[From Gamasutra's creators, GamerBytes is a blog about downloadable console & handheld games - from XBLA through WiiWare, PSN and DSiWare to PSP Minis.]

Thursday, September 2, 2010

XBLA: Xbox Indies - Radiangames: Inferno (Radiangames)

Radiangames have released their third quality shooter for the Xbox Live Indie Games service -- Inferno, an amazing looking dual-stick RPG.shooter.

The game lets you explore 30 levels while you collect gold, upgrade your ship, and destroy everything in your path. Reminds me a bit of Gauntlet mixed in with Geometry Wars. It's got 4 player cooperative play too!

Get the trial now -- and the full game is only 80MSP.

PSN: Trailer: Slam Bolt Scrappers Is Weird (Fire Hose Games)

So take Tetris, throw in cooperative play and a bit of Wario Woods and you'll have something a bit similar to Slam Bolt Scrappers, a new puzzle game from Fire Hose Games.

Certainly interesting, I'll give them that, I just hope they don't make it mind-bending hard like Trash Panic was last year. Dudes will be at PAX in booth #3834, so if you're there you can give it a go.

XBLA: Trailer: Dance! It's Your Stage (DTP Young Entertainment)

So we spoke of Dance! It's Your Stage a few months back, but now we have a date: next week for 800 Microsoft Points. But what is it?

A new trailer has popped up for the DS and Wii retail versions, but it also includes some additional footage of the Xbox Live Arcade version. It's a dance mat game, but it can also be used with your Xbox 360 controller. The Wii version contains 20 dance routines on eight stages.

Not something for me, but you could probably get your 800MSP out of it. Certainly better than Beat'n Groovy at least.

WiiWare: Trailer: Lilt Line (Gaijin Games)

lilt line official trailer - WiiWare from CommanderVideo on Vimeo.

Gaijin Games, well known for their BIT.TRIP WiiWare series, have revealed a new WiiWare title is currently in development -- Lilt Line.

The game was originally developed by Different Cloth for the iPhone, but Gaijin have taken it under their wing and created a WiIWare version which looks just as bizarre and crazy -- and they're self publishing it too.

Not that they're stopping their BIT.TRIP line -- they've revealed that BIT.TRIP Fate will be popping up fairly soon as well, but this looks like something that'll stand up along side them pretty well.

XBLA: Atari To Publish The Undergarden For Xbox Live Arcade

The German USK rating board has revealed another one of Atari's upcoming entries into the digital distribution of new titles -- Vitamin G Studios' Undergarden will be published by Atari and released on the Xbox 360, likely Xbox Live Arcade.

The only footage available is the piece above -- which is from way back in November 2009, so while it still looks pretty good, there's a chance it's gone through some overhauls since. The game appears to be a mixture of Flower on PSN, the PC title Aquaria and the style of PixelJunk Eden-- you float around and solve puzzles while bringing the world back to colorful life.

No official word just yet, but with the rating now available we should expect a reveal in the near future. Atari's now got Blade Kitten, Haunted House and now The Undergarden under its belt -- wonder what's next?

WiiWare: Trials HD Dev Brings Reveals MotoHeroz For Wiiware

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Those RedLynx guys have had an amazing experience with Trials HD on the Xbox Live Arcade, but now they've decided to give another platform a shot with MotoHeroz on WiiWare.

Much like Trials, Motorheroz is a physics based sidescrolling racer, but expands the scope to include 4 player multiplayer modes in a "racing adventure". It will expand on their amazing Leaderboard implementations with competitions for the fastest times, the ability to enter daily races, and hunt for secrets and coins within the colorful levels.

It will include over 100 tracks and include a variety of modes, certainly taking other WiiWare games to task in terms of quality and depth. The game is set for an early 2011 release, so until then check out their website.

XBLA: King Of Fighters: Sky Stage Out September 15th

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Famitsu has reported that the bizarre SNK Shoot-Em-Up King Of Fighters: Sky Stage has finally got a date -- September 15th.

The game follows classic KOF fighters like Mai Shiranui and Terry Bogard as they shoot -- and fight -- in the skies to stop the revive of Orochi, the demon boss from King Of Fighters '97. Why they're flying is anybody's guess, but it gives SNK a good excuse to make a sweet shmup.

The game will include both online and offline cooperative play, and will be available for just 800MSP, or $10.

XBLA: Trailer: A World Of Keflings (NinjaBee)

A Kingdom Of Keflings was a surprise hit on the Xbox Live Arcade, but it did have its problems -- it was quite limited, and chugged along at a pretty low framerate.

Looks like most of that has been dealt with in A World Of Keflings -- Keflings following you around holding your objects, canons to explode them out of, and a much wider variety of environments to deal with -- just what the original game needed.

The game is set to come this Winter, meanwhile -- check out the trailer.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

XBLA: Xbox Indies - Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage: Extra Edition (Ishisoft)

One of the earliest winner titles in the Xbox live Indie Games scene was Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp by Ishisoft. Now more than a year since and a sequel under his belt, Craig Forrester has now brought one of his original Indie projects Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage over to the Xbox Live Indie Games scene with large improvements and some quality presentation.

The game follows two players as they forage for treasure. Simple enough -- but each player must be controlled separately, either by a the same person switching around, or as a second player. The game supports split screen modes as well, which will join up Toejam and Earl style when they're close.

The Gameboy dot-matrix graphic design really stands out, and much like Arkedo Pixel! looks great even at high definition. It's available right now for just 80MSP.

PSN, PSN Minis: EU PSN Store Update - Alien Breed: Impact, Tomb Raider, Front Mission 3 And More

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Last year Team17 released the first in a three part episodic series based on their classic Alien Breed franchise -- but it was only for Xbox Live Arcade. Now they've begun to release it on the PlayStation Network with Alien Breed: Impact, now with fixes to the original design, and ready for the second the third iterations coming in the next few months. You can grab it for £11.99/€14.99, or check out the trial version.

For those with Sam and Max Season 3 passes, you can grab the 5th and final chapter of the saga, The City That Dares Not Sleep.

Two new pretty awesome PSOne classics come in today as well -- Tomb Raider (£7.99/€9.99) and Front Mission 3 (£4.79/€5.99). Tomb Raider might be difficult to get back into, but FM3 seems to hold up pretty well.

Also on the line today are a bunch of new Minis titles -- Actual Crimes: Jack the Ripper (£3.49/€3.99), Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder (£3.99/€4.99), Caterpillar (£3.99/€4.99), and a DynoGems/Tehra: Dark Warrior Bundle (£3.49/€3.99).

And last but not least, the current sales on this week include:

Aqua Panic! HD (was – £7.99/€9.99 now – £4.79/€5.99)
Bejeweled 2 (was – £6.29/€7.99 now – £3.19/€3.99)
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (was – £7.99/€9.99 now – £3.99/€4.99)
Monsters (Probably) Stole my Princess! (was – £3.49/€3.99 now – £1.99/€2.49)
Hero of Sparta (was – £3.99/€4.99 now – £0.99/€1.19)

Castle Crashers is coming to Europe, but a date has yet to be decided on.

WiiWare: Shin'en Are Going FAST On WiiWare

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Shin'en, the lovely guys and gals behind the great Jett Rocket title on WiiWare, are set to return to the service with FAST: Racing League.

It's just a teaser for the moment, but I'm certainly interested in whatever these fellows are up to.

XBLA: XBLA Update Part 2 - Deals Of The Week, Game Pack 009 Part 2

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Now onto today's update for the Xbox Live Arcade outside of yesterday's Dead Rising 2: Case 0.

This week's Deal Of The Week consists of three XBLA titles -- Zeno Clash, down to 800MSP, Alien Breed Episode 1, down to 400MSP, and Galaga Legions, also 400MSP.

As for Game Room, we have Super Basketball for Arcade, and A Game of Concentration, Boxing and Super Breakout for Atari 2600

XBLA: Game Feast Promotion Announced With Four Main Courses

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I usually don't go for the pun, but this was practically begging for it.

Microsoft have revealed a new promotion brewing this October with Game Feast. Much like the Summer Of Arcade, it will feature a variety of titles that Microsoft believe to be the pinnacle of their genres, and get a bunch of promotion.

Those games are Hydrophobia (September 29, 1200MSP), Comic Jumper (October 6th, 1200MSP), Pinball FX 2 (October 13th, separate tables) and Super Meat Boy (October 20. TBD Price).

There are an awful lot of new Xbox Live Arcade titles coming this year that look pretty spectacular -- but not everyone could get in, leaving a lot of big games (which likely cost a lot of money) out in the cold. I hope that the Game Feast continues each year, and hopefully there's new promotions for every season as well.

PSN, PSN Minis: NA PSN Store Update - Castle Crashers, Coconut Dodge, Sales Galore

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It's only been two whole years but the smash hit Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers has finally made its way over to the PlayStation Network, and includes two new features -- a Volleyball mode, and a Team Arena mode. Still $14.99, but it's got quite a bit of content for such a price. Trial available too!

For those of you with Sam and Max: Season 3 passes, you'll now be able to grab Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep for free. If you haven't you can pick up the whole set for the low price of $19.99.

A new PSOne Classic this week -- Theme Hospital for $5.99. While I appreciate the return of many of EA's classics, I do wish Sony would find another stockpile of PSOne classics to get themselves with. EA seems to be their only partner!

And finally, a single PSP mini -- Coconut Dodge for $3.99

But wait! There are a heap of deals on too! Check these out:

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – Sale (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Digger HD – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Mushroom Wars – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Worms – Sale (now $6.49, original price $12.99)
Sam And Max – The Devil’s Playhouse – Full Season – Sale (now $19.99, original price $29.99)
Cuboid – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Magic Orbz – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Smash Cars – Sale (now $8.99, original price $14.99)
Wakeboarding HD – Sale (now $8.99, original price $14.99)
Hamsterball – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
DYNOGEMS – minis – Sale (now $1.99, original price $2.99)
Tehra: Dark Warrior – minis – Sale (now $2.99, original price $4.99)

XBLA: Treasure's Bangai-O Goes HD With Missile Fury

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Treasure has done quite well on the digital front with their port of Ikaruga to the Xbox Live Arcade back in 2008 -- now they've got plans to bring back another one of their quirky, brainbleed-inducing franchises with Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury.

In essence this is similar to their 2008 DS title Bangai-O Spirits -- a collection of puzzle levels in which you use hundred upon hundreds of rockets that spew across the screen, in which the HD version looks like it takes full advantage of.

This new version will feature over 100 levels, a full level editor and more. Check out the preview for it over at IGN.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

XBLA: Super Meat Boy Joins The Game Feast?

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So I'm probably going to reiterate myself a little later on today, but Super Meat Boy has been revealed to be coming out on Xbox Live Arcade on October 20th, in a part of a new promotion called Game Feast.

What's Game Feast? That'll likely be revealed a little later today, but it appears to be a brand new Summer Of Arcade-style promotion for the month of October. Super Meat Boy and Pinball FX 2 are both a part of it.

It appears that due to the fact that everyone attempted to get into the Summer of Arcade this year, it means there's a ton of quality content on the horizon, and it would be a damn shame if they weren't able to sell a stupid amount of copies. We should hear from the rest of the lineup later in the week.

XBLA: Pinball FX 2 Revealed, Free For Owners Of The Original

When Q-Games did an update to PixelJunk Racers to make it go for its 2nd Lap, it was a pretty bizarre way to release a title. A free update to those who purchased the original, or a new title to buy for new customers? Crazy stuff. Not to be one-upped, it appears Microsoft and Zen Studios have joined forces to bring new life into Pinball FX.

On October 13th you'll be able to download Pinball FX 2 -- for free. All it will be is a trial, but you'll also be able to import your Pinball FX the 1st tables for free. All the old tables will have new achievements and be completely revamped, which considering the original came out in 2007 is probably necessary by now.

Alongside this upgrade, there will be four new tables available for purchase, and each table will be able to be tested in the trial. New players can test everything out as well, and download each table separately.

It's such a bizarre thing to do -- but it's exactly what a pinball game should be. Pinball FX 2 has now set itself up to be, figuratively, the Game Room for pinball. I don't expect to see The Addams Family table to pop up any time soon, but this is at least how a downloadable pinball game should work.


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