goblins on the PSP didn't perform all that well despite being awesome.

Having now busted out obscure classics like Commando, Bionic Commando, and 1942, you've got to wonder what Capcom could pull out of their hat next. Forgotten Worlds? Legendary Wings? Strider? More importantly, if they are successful with them perhaps other classic developers (Konami I'm looking at you) would consider doing similar updates to some of their franchises. Especially seeing as Contra and Super Contra both sucked ass on XBLA.

Could you imagine a 3D Salamander/Life Force remake/sequel? (Requel?)

[via IGN]

Microsoft Wises Up On SSFIIHD and Bionic Commando

I wrote last month about the development teams for Street Fighter II HD and Bionic Commando ReArmed having issues with Microsoft's 150MB limitation on XBLA games. In the case of Bionic Commando, the XBLA version would have to forgo high resolution textures found in the PS3 version in order to fall under the size limit. SFII would've seen extra content removed from the game due to its 1080p hand drawn graphics taking up too much room.

Thankfully, Microsoft has come to their senses and given the two games a pass on the arbitrary size limit, avoiding a situation in which the PSN versions would be superior. There's no word on how big each game will end up being since they are still in development but it should be safe to assume that MS will make sure that the XBLA versions are in no way inferior to their PSN counterparts.

While this is all well and good, the 150MB size limit is still obviously an issue. The Behemoth's long awaited (and bad-ass looking!) 4-player brawler, Castle Crashers, was delayed for a full year shortly after MS increased the size limit last time so it could take advantage of the tripled storage space. If Microsoft didn't have this pointless size limit, Castle Crashers would likely be closer to release, if not already out, and would probably be an even better game than it'll end up being.

Microsoft, stop stifling creativity and give developers whatever space they need to make the kind of games they want. XBLA has been a breeding ground for garbage for the last year or so with very few original titles being worthwhile. There's a reason Sony is getting better original content on PSN.

[via CVG]

TMNT Arcade coming to XBLA? Simpsons next?

This rumor has been making the rounds along with some screens but most sites seems to be skeptical about its authenticity. Personally I think that whether the screens are legit or not, it's inevitable. Konami's original NES TMNT game is already known to be on the way thanks to the ESRB ratings pages. While I don't pretend to know what's involved for one publisher to obtain rights for a classic game's license when another publisher now holds that license, it seems highly unlikely that Konami worked out a deal with Ubisoft (notice both companies logos on the title screen image) so they could release the craptastic NES game and nothing else, especially seeing as the TMNT arcade games are among the most requested XBLA titles.

It's also no coincidence that these rereleases are all surfacing a month before the new TMNT movie hits theatres.

Now, everybody cross your fingers that Konami can work out a deal with current Simpsons license holder, Electronic Arts, so that the never-before-released-on-consoles Simpsons arcade game can make it's way to XBLA too....perhaps alongside the upcoming Simpsons movie?

Source: Rumour: TMNT Xbox Live Clip - Kotaku

Ikaruga Live incoming

News of a 360 port of Dreamcast/Gamecube uber-shooter Ikaruga arrived today after users of Xbox 360 debug units noticed it listed on PartnerNet, the area of Xbox Live cordoned off for developer and media use.

It has been known for awhile that Treasure was working on an original shooter for the 360 (the kind that comes on an old-fashioned "dee-vee-dee") but no Live Arcade titles had been confirmed.

I have a strange fascination with 2D shooters. I've always been drawn to them, but I almost never play them for more than a couple levels. They're just too damn hard. I think the only one I ever actually finished was Life Force on the NES because you could use the Contra code to get 30 lives. I can't even tell you how many times I had to keep myself from buying Gradius III&IV, Gradius V, and R-Type Final for PS2. And just recently I found myself ogling the Japanese only Salamander Collection and Parodius Collection for PSP.

I own Ikaruga on Gamecube, but I will likely purchase it for the 360 as well. Achievements will no doubt include near impossible goals like: "Finish game without dying." and the even more difficult "Finish the game without breaking controller."

Chances of me completing the game at all? Slim to none.

Source: Ikaruga confirmed for Xbox 360! - CVG