Tiki Towers™

Wii Points: 500
Game Type: Puzzle, Platformer
Control Type: Wii Remote
Players: 1-2
Publisher: RealArcade

"Tiki Towers is a game of construction, destruction, problem solving, and monkeys! Reclaim the islands of your tribe by defeating a series of evil enemy chiefs. Work with your monkey friends to build towers out of bamboo poles, coconuts, and vines. Match wits against the enemy chiefs bent on destroying your towers and driving you from the islands. Navigate levels filled with crazy building challenges, and deal with unfriendly wildlife and other environmental obstacles. Get your monkeys to chant for the BananaMana necessary to counter enemy attacks. Play in either single-player or two-player cooperative mode in this game where monkeys rule!"

Click here for more screenshots of Tiki Towers

Fun! Fun! Minigolf

Wii Points: 900
Game Type: Sports
Control Type: Wii Remote
Players: 1-4
Publisher: Shinen Multimedia

"Play minigolf with your friends in beautiful environments. Choose a character and turn your Wii Remote™ controller into a golf club. With its easy-to-use controls, all you need to do is aim, swing and see who's the best putter. Play 27 holes spread across America, Asia and Europe. Enjoy exotic locations all over the world. Go for gold in single-player mode, or invite your friends. Fun! Fun! Minigolf supports up to four players. You can use one to four Wii Remote controllers. Fun! Fun! Minigolf is the ultimate party game for everyone."

The final part of 1UP.com's spotlight on Noby Noby Boy is now up as part of the 1UP Show. Check out the video preview and see if you can make a little bit of sense of the game.

Easy Golf, one of the few XNA games that has far excelled past the majority of games available, has now been given a huge update, courtesy of the developer.

The main addition to this version is new courses. A brand new course has been officially added to the game, titled the "19th hole". Along with this, the fully featured course editor now allows you to swap courses with other players. It's a little complicated, but all the steps to do so are available here. The game has garnered quite a good community over at the official Xbox forums, so if you check it out you should find some players who have made some great courses for the game.

Other features include a new backspin maneuver to your balls hit from the fairway or tee box, several updates to the graphics, and adding many more features to the course editor.

Continue reading for the full selection of improvements in the new version of the game. If you have already bought the game, you can simply re-download the game from the Community Games store.

Back in 2006 the PhysX card was revealed, and like most PC hardware a demonstration is in order. For that Immersion games and Artificial Studios teamed up to create CellFactor, a demo with hundreds of objects being thrown around using a first person shooter design.

Once the card was released, a local multiplayer version of the game was released for free to the public. As a game, it was unfortunately not received all that well. But now Immersion games are taking their game and bringing a new version to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

"CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars is a fast-paced first-person multiplayer shooter where you choose your side in the battle of technology vs. humanity. Manipulate your environment and kill your enemies with your choice of gunfire and/or telekinetic superpowers. Use your mind to rip objects from the environment and smash them in any direction or use your powers to create a bullet-proof energy shield. Flying, teleporting and accelerated speed give you countless ways to kill or be killed. Take on the three single-player challenge modes (one mode for each character) or battle live enemies throughout the world in one of four multiplayer modes."

The game has been expanded upon, including 30 single player missions, 7 maps and a simplified Call Of Duty style upgrade system. It's claiming to have "Massive online battles" however the amount of player's in a match has not been specified. It continues to have telekinesis and flying much like the tech demos did, but sounds like it will be far more toned down for graphics and gameplay sake.

The video above is not from the XBLA / PSN version, but they have released a few screenshots of it. It certainly looks a lot different, so its safe to say that this is a complete reworking of the game.

CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars is expected to drop in January 2009 from Ubisoft. Let's hope they deal with the game better than they did with War World.

Aaron Teplitsky, the creator of Snake360 for the XNA Community Games, has announced a competition for his game, where you can win Microsoft Points by beating certain milestones in his game.

Three contests have been revealed:

Contest 1: Race To Fanatic 1st Place: 4000 Microsoft Points & 13-month Xbox Live Gold subscription ($100 value) 2nd Place: EITHER 4000 MSP OR 13-month Xbox Live Gold subscription ($50 value) 3rd Place: 1600 Microsoft Points ($20 value) Can you complete 90% of Snake360? It's more difficult than it sounds!

Contest 2: Survivor Challenge
Two 1st Place prizes: EITHER 4000 MSP OR 13-month Xbox Live Gold subscription ($50 value each)
Two 2nd Place prizes: 1600 Microsoft Points ($20 value each)
Two 3rd Place prizes: 1600 Microsoft Points ($20 value each)
Outlast or outscore your opponents in three Survival Mode levels to win!

Contest 3: Battle Video Exhibition
1st Place: 4 x 1600 Microsoft Points ($80 value)
Runner-Up: 1600 Microsoft Points ($20 value)
Show us your most entertaining Battle or Suffocation Battle videos!

For more information, you can check out the complete set of details and rules below. Deadline for entries in all three contests is Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST.

Source: Snake360 Contest Rules

[While we do summarize all the XNA titles that come out on Xbox Live Community Games with XNPlay, sometimes we feel certain games deserve a little more time in the spotlight. When we recommend a title, be sure to give it a go, as wading through the tens of releases each week can be quite the hassle for those with little time on their hands.]

CarneyVale: Showtime
Price: 400 MSP

CVS is a vertical ragdoll platform game. In the game, you play as Slinky, a circus acrobat trying to rise up the ranks by performing acrobatic tricks and death-defying stunts through increasingly complex arenas. CarneyVale was the winner at this year's Dream-Build-Play competition, and was made by the GAMBIT MIT in Singapore.

The game has a lot in common with Gymnast, another simple XNA title which got a lot of recognition from being created by the same people who brought JellyCar tot he XNA Community demos earlier this year - but as if it was made into a fully fledged game. It has a lot in common with Donkey Kong: King of Swing and Jungle Climber on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS. You swing around the level collecting balloons, avoiding traps and getting to the goal in time.

Its a fairly simple game, but is a lot of fun when you get into the flow of the game. The presentation of the game is excellent - that far above a lot of other XNA titles, and even some Xbox Live Arcade titles.

Download the demo today. You can download it from this link to the Xbox Marketplace page to put in your download queue.

[With so many downloadable console games coming out each month, it's hard to keep up. That's why here at GamerBytes, we take a look back at the previous month and decide on the top games that were released during the period. The month of November brought the best of Capcom to the PlayStation Network - let's have a look at the highlights.]

There were only two major releases for the PlayStation Network this month - both from Capcom. One was a bit of catchup - Age Of Booty had been released for XBLA the month prior, but both titles have an exceptional online component to them which should not be ignored.

Age Of Booty

"Fight for fortune and infamy in Age of Booty, Certain Affinity and Capcom's game of pirate strategy and cannon-blasting action that's fun for all ages. Sail the high seas alone or with friends as you build your pirate empire by plundering villages, sinking ships, and sending your enemies to the briny deep!"

Dale Nardozzi at Team Xbox writes:

"Age of Booty not only looks good, but it plays solidly enough to back up its aesthetic worth. If you’d like to first get your feet wet before diving into the raging sea that is the RTS genre, Age of Booty is the right vessel for the job."

Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb writes:

"It's easy to hear the words "console" and "real-time strategy" in the same sentence and immediately determine that Age of Booty is not for you. But the game really feels like it was built with the constraints of the average gamepad in mind while simultaneously not feeling dumbed-down or stripped."

Click here for the PSN Splash Page

Click here for some screenshots of the game.

Super Street Fighter II HD Remix

"The original MMA series is back! Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix receives a whole new look while improving on the innovative fighting system of the original game. Updated with 1080p HD redrawn art and widescreen support, the game offers a unique experience that appeals to new fans and Street Fighter® purists alike."

Ryan Scott at 1UP.com writes:

"I can answer the more immediate question -- whether HD Remix holds up in online play -- with a resounding "Hell, yes." Backbone wisely co-opted fan-favorite peer-to-peer platform GGPO.net, which you can essentially think of as the netcode equivalent of the Google algorithm. This crazy Internet voodoo works well, and it makes for the most lag-free versus play this side of a brick-and-mortar arcade."

Jeff Gerstmann over at Giant Bomb writes:

"HD Remix makes most of those older releases look like cheap cash-ins. It may cost more than most arcade updates available for consoles today, but with the number of important changes being made and its extreme attention to detail, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix sets a new standard for downloadable arcade games... even though I still think Blanka's face doesn't look quite right."

Click here for the official PlayStation.com splash page.

[With so many downloadable console games coming out each month, it's hard to keep up. That's why here at GamerBytes, we take a look back at the previous month and decide on the top games that were released during the period. The month of November brought some memories of classic games to Xbox Live Arcade - let's have a look at the highlights.]

Only three releases this month, all due to a bargain week where Worms, Feeding Frenzy and Mortal Kombat 3 went cheap. From car combat to street fighting, October brought a good amount of choice to the table.

Super Street Fighter II HD Remix

"The original MMA series is back! Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix receives a whole new look while improving on the innovative fighting system of the original game. Updated with 1080p HD redrawn art and widescreen support, the game offers a unique experience that appeals to new fans and Street Fighter® purists alike."

Ryan Scott at 1UP.com writes:

"I can answer the more immediate question -- whether HD Remix holds up in online play -- with a resounding "Hell, yes." Backbone wisely co-opted fan-favorite peer-to-peer platform GGPO.net, which you can essentially think of as the netcode equivalent of the Google algorithm. This crazy Internet voodoo works well, and it makes for the most lag-free versus play this side of a brick-and-mortar arcade."

Jeff Gerstmann over at Giant Bomb writes:

"HD Remix makes most of those older releases look like cheap cash-ins. It may cost more than most arcade updates available for consoles today, but with the number of important changes being made and its extreme attention to detail, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix sets a new standard for downloadable arcade games... even though I still think Blanka's face doesn't look quite right."

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for the Xbox Marketplace page.

A Kingdom for Keflings

"Unlock the full version of A Kingdom for Keflings for even more homes, buildings, and workshops to build! Join up to three of your friends via Xbox LIVE to cooperatively construct the kingdom of your dreams. The full version of A Kingdom for Keflings includes achievements to earn, more Keflings to attract and many more opportunities to fill your kingdom full of love!"

Nick Suttner of 1UP.com writes:

"Keflings' most drastic design choice is also its biggest appeal -- where most city-builders put you in control of an omnipresent, all-powerful cursor, Keflings takes a page from PixelJunk Monsters (among others) and casts players as an actual in-game avatar -- a literal Avatar, if they like, customized in the Next Xbox Experience's character builder (which is the vastly ideal route, considering the premade characters all look incredibly bland). This gives you an immediate, welcome connection to your character and changes the basic interaction with the world -- especially since you're about fives times larger than any of your miniscule Keflings. Picture Gulliver's Travels meets carpentry and you're halfway there. "

Ryan Geddes of IGN.com writes:

"If you’re in the mood for a laid-back XBLA game and have been itching to try out that shiny new Avatar, A Kingdom For Keflings is the perfect choice. NinjaBee’s latest downloadable game is whimsical, humorous, unique and has none of the high-pressure feel of your typical strategy game. Although it has its performance issues and presentation quirks, Keflings rises above both to achieve a Zen-like quality of pleasant addiction."

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for the Xbox Marketplace page.

Vigilante 8 Arcade

"Take the wheel as fully-loaded auto combat revs into high gear with Vigilante 8: Arcade. It’s a down and dirty war on wheels where everyone’s riding shotgun. This brand new re-make of the classic Vigilante 8 game lets you choose from among eight tricked-out retro-fine ‘70s vehicles with some serious firepower. Multiple special weapons let you wreak havoc on five newly-designed and destructible arenas. Complete the single player Quest story mode or test your car-crushing skills in local and LIVE multiplayer versus or co-op modes. Rebuilt from the ground up, V8: Arcade is modern vehicular warfare at its finest!"

Nate Ahearn of IGN.com writes:

"Vigilante 8: Arcade is one of those titles that simply isn’t as fun as you remember it being. It’s not a bad game and it’s great as a novel piece of nostalgia, but the gameplay itself doesn’t hold up all that well."

Andrew Hayward of 1UP.com writes:

"Sadly, aside from the malaise-inducing offline modes, most of Vigilante 8: Arcade's issues are technical in nature. Framerate drops, floaty steering and physics, a shaky camera, and environmental clipping are all things you'd expect to be addressed by release (some are likely leftover from the earlier releases), and with just five total arenas available until the premium DLC comes out, it's hard to believe that gamers will stick around long enough to make Vigilante 8: Arcade an essential Live Arcade purchase."

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for the Xbox Marketplace page.

[With so many downloadable console games coming out each month, it's hard to keep up. That's why here at GamerBytes, we take a look back at the previous month and decide on the top games that were released during the period. The month of November brought a lot of games to WiiWare, but only a few truly stand out. Let's have a look at the highlights.]

There were an awful lot of WiiWare titles that came out in November - the problem is that a majority of them ended up being fairly dull experiences - not pushing the system, almost like a cash in.

Thankfully there were still some great titles to come out - More Strong Bad, more Hudson Soft goodness, and Taito bringing some classics back into the fold.

Alien Crush Returns

Publisher: HUDSON SOFT
Price: 800 Wii Points

"Alien Crush Returns is the ultimate incarnation of the popular TurboGrafx pinball classic, Alien Crush. Boasting innovative game and control features, this is one Wii experience that you don't want to miss! With all the ball-blazing simplicity and flipper action thrills of standard pinball, Alien Crush Returns has all the visual and digital elements that you've come to expect in a videogame including grotesque, eye-stunning playfields as well as unique Action Ball gimmicks that redefine the fun and excitement of pinball.

"You can even nudge the machine with your Wii Remote. What's more, you can connect via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to enjoy a variety of features such as four-player head-to-head action, high score competitions and Extra Stage downloads."

Corbie Dillard of WiiWare World writes:

"With Alien Crush Returns, Hudson has somehow managed to retain all of the unique and addictive elements of the original game while simultaneously adding in enough fresh game play ideas to bring the cult classic properly up to date."

Mark Bozon of IGN writes:

"While story mode is a bit simple, the animation and overall visual presentation the game is pretty impressive overall, and at the end of the day, the game is fun enough to warrant an 800 point purchase if you're into pinball, or were a fan of the older Alien Crush/Devil's Crush games."

Click here for the official Nintendo UK website.

Space Invaders: Get Even (European Release)

Developer: TAITO
Wii Points: 500

"The Space Invaders are back, and this time they're out to get even!

"Take control of a UFO and make those Earthlings pay by unleashing your fleet of heroic invaders against their puny tanks, fighter jets and artillery.

"Use your invaders' five attack types and the might of the mother ship to rack up high scores, then upload them via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and see where you stand in the worldwide rankings!"

Marcel Van Duyn of WiiWare World writes:

"Space Invaders Get Even is a wonderful new take on the franchise. Reversing the roles was a stroke of genius. Blowing up buildings never gets old and it’s fun to be the bad guy every now and then."

Andrew Hayward of 1UP.com writes:

"Get Even's cities are simple and fairly nondescript, but the game strikes a smart presentational tone, juxtaposing serious-sounding tunes with the obviously bizarre happenings, not to mention visual words of praise ("Cool!") and amusing human radio transmissions ("Our forces are not equipped to take on 2D targets!"). Frustratingly, it comes at a higher cost than expected, as the initial $5 purchase delivers but a single three-stage mission (about 15 minutes of play)."

Click here for the Nintendo UK website.

Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 (US Release)

Wii Points: 1,000
Publisher: Telltale Games

"Move over, generically buff action heroes! Strong Bad is here to show you how it's done in his handcrafted cinematic masterpiece, Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective. You play Dangeresque, a dirty cop in pursuit of a little action and several big sacks of cash. Can our hero stay alive long enough to defeat his archnemesis, save the world, and get the girl? Looks like he's gonna have to jump..."

Andrew Hayward of 1UP.com writes:

"Maybe it's just the nature of an episodic series like this, but I find myself less and less interested in the actual play mechanics with each new installment, as the sometimes inane puzzle solutions and trial-and-error approach to adventuring can be tiring."

Daemon Hatfield of IGN.com writes:

"This episode is more cinematic, and while I love the minimal Casio tunes of the previous chapters, Dangeresque's more ambitious spy soundtrack is aces."

Click here for the official Nintendo.com page.

Boingz (US release only)

Wii Points: 1,000
Publisher: RealArcade

"Stretch, flex and flick your way to freedom. A truly mind-bending experience, Boingz introduces you to cute, colorful, stretchable friends lost in an alien world, searching for the magical gates that will take them home. Boingz springs to life with 30 levels of puzzle-platforming fun. The Boingz are bendy little critters that can be pulled, stretched and flicked from place to place like rubber bands. It's a team effort, as all the Boingz will have to work together to unwind the game's puzzles. What's more, many of the Boingz have fallen into a deep slumber, and you'll have to lead the stronger Boingz to find and wake up their sleepy friends. Explore surreal landscapes, sail through the air like a trapeze artist, walk along the seafloor, and collect the Twinklies to power up your elastic-powered flights."

Matt Casamassina of IGN.com writes:

"But stretching and shooting off the Boingz through 30 stages of platforming challenges, most of them filled with head-scratching puzzles, is reason enough to consider the project. It's certainly one of the better WiiWare games to date."

Torrey Walker of 1UP.com writes:

"Boingz does provide a moderate amount of challenge (especially if you aim for a gold-medal ranking in each stage), and the springy little creatures kinda get under your skin with their attentive oval eyes and adorable aimless humming. The experience just seems better suited to a browser-based Flash game than a standalone WiiWare title."

Click here for the official Nintendo.com page.

"Puzzle Arcade is the online jigsaw game with a twist! With so many jigsaw puzzles at your fingertips, you can play in multiple modes and challenge yourself differently every time. Become Master of the Jigsaw Universe all by yourself or play alongside friends. The possibilities are endless in Puzzle Arcade."

* Puzzles galore: More than thirty-five jigsaw puzzles are included, featuring photos, artwork, and illustrations. Downloadable puzzle packs will follow.
* Multiple game modes: Try Classic or Turbo mode, with three levels of difficulty, and twenty different puzzle challenges.
* Multiplayer: Support is provided for up to four gamers at the same console and over Xbox LIVE®.
* Camera support: The game includes Xbox LIVE Vision Camera support allowing you to make and share your own puzzles.

Puzzle Arcade will sell for 800 Microsoft Points.

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Owlboy is one of the more promising Xbox Live Community Games coming out to the service - completely 2D, all sprites in a classic Amiga / Super Nintendo style.

The people over at Destructoid were able to grab the first footage of the game in action, which you can check out above. They have also conducted an interview with Simon Andersen and Blake of D-Pad Software in which they discuss their reasoning behind this retro style, the expression-based talk system, and the flying platformer gameplay keeping it all together.

Read Destructoid's interview with D-Pad Software here.

The first trailer for WayForward's Lit game for WiiWare has appeared on GameVideos. A strange top-down puzzle game where it's dark in more ways than one. It's a horrible, horrible cliche but appears true for this game at least.

1UP.com also conducted an interview with the development team, which is a nice read to see how they are transitioning from DS titles like Contra 4 and Duck Amuck to the WiiWare service.

Read the 1UP.com interview here.

[These regular XNA Community Games overviews are being done in official association with XNA review site XNPlay, and will link to their impressions and reviews of the latest XNA titles.]

As the Xmas nights draw in, we've been bunking ourselves up with a thermos flask and a sack full of coal, warming ourselves on the heady glow of the Community Games. And 400 point fireplaces. Ever onwards with the links, folks...

XNPlay's XNA Game Highlights

Hexothermic (Price: 200 Points)
"A devilishly simple puzzle game that involves little more than flipping the colours of some sparkling gems to cause a chain reaction across the screen wiping out as much of the board as possible in as few moves as possible"

CaveIn (Price: 400 Points)
"CaveIn is a 3D cel-shaded puzzle game from Johnny Death which puts you in the shoes of a miner who needs to make his way through caves and save trapped miners."

XNPlay's Upcoming

Ultratron 360 (Price: TBC)
"Ultratron is an exemplary show of precisely what can be done with community games. It may not be original, there may be a distinct lack of innovation but it looks, plays and feels good. In refusing to bow down to a checklist of features or bolt ons and keeping every last element crucially tied to the game, it provides a solid, sturdy and highly enjoyable experience"

XNPlay's Best Of The Rest

Light Catcher (Price: 200 Points)
"Somewhat like an amalgam of Kaboom! and a slot machine, Light Catcher has you scrambling to catch glowing orbs in specific color combinations to accumulate a set score total"

Graph Spacer (Price: 200 Points)
"GraphSpacer is an arena shooter with paper scribble style graphics. GraphSpacer’s main gameplay mechanic is that your ship has momentum, and you can only shoot in the direction of travel"

Falldown (Price: 400 Points)
"FallDown is a fairly simple multiplayer game where the aim is for each player to select a character, select a difficulty, drop through the gaps in the platforms and be the last person to meet their doom at the blades of a spikey spiked blade thing. It’s LAN gaming origins are pretty evident as there’s absolutely nothing here for the solitary player..."

Writers Block (Price: 400 Points)
"Writers Block has some of the most atrocious dialogue I’ve ever come across in a game, a problem compounded when you’re stuck for what feels like an eternity running through completely unfunny conversations with no quick way to back out."

EZMuze (Price: 200 Points)
"EZMuze is another of those wonderful Ronseal titles that does precisely what it says on the tin. A sort of basic tracker/loop creation thingymajig that does precisely what it sets out to do"

Dr. Popper (Price: 200 Points)
"There’s just no point to Dr. Popper. It resides at the bottom rung of the matching colours ladder existing on a plane of reality somewhere between bubble wrap and suicide."

Fireplace (Price: 400 Points)
"It’s a fireplace. For 400 points. A fireplace. For 400 points. 400 points for a fireplace. A virtual one at that."

Starfield (Price: 400 Points)
"Starfield commits the biggest arcade game sin there is. It’s boring. Giving you many, many lives reduces the threat level to a bare minimum, a huge proportion of the waves are static enemies just drifting down the screen, the odd pattern that flies in never really does anything other than follow its little path and disappear off screen and oh, the first boss appears to be a giant hedgehog that tries to headbutt you only I’ve just gone and made that sound 20x better than it actually is"

Couples Sudoku (Price: 200 Points)
"At 200 Points it’s the same price as No Frills Sudoku only with more polish and more features…"

Updated

As there's currently no patching service available to XNA Community Games, should anyone wish to update a game the only way to achieve it right now is to pull the entire game down from the service, patch and resubmit.

We've been keeping a track of the resubmissions, so if you've previously downloaded any of these titles in the first days of their appearance - you might want to grab them afresh to ensure you're up to date.

Tower Revolution
Word Soup
Monaco 360
Easy Golf
Bloc
Ladybird Galaxy

TikGames and CREAT Studios have released several new screenshots for their three upcoming PlayStation Network titles Cuboid, Magic Ball and Mahjong Tales.

Click here for new screenshots of Cuboid.

Click here for new screenshots of Magic Ball.

Click here for new screenshots of Mahjong Tales.

The first available title will be Mahjong Tales, which will be for sale in January.

LUMINES Supernova

LUMINES Supernova ($14.99)

"Indulge in the fusion of puzzle, lights and music! The latest installment to the blockbuster franchise from Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainment is packed with brand new skins and modes, exclusive to the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Puzzles, block-dropping beats and video entertainment combine to create a pulse-pounding experience that will keep you playing day after day!"

LUMINES Supernova Holiday Pack (free)

"This free LUMINES Supernova download pack contains 20 special holiday-themed skins! Seasons greetings from Q Entertainment!"

Click here for the US PlayStation Lumines Supernova website

Jeopardy
Jeopardy (permanent price drop to $9.99)

"Test your knowledge on America’s Favorite Quiz Show®! Available for the first time on the PLAYSTATION®Network, players can experience the fast-paced fun of JEOPARDY!® Featuring a photorealistic 3D set and clues from the producers of the T.V. show, players can compete in solo mode or challenge a friend to a battle of the brains. Be the first to buzz in and vie to become a JEOPARDY! champ!"

Click here for the Jeopardy store page.

High Velocity Bowling
High Velocity Bowling: Patches Pack One (free)

"It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Add this free downloadable Trick Shot Pack to your High Velocity Bowling selection, and get another opportunity for a gold star and some of those tough patches."

High Velocity Bowling: Gutter Bird Ball (free)

"It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Spice up your bowling game with this cool custom “Gutter Bird Ball” bowling ball, complete with a turkey inside cooked to a delicious golden brown. Download this free bowling ball today."

PAIN

PAIN: Ao No Kutsu Character ($0.99)

"Say hello to PAIN’s biggest launchee yet (literally), Ao No Kutsu! Sumo wrestler by day, and Rock & Roll idolizer by night, “The King of Sumo” is available now to serve up the PAIN in mammoth portions."

[Who doesn't love Claymation? Only curmudgeons and illiterates, we think, and Simon Parkin was kind enough to sit down with Platypus creator Anthony Flack and the Tuna Technologies folks, who are doing things right by building Cletus Clay for Xbox Live Arcade and PC.]

As if creating a Metal Slug-style side-scrolling shooter starring a loudmouth hillbilly weren’t enough to distinguish his Xbox Live Arcade game from the crowd, Anthony Flack, Cletus Clay’s designer and animator, decided to build all of the game’s assets using clay.

It’s a painstaking process, crafting and posing every character, background object and frame of animation by hand. And the development has not made any easier by the fact that Flack is based in New Zealand on the other side of the world to the rest of his development team, the Sheffield-based Tuna Technologies.

We spoke to Anthony Flack, the game’s creator, Alex Amsel, managing Director of Tuna Technologies and Sarah Quick, one of the game’s artists, to find out how they’ve gone about this extraordinary undertaking and whether all of the painstaking effort’s been worth it.

Simon Parkin: Which came first, the game idea or the decision to make a claymation game?

Anthony Flack: I have pretty much committed myself to keep making claymation games until I feel that I’ve done it as well as I possibly could, and that’s an ambition that predates this particular game.

But actually, in this instance there was also a little game I made on the Amstrad CPC sometime in the late 80s that had an old farmer with a shotgun in it. He was going to be blasting aliens, but it was one of those half-hearted early efforts where you don’t get much further than making the main character jump around on a testbed. For some reason he came to mind again years later when I was deciding what game to do next.

Puzzle Arcade

Developer: Ctxm/Say Design
Publisher: Eidos Interactive Limited
Genre: Puzzle and Word
Price: 800 MSP
Availability: Worldwide, with the exception of Japan and Korea

Click here for the Xbox.com splash page.

Click here for the Marketplace page to download the demo.

Castle Crashers

After almost 3 months of waiting, Castle Crashers has finally been patched, hopefully fixing all the accursed problems people like me had trying to get an online match started.

Click here for the Marketplace page if you're one of those who was waiting for a patch.

Savage Moon
Savage Moon (£6.29 / €7,99 / $12.95AU)

"Savage Moon sees you protecting a remote off-world mining facility from waves of ravenous space bugs, looking to consume everything in their path. Armed with a fearsome array of defensive weapons, your mission is to take your choice of the finest armaments known to humankind and keep the facility safe by strategically placing these guns which then automatically fire at their targets.

"Will you select the dependable rapid-fire machine gun? The intimidating Chaos Tower? Or opt for another item taken from the range of destructive weaponry at your disposal? Choose carefully, as each one has to be manually positioned for the greatest effectiveness in destroying the increasing waves of monstrous insects. "

Click here for the official Savage Moon webpage.

Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom

Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom (£7.99 / $15.95AU)

"Embark on a journey of magic and discovery through ancient China! Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom brings the classic game to the PlayStation® Network, combining the hottest features of mahjong into a single game featuring a narrated story mode that whisks players away into a storybook adventure, enhanced with hand illustrated ancient Chinese tales."

WipEout HD DEMO

1040 MB

SEASONAL OFFERS

WipEout HD (£11.99 / €14,99 / $23.95AU)
Super Starudst HD (£3.99 / €4,99 / $8.45AU)
Pain (£3.99 / €4,99 / $8.45AU)
The Last Guy (£3.99 / €4,99 / $8.45AU)
Toy Home (£3.99 / €4,99 / $8.45AU)
Echochrome (£4.79 / €5,99 / $9.95AU)
flOw (£3.99 / €4,99 / $8.45AU)

Toy Home: Second Gear Pack (£1.59 / €1,99 / $3.45AU)
Snakeball: Team Mode Pack (£1.59 / €1,99 / $3.45AU)

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from Armature Studio, NetDevil, Sony Online Entertainment, Longtail Studios, and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Merry Christmas to all of you out there. I hope you got plenty of presents, and have spent a good chunk of money on MSP, PSN Store and Wii Point Cards for the year ahead.

To celebrate, two XNA games have taken advantage of the situation and added a few things to keep today a little jollier.

For today only, Easy Golf, with its latest updated version, will have its player don a Christmas hat. Not much, but it is a nice little holiday edition to a game that is getting better with each version.

Click here to download the latest version of Easy Golf on XNA Community Games.

Secondly is Beat It - Christmas Edition. I'm not particularly sure how its different, but I assume it's a little more Christmas-ey than usual.

Click here to download the latest version of Beat IT! - Christmas Edition on XNA Community Games.

[Console digital download info site GamerBytes has been following the Xbox 360's Community Games project since its launch in November, and is proud to present the Top 10 XNA games of 2008, in association with independent site XNPlay.]

For the first time ever, a major console company has allowed hobbyists to create peer-reviewed console games, and publish them directly onto the console for worldwide download.

Thus, Microsoft's launch of its Xbox Live Community Games service in November 2008 has already brought nearly 100 free time-limited, pay for unlimited-play independent games to the service -- and a distinct need for critics and reviewers to seek out and showcase the best.

For this year-end countdown, GamerBytes is handing over the reins to Robert 'Oddbob' Fearon and his staff from XNPlay, an independent website dedicated to bringing you news, views, reviews and previews of games featured on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Community Games program.

Here's their picks for the top XNA titles released onto the Xbox 360 in 2008, all currently available for download from the console's Community Games section: