In an astonishing unofficial announcement, it appears that Mega Man 9 is coming - and it's coming to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network!

A rating has appeared on the Australian Classification website. One things can be determined from this rating - it certainly is a downloadable title. It was rated by Capcom and Australia's 'Red Ant Enterprises' - who have done all the previous ratings for Bionic Commando Rearmed, 1942, Commando 3, and also just today - Plunder! Games which are sold in stores are rated by Activision Australia, as they distribute them.

This almost certainly will come out on Xbox Live Arcade and the PSN, as every Capcom release has done so.

Mega Man 9 has been a long time coming. The original series was released on the Nintendo NES and lasted 6 seperate games. 7 was released on the Super Nintendo, and 8 on the PlayStation One. Since then, the series was moves onto the Mega Man X games (X not meaning '10'), Legends, ZX, Battle Network, and a whole slew of others. Some people also believed that the strange game 'Mega Man and Bass' was the equivelant of 9 - a game originally released incredibly late in the Super Nintendo cycle in Japan and later ported to the Gameboy Advance.

Will this be another title created by an American company like Backbone or Certain Affinity, or will it be Capcom Japan's first foray into the downloadable game market? God I hope we hear more before E3!

Source: Australian Classification Website - Mega Man 9

According to The Sixth Axis, Q-Games will be taking a bit of a different process for releasing PixelJunk Eden - they'll be putting up a demo before the release of the game!

In the world of Xbox Live Arcade where a demo always comes with the games release, and the PlayStation store method of having no idea when a demo might be released, if at all, it's certainly a provocative method to put the demo before the games release.

They also confirmed with Q-Games' head Dylan Cuthbert that Eden will support the new Youtube upload program which allows the player to put 10 minutes of video straight from the PS3 to Youtube!

Source: The Sixth Axis: Eden to get playable demo in July

Two new additions to the Xbox Originals - Sierra's Legend Of Spyro: A New Beginning and SEGA Sammy's Guilty Gear X# Reload!

Content: The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except available in Germany, Japan and Korea
Supports: Single Player.
Description: Uncover Spyro's secret history as you embark on a dangerous quest to face off against the ultimate creation of the Dark Master, Cynder.

Content: Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: North America and Asia
Supports: Local Multiplayer 2, 5.1 Surround Sound.
Description What is Guilty Gear XX #Reload? Beautiful animation and strongly individualized characters, combined with the exciting 2D fighting action of the Guilty Gear series. 23 characters, including Kliff Undersn and Justice! All the great fighting techniques of the original game. Online multiplayer battle! Enhanced Original Mode, Story Mode, M.O.M. Mode, Survival Mode, Mission Mode, and Training Mode. Learn all about the world of Guilty Gears by playing through each of the modes.

Source: Major Nelson

The European Rating System (PEGI) has updated its website with a set of new ratings - one of them being Guilty Gear!

Now.. this is a little bit of a weird choice. For one, this week they've just released Guilty Gear X2 #Reload for Xbox Originals - though NOT in Europe! The original Guilty Gear game, which is not in the "X" line, was only released on the original PlayStation and not in the arcades, and hence would have the high resolution 2D sprites the series is now known for.

Whether or not this is just a mistake based on the Xbox Originals release (unlikely as no other game has required this, only older PSOne games for the PlayStation Network) or real release for the XBLA in the wake of Guilty Gear II being released is unknown. It has not shown up on the USK, ESRB or OFLC just yet, so we'll have to wait and see.

All we know is that it is being published by SEGA Europe, which would make sense with SEGA Sammy. Other iterations of Guilty Gear have usually been released by ZOO Digital Publishing instead.

SEGA? Publishing a PlayStation title on the Xbox 360? Man, times have changed! It's certainly a little weird considering we've not heard a peep about new SEGA Classics past the first wave of them.

Source: PEGI Update - Guilty Gear

No new WiiWare titles for you this week, Europe! Instead you get a healthy dose of Virtual Console games!

- Fatal Fury 2 (Neo Geo) [900 Wii Points]
- Ninja Combat (Neo Geo) [900 Wii Points]
- Nebulus (C64) [500 Wii Points]
- The Last Ninja 2 (C64) [500 Wii Points]
- Alex Kidd in Miracle World (SMS) [500 Wii Points]

Australian readers don't get those two Commodore 64 games though. Still, I suggest picking up Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Avoid Ninja Combat!

Today America gets two new.. completely random Wii Ware releases! You can now go and grab Gameloft's Block Breaker Deluxe for 800 Wii Points and Neko Entertainment's Cocoto Fishing Master for 700 Wii Points.

Block Breaker Deluxe is a game which Gameloft have released previously on Mobile phones (much like Xbox Live Arcade's Brain Challenge). It's an Arkanoid / Breakout clone with some Vegas and Poker themes put into the games mechanics, possibly changing the dynamic a little. Hey, it worked for Poker Smash on XBLA!

Cocoto Fishing Master was actually a PS2 title, which came with your own fishing rod controller. No need for a peripheral anymore, just use your Wiimote! Whether or not this is anything like the PS2 game, or the DS title, is up in the air. Whether it's any good is another thing too. Hopefully some reviews will pop up soon.

Along with these two titles, you can also pick up Samurai Shodown on the Virtual Console for 900 Wii Points. Continue reading for the full press release.

A strange video popped up on Youtube last week - a video for 'Wii Move' - claiming to be an upcoming Wii Ware title using the Balance Board.

It's simple - perhaps too much so - but Balance Board Blog - a site dedicated to Balance Board news have the scoop on who exactly is behind this 'game':

"Wii Move is the first Project from PheroseSoft, a small 7 man team, made up from past members of EA Canada Burnaby and Rockstar North. The game looks to but an unexpected slant on the Wii Balance Board. Look for Wii Move to hit the download service in quarter four 08"

According to their Youtube bulletin, there should be more about this game very soon with more trailers. Good luck to them, but from this very early teaser trailer I don't know what to expect from it.

Source: Balance Board Blog

After the OFLC leak of a new Mega Man game coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, Mega Man fan site 'Protodude's Rockman Corner' has a man on the inside, claiming to have the gossip on Capcom's next Mega Man venture.

Supposedly the game will have a very retro presentation, looking much like the original 8-Bit Mega Man games, rather than the SNES and PlayStation iterations, and could play just like Megaman 3 to 6. You may also be able to play as Protoman / Blues, and face off new Robot Masters.

Supposedly it will not lead directly into the Mega Man X series as some have speculated, making the X (the roman numeral for '10') not have a double meaning, as it was never intended to. It'll be a standard day in the life of Wily messing things up again.

The last main point is that the game may also get released on Wii as well as Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network - but in the form of a retail game instead, as the WiiWare limits are too great.

Check out more claims by this tipster by clicking below. This is all rumor of course, but hopefully we'll get some more information soon.

Source: Protodude's Rockman Corner - 'The Shadow' speaks!

Well the weekend was certainly fun. A huge amount of secrets that Microsoft and Activision were hoping to keep quiet until later next month suddenly exploded onto the scene. Lips? New Spider-Man games? Giant Forza 3? New Mii-esque 'Avatar' characters? Things got a little crazy!

Outside of this was a small tidbit of information - a new supposed 'channel' titled the 'SBG Channel', dedicated to "Trivia, Reality TV, Sports and Puzzles" much like the Xbox Live Arcade:

Similar to TV shows, "SBGs" will feature scheduled events that will happen at a given time and day of the week. Many of those experiences will be broadcasts, meaning that all people who join the experience will experience the content at the same time. Through programming, we can offer content that no single user has seen before, prizes, and special events (Super Bowl, Oscars, Etc) ensuring that you will always find people to play with.

From the sounds of it, it appears that Microsoft are dedicated to trying to get a slice of that community pie that the PlayStation 3's Home service is going to bring to the table, perhaps without the whole "walking over to the theater" spiel.

Now if this can somehow be done in a worldwide environment, and not leaving out everyone outside of America, much like how the Xbox news updates do now, then they're in for a shot. Mess that up, and you'll be kicking out a big audience of gamers. At least equivalent gatherings for Soccer and Aussie Rules Football, please.

Source: NeoGAF

GamePro Review by Terry Terrones - 4 / 5

GameSpot Review by Carolyn Petit - 7.5 / 10

1UP.com Review by Anthony Gallegos - A-

Team Xbox.com Review by Tom Price - 8.5 / 10

Eurogamer Review by Dan Whitehead - 8.0 / 10

Xbox 360 Fanboy - XBLA In Breif - Roogoo / Aces Of The Galaxy

Across the board, Roogoo has been getting some stellar scores. Despite the 'kiddy' graphical style, it's won the hearts of many reviewers. At first it appears to be a very simple game, but on further inspection turns into a frantic and difficult puzzle game.

Despite all this... it's apparently sold quite poorly, to the point that it was not even on the list of downloaded games for last week on Major Nelson's list. No game has done this since the ill-recieved Wing Commander Arena.

Maybe it's that there are just too many puzzle games right now and people are overwhelmed, maybe it's the graphic style that's put off people, or maybe the demo just wasn't that great and was far too simple, not showing off the more difficult side of the game.

For now, we don't know what's going to happen. All I can say is this - have a go, check out the demo, or maybe try it out on your kids, your girlfriend or your wife.

The official PlayStation.Blog has had a new interview with Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of Siren: Blood Curse, the upcoming 'episodic' game for the PlayStation Network.

In the interview, Toyama discusses how the game has evolved from the PS2, how it's working as an episodic game for American audiences as the game is a retail title in Japan, the changes to characters and story and plenty more.

PSB: What does Siren: Blood Curse bring to the survival horror genre?

KT: A lot of survival horror titles in recent years have been focusing mostly on just the action element, while Siren Blood Curse puts a lot of its effort into scaring the player and presenting a rich story. I think Siren Blood Curse can serve as an example of the diverse range that games are capable of expressing.

PSB: What are the key ingredients to a good horror title and how does Siren: Blood Curse deliver these?

KT: A good horror title has to make the player feel like they are directly involved in the terrifying events taking place, and that requires realism. I think you’ll understand just how much realism can enhance horror when you see Siren Blood Curse.

Check out the entire interview below.

Source: PlayStation.Blog - Siren Interview

Looks like we were right - Both Sea Life Safari and Elements Of Destruction are being released this week!

Elements Of Destruction

In Elements of Destruction, you are the master of disaster! Use tornadoes, lightning, earthquakes, and other forces of nature to do your bidding. Fired from your job as a top research scientist, you have built a machine that allows you to control nature and exact revenge on the corporation that fired you. Your quest for revenge takes you to locations across the globe where you must use the forces of nature in challenging ways. Shake down buildings with earthquakes, suck up and throw objects with tornadoes, and strike down aircraft with lightning to cause mayhem in cities and towns across the earth.

* Forces of nature: Use your power to create lightning, tornadoes, earthquakes and many other forces of nature to exact revenge.
* Complete destruction: Blow buildings apart, start raging fires, and blast with lightning as you cause mayhem in towns, cities, and the countryside.
* Multiplayer matches: Compete in two online and split screen multiplayer modes including Destruction (go head-to-head with another player to see who can cause the most damage) and Cooperative (work together with other players to destroy the corporate menace).

Click here for the official Xbox.com web page

Click here for screenshots of Elements Of Destruction

Sea Life Safari

Embark on a journey the whole family can enjoy in Sea Life Safari™! Make a splash as an underwater photographer tasked with capturing the most incredible pictures of wild sea animals. Entice your subjects into playful poses, provoke photo-worthy reactions, and reel in those picture-perfect scores!

* 60+ animated creatures: Photograph the sparkling personalities of fascinating underwater sea animals to build memorable albums and your own personal scrapbook.
* Five jaw-dropping environments: Explore unique destinations from the colorful Coral Reef to the murky Ship Graveyard, filled with countless treasures to discover!
* Family-friendly tutorial: Experience a fully interactive tutorial teaching simple step-by-step instructions on how to become a great deep-sea photographer!
* Educational photo evaluations: Learn the names of each of your sea creature subjects and see how your photographs rank as you are scored on four different criteria: size, orientation, centering, and interaction with each fish.
* Endless replayability: Discover secret routes, collect hidden items, and encounter special appearances by unique day and night creatures.

Click here for the official Xbox.com webpage

Click here for new screenshots of Sea Life Safari

SEGA released a new trailer for Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm by Stainless Studios, which will be released next week. Finally some more in-game video. Looks fine, hopefully the game will give Stainless a good name with all those Atari remakes behind them.

Source: Internode - Happy Tree Friends Trailer #3

Welcome to "What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game?". On my old blog, XBLAH.net, I would occasionally write up an article about what I believe should be on the Xbox Live Arcade. Now with GamerBytes and the expansion to the PlayStation Network and Wii Ware, I've now changed the name.

I've written 7 other updates previously, all which would go just as well with the PSN as well as the XBLA. While most of these don't go on the Wii (as they themselves have a Virtual Console handy), some of them would still be applicable.

Here are my previous topics:

What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #1 - Death Tank Zwei
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #2 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #3 - Tyrian 2000
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #4 - The Sparkster Collection
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #5 - Chu Chu Rocket!
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #6 - New Power Stone
What Needs To Be A Downloadable Game? #7 - Jazz Jackrabbit

Now, on with the latest article!

Some games from the 80's continue to live on today, some of them going strong like Metal Gear, and some of them not so spectacularly. Bomberman continues to live on despite some not-so-good titles popping up on the DS, PSP and... well, I don't think anyone wants to remember Bomberman Act Zero. Hudson have gotten to a point where they've gotten the core game down (aka The Multiplayer) down to science, they just don't know what else to do with the formula.

Another case of this, which is what we'll discuss today, is Bubble Bobble. This arcade game is still quite popular - many people had a ton of fun with the game back on the NES and reminisce about it all the time, but what has it done recently?

Team Xbox have the exclusive first look at Sierra's new Xbox Live Arcade game titled 'Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos'. Just in time, the OFLC rating just showed up too!

The game is being developed by TikGames - who made Texas Hold'em for Xbox Live as well as the upcoming, currently unannounced Domino Master. The game is actually based on a casual PC title they released last year, much like Domino Master will be.

Your mission is to eradicate Dr. Chaos' trail of corruption, a task that will take you to exotic locales around the world in the best "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" fashion. Players will have to use their skills to quickly uncover hundreds of mysterious hidden objects found in elaborate crime scenes.

Strangely, Sierra didn't announce the game. Team Xbox did, complete with images and description, printing that Sierra will be releasing it NEXT week. It kind of misses the point, don't you think?

Check out more of the game, with screen shots, over at Team Xbox.

Source: Team Xbox - Sierra Online to Announce Interpol for Xbox Live Arcade

JeuxFrance have gotten their hands on six new screens of Schizoid for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Check out the new screenshots here.

Yesterday EA announced that they will be bringing their Fantasy Football line to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

What it didn't actually specify was that it is a separate 'Live Draft Tracker' and 'Live Score Tracker' applications outside of Madden '09 or NFL Head Coach, which will be available on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Stores!

Exclusive to EA SPORTS Fantasy Football customers, gamers will have the ability to download the EA SPORTS Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker application and experience a fantasy draft that includes all of the fanfare and presentation of an authentic professional football draft on their Xbox 360 or PLAYSTATION 3. The days of paper draft boards are over and gamers can view video clips and hear the EA Experts team provide commentary on top players. Moreover, gamers will be able to track their EA SPORTS Fantasy Football teams and leagues through the EA SPORTS Fantasy Football Live Score Tracker application, which is also available via download from Xbox LIVE or PLAYSTATION 3 Network. The fantasy scores can be viewed in two ways: full screen mode with complete rosters and details or picture-in-picture mode which allows gamers to keep an eye on scoring updates while watching live football action.

If you’ve ever wanted to test your fantasy team against others in the Madden NFL franchise, EA SPORTS Fantasy Football now gives you the opportunity. Through the website, players designate which fantasy team will be imported into Madden NFL 09. This fantasy team is a fully-functional created team and can be played in all areas available to created teams, including online head-to-head games, providing the ultimate football gaming experience.

While this story has actually been posted on many other websites, how it worked was unknown. I've been in contact with EA's PR and they've specified that it is a download for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store.

The confusion was that they never mention the 'Arcade' aspect, calling this an 'application' rather than a 'game'. It will be interesting to see just how this will work, or if it may be the first in actual applications rather than games.

EA Fantasy Football is free, and can be played through your PC at http://fantasy.easports.com. These two seperate applications will further enhance that experience through the XBLA and PSN, and will cost a fee.

They've already confirmed the dates on their website, Live Draft Tracker will be available on the 31st of July (we can assume that is on the 30th for XBLA), and Live Score Tracker will be available on the 4th of September (3rd for XBLA).

Elements of Destruction™

Developer: Frozen Codebase
Publisher: THQ
Genre: Strategy and Sims
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Worldwide (with the exception of Japan)

Sealife Safari™

Developer: Wanako
Publisher: Sierra Online
Genre: Family Games
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Worldwide

Released right now is a new expansion pack to Bungie and Freeverses Marathon: Durandal game. Titled the 'Jjaro Map Pack,' Freeverse says the DLC will be adding 12 multiplayer levels previously seen in the Mac original Marathon and Marathon Infinity:

Thrud (Infinity)
Vulcan (Infinity)
King of Pain (Infinity)
Spiral Insanity (Marathon)
Dead Fields (Infinity)
Morphine (Infinity)
La Cosa Nostra (Infinity)
Mars Needs Women (Marathon)
‘Fugee Camp (Infinity)
What Goes Up Must Come Down (Marathon)
Arena (Marathon)
Spline (Infinity)

This Multiplayer Pack only costs 250 Microsoft Points, which is roughly $3 and far cheaper than most other XBLA expansion packs. It will also include what they call "Jjaro" collection of textures, supposedly from Marathon Infinity, as well as two new achievements.

I don't normally do this, but I think this animated GIF best describes my thoughts on this video:

Yeesh. Looks like a 15 year old got himself Maya and made a parody video. Fake?

Hey! Remember Feeding Frenzy 2 from the Xbox Live Arcade '07 Montage? It still exists!

IGN have had some time with the game and have written a new preview for it, along with some new videos.

The big additions come in the multiplayer side of Feeding Frenzy 2. A host of mini-games have been added as well as a co-op story mode. Each mode can be played with up to four players, though it looks like this won't support Xbox Live. You'll have to round up three friends in front of your console to enjoy these puppies.

Check out the whole preview here, and watch the videos here.

'Space Invaders: Get Even', announced back in March for the Wii, has now been confirmed as a WiiWare title.

The game, where you control the classic Space Invaders as you invade earth, is expected to be released sometime this year. Looks like a lot of fun too.

You can check out a whole slew of new images over at Dengeki Online. It seems to game has gotten its HUD completely changed from the previous screenshots as well.

Source: Dengeki Online

The Bionic Commando website has updated on the mystery character they mentioned way back in March for the XBLA and PSN 'Rearmed' version. That character is Gottfried Groeder.

Groeder is the Rearmed version of the character known only as Bio-soldier in the original, who had such classic lines as “Joe is here, but you’re going to die here” and “It’s too early to feel safe. I’ll kill you here.” Now given a proper storyline and, you know, grammar, Groeder is a terrifying amalgamation of bionic and European, and just itching to make Spencer’s life a misery.

You can read the new profile on the character here.

Sony Japan releases a second trailer of Siren: New Translation aka Blood Curse in America, and Gamersyde have scooped it up!

It will be released in Japan next month as a retail title, while America will be getting it in seperate chunks through the year. There have also been new screenshots released, which you can view here.

Source: Gamersyde - New Trailer of Siren: Blood Curse

Our sister-site Gamasutra has had a long, hard look at the Wii Shop Channel, the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store, and has come up with 5 pages of fascinating analysis and statistics about how each group has reacted to the demands and marketplace over the past year.

Right now all three seem to be in a bit of a release slump with the PlayStation Store releasing more PSP downloadable content than PS3 content, and after having a huge 4th quarter last year, the Wii has taken a huge dive in terms of Virtual Console releases.

There is plenty more where that came from, Read the whole article here.

Torpex Games have announced that their game Schizoid will be released in July 2008!

And... well that's it! It's been a long time coming, it's sort of a fl0w meets Geometry Wars kind of game, completely Coop, and might end up being a ton of fun.

PS3 @ IGN.com Review by Jeff Haynes - 3.5 / 10

Strategy Informer Review by Matt Keller - 3.0 / 10

That's right. Only two reviews have been written for NovaStrike, the PSN's first independently published title. That's poor, quite frankly. With so few titles available for the platform, you'd think everyone would chomp at the bit for SOME kind of review, even if it is a poor game (like this seems to be, going by the scores).

Hopefully this weeks Fatal Inertia EX will be getting at least some exposure in the media.

Travis Williams, Senior Producer of PAIN for the PlayStation Network, has announced that PAIN will be getting some free updates for this weeks PSN update as well as next week.

This weeks update will include:

Jukebox Play – Now you can play your own tunes inside of PAIN. If you have some time go back to my previous blog posts and you will see where you users took us to task about including this option. So it’s DONE.

New Downtown Layouts – We have new configurations for downtown. Demolition and Block Party. Go to the trophy room after your update and you will see how to unlock these areas. You can also play these areas in HORSE now too.

Multiple Character Selection – Many of our players wanted to play two player games with different characters. So there you go.

Logo Skip – Now you don’t have to wait for the logo sequence to get right to the game.

Next weeks update will include:

Nigel – A nod goes out to Sony Europe for helping us make a hoodlum the right way. Nigel will be available for download.

Platinum Club – If you are awesome at PAIN and earned all your Platinum medals then you will get brand new layouts for Spank The Monkey, Mime Toss and Fun with Explosives. You even have an exclusive leader board. Now that’s elite. If you are in the Platinum Club trust me… you have skillz.

He also mentions a new "Amusement Park" level that he'll be discussing next week!

Source: PlayStation.Blog - New Updates Bring the PAIN