With Namco announcing they'll be releasing the original Soul Calibur to the Xbox Live Arcade - lets have a small trip down memory lane - back to the Dreamcast. Last time we discussed Chu Chu Rocket, now lets discuss the crazy Capcom multiplayer fighter knows as Power Stone!

Power Stone is an Arena Fighter - where you run around a 3D arena finding more ways to pick off your opponent. Like normal fighters, you go through 8 or so levels against new opponents until you reach the final boss, however most of the game isn't about your direct attacks - it's about grabbing the closest crate and lobbying it at your enemy. Players can also pick up wacky weapons from an Umbrella to a Rocket Launcher.

The games namesake however is the Power Stones. During a battle, pieces of the power stone can be picked up by the player. Pick up 3, and your character will transform into a super form and be able to blow your opponent away very easily. If someone has one of the gems - beat it out of them!

There were a few Arena Fighters before Power Stone - Bio F.R.E.A.K.S and Virtual On could be considered Arena Fighters. The difference being that you have complete control of your character - you don't always have to face your opponent. You can run around freely in the confines of the level and attempt to get a new weapon or attack them face to face. The game is pretty much a Beat-em-up game in a similar vein to Streets of Rage, but now in the confines of an arena.

The original game only supported 2 players, but the sequel upped the ante with 4 player mode. Power Stone 2 also brought in dynamic levels, where levels could fall apart, revealing a new level or setup. You could fight on a collapsing airship, or on two submarines that crash into icebergs!

Now sure, Capcom COULD just port both or one of these games over. Hell, they did it with this series before - you can get the Power Stone Collection for the PSP - but that was 2006 Capcom! Now we're with 2008 Capcom with a download initiative! With Bionic Commando, Commando 3 and 1942 on the horizon, Power Stone seems like a very good fit for the Xbox Live Arcade.

However, I can't see Capcom getting together with Backbone to do it - it has a very Japanese style to it, and would be the perfect type of game for Capcom Japan to use to get off their arses and to start supporting the downloadable game initiative. The unfortunate thing is that games like Powerstone isn't considered 'meaty' enough for a disc release - similar upcoming games like Hail the Chimp - despite probably being a good game in that genre, doesn't "feel" like a 50-60 dollar game, or even the $40 price point it's being released at. It's too "arcadey" now, which is a damn shame.

I certainly paid full price back in 2000 for Power Stone and had a blast with it - but the more expensive a game is, the smaller the online community, which would be the whole point of a new iteration.

Freelancer Chris Dahlen has gotten his hands on a near complete copy of the PC version of Braid, and has a lot of praise for it:

On one level - the one where I’ve made the least progress - you see a kind of branching effect. Say that you run from one end of the platform to the other, but as soon as you get there, you change your mind and rewind back to the start. After you rewind, you’re back at the beginning of the platform - but then a “ghost” version appears and retraces your last footsteps, while the present you can go off and do something else. Metaphorically, it’s like you’re watching two ways that your life could play out.

In fact, I guess it’s like Sliding Doors. The hard part is figuring out how to use this new ability to solve a series of jumping / lever / locked door puzzles, and how to picture yourself going in two separate directions at the same time - and that’s where this felt like calculus. Yes, I get the concept of calculating the slope at a specific point on a curve, but when I actually have to use it on a final exam problem, it makes a small spot on the left hemisphere of my brain go “groan.” That same flabby brain slice acts up when I play Braid.

Amy, for example, is the "cool kid" of the group. With Boombox gun in hand, she fires CDs to cut into the undead. She can also unleash a Sonic Boom Zombomb which first stuns zombies and then lets loose a sonic boom. Another of the Wranglers, Uju, can drop voodoo dolls, which gets the zombies to ignore their hunger and dance in the streets. He also uses a special blow dart gun that drives zombies into an insane frenzy. You damage zombies enough and they are ripe to be wrangled. So, they are more like cows than your traditional zombies.

Sea Life Safari is a colorful kids' game that casts the player as an ambitious underwater photog. Your goal is to snap as many high-quality fish pics as possible with a limited number of exposures. As you float through a pre-set course under the waves, fish will appear briefly and you'll have to quickly compose a good shot before they swim away.

The graphics in Assault Heroes were quite good for an XBLA game, and what we've seen of the sequel so far looks impressive, too. Environments are more destructible than before – trees can be set alight or even frozen solid, depending on which weapon you're wielding. Wanako has also paid close attention to perspective, adding nice touches here and there to create the illusion of depth.

So it was with a bit of suspicion and bitterness that I sat in on a recent preview of Sierra's upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of the popular card game. The game was being shown at Sierra's recent Gamer's Day event in San Francisco, and it was my briefest preview of the afternoon. So I can confirm that the game exists, but it still hasn't really been shown in action.

Nothing gets the nerds all riled up more than when a game that everybody loves doesn't get what it wants - and this week it was what many considered to be Game of the Year 2007 - Portal.

Now obviously in the current state of XBLA, Portal could not make it over. This is because Microsoft has a firm grip around the size of games for the service - and Portal would be somewhere over a gigabyte in size. Despite this, Doug Lombardi at Valve has come out saying Portal was denied.

"We've asked them, we said we were open to it. So it's a decision for the platform holder and how they want to make the games available and how much bandwidth they want to [allow]."

Angry-Gamer.net's latest podcast has Cameron and Clint and George on the mic' discussing a quick play of the upcoming games Commando 3 and 1942! Of course, this is after a very quick look at each,

About Commando 3:

"You shoot shit!"

"Instead of always in a Jeep and sometimes on foot, you're always on foot and sometimes in a Jeep!"

"It's fucking Commando! Everyone is gonna be reviewing this in the upcoming weeks and be "Yeah, it's an Assault Heroes Clone!" No, fuck you! This came first!"

"Lots of slowdown, not so good graphics, and not much fun."

Two brand new, unknown games have popped up on the Australian Classification website today - Beat'n Groovy and Domino Master!

Let's go on the discovery trail!

Beat'n Groovy is coming from Konami under their Konami Digital Entertainment label. Now, regular disc games made by Konami (such as Metal Gear Solid 4) are all applied for by Atari Australia, who does the distribution here. All games under the OFLC which are under the "Digital Entertainment" label have all been XBLA games - From their Gyruss and Contras to their still unannounced upcoming titles of Coffee time Crosswords and Frogger 2. The only exception being Critter Round-Up, a Wiiware title.

However, this game is being made by Voltex - a mysterious company nobody seems to know about - except they've also being touted as the creators of the upcoming Frogger 2! Bam!

So what do we know about it? Nothing! That's right! The only information available is back when Konami filed for the Trademark for the title - mentioning that it was not done by Konami Japan who usually does it all, but Konami Digital Entertainment (or Konami America). Interesting!

The second game, Domino Master, was applied for by Microsoft themselves - which pretty much means XBLA title.

So what is Domino Master? It's a game made by Tik games - a 'casual games' company. It's already available for the PC and is... well, you guessed it - a Domino simulator!

The website quotes:

The classic family game of Dominos comes to your PC like never before! Choose your favorite from seven uniquely exciting games, including All Fives, All Threes, Mexican Train and Pictures. Loads of options like Domino types, styles, table surface, and difficulty allow you to play your way. The 'Domino Effect' here is that there's fun for everyone!

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Lost Cities (debut)
2 Ikaruga (-1)
3 DOOM (+2)
4 UNO (+2)
5 Brain Challenge (-2)
6 N+ (+1)
7 Worms (+1)
8 Bomberman LIVE (+1)
9 Battlezone (-7)
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (-)
The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Lost Cities has debuted at number one this week - much better than the previous 2 releases Rocky & Bullwinkle and Battlezone. R&B has dropped out of the 10 completely, with Battlezone hanging in there at 8th spot.

Ikaruga still selling incredibly well - and everything is is pretty normal. N+, Worms, Sonic 2, DOOM, UNO and Bomberman still continually selling better than everything else on the service.

Source: Major Nelson

The upcoming party game Wits & Wagers has had its minisite added to the Xbox.com webpage. Usually when this happens, it means there is a good chance it'll pop up very soon.

Source: Wits & Wagers Xbox.com webpage, Shard on NeoGAF

3 quick updates to the Australian classification website tonight - with some interesting tidbits!

Crazy Mouse - the first XBLA game to come from China, has now been rated. Though announced, there has yet to be any media of the game outside of some small pieces of artwork viewable on Ultizen games website. Hopefully more information will be released soon.

Darwinia+, which first showed up on the ESRB website and was then officially announced later on Introversion's website, has now shown up on the OFLC - so it's making the rounds.

Lastly, the popular board game Ticket To Ride has been rated by the OFLC. The most interesting piece about this though - is that the OFLC announced the developer of the game - Next Level Games! Next Level is best known for their work with Nintendo on the Super Mario Strikers games on Gamecube and Wii. The rumormonger Surfer Girl early last month proclaimed that Next Level Games' next project WAS "a downloadable affair for the 360" - and once again she's right!

Source: The OFLC website

Enjoy new ways to play chess with this original mini-game: learn or perfect your art of moving chess pieces in Fork My Fruit

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is an RPG-adventure game set in the comic-book-meets-pulp-horror-meets-H.P. Lovecraft deranged 1920s universe of New Arcadia, delivered to gamers via accessible episodic releases. Players join Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency, to combat savage enemies and solve mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia. The game is the result of close collaboration between Hothead Games and Penny Arcade, featuring distinct artwork and characters designed exclusively by Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, story and dialogue by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, and both brought to life by the Hothead team.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is priced at $19.95 for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions and at 1600 Microsoft points via Xbox LIVE® Arcade, with a rating of “M” for Mature by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for all platforms.

Oh Feedreader, I love you and your Intelliupdates, keeping copies of blog posts before spelling mistakes are corrected (I'm looking at you Kotaku and.. well, me), but best of all - keeping backups of blog posts which are then deleted!

Such was the case for the Capcom USA blog, which accidentally added a post describing Rocketmen: It came from Uranus - discussed a couple of times before here from ESRB updates, as an expansion pack for the original Rocketmen game.

Trailers and Flickr accounts were connected to this, but have now all been taken down - all that remains in this update below. Read carefully, you may notice a slightly incorrect phrase being used!

The next chapter of Capcom’s Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is coming! Rocketmen: It Came from Your Uranus, an expansion to the original digitally-distributed title, will be available through Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network Store on Wednesday, May 14 and Thursday, May 15 respectively.

For 400 points on Xbox LIVE or $4.95 on Playstation Network, Rocketmen fans will have access to 3 new maps, 3 new main and 2 new secondary weapons, and or course new enemies.

3 New Weapons

- Blobber: Shoots blobs of goo at enemies, does damage over time in the part of the ground that it covers.
- Beamer: Shoots lighting at enemies, does high intensity damage.
- Bomber: Shoots grenades instead of bullets; grenades explode on impact doing damage.

2 New Secondary Weapons

- Falcon: Robotic falcon that attacks enemies automatically will disappear over time.
- Screw bomb: Rocket that turns into a proximity mine on impact

3 New Levels

- Level 11 - Finding Jane: The player must escape the Saturnian prison mine and reclaim Nick’s ship, the Icarus Jane.
- Level 12 - Clear the Asteroids: The player must clear a path for the ship through Saturn’s rings
- Level 13 - The Plan: The player must make his way through the Saturnian palace and convince Angelica, leader of the Saturnians, to join the Alliance.

New Enemies

- Saturnian Marine
- Saturnian Elite
- Heavy Mining Terra Scientists
- Terra Rocket Marines
- Saturnian Pit Boss
- Saturnian Asteroid Demolition Machine
- Lord Angelica