XBox 360 Rally

This week has two releases that are sure to become hits with the Xbox LIVE Arcade crowd. The first is, of course, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Jesus Christ, that’s long). It’ll cost you 800 MS Points.

The other game, which has been a mystery for a while, is finally known: Streets of Rage 2. Costing 400 MS Points, Streets of Rage 2 on XBLA will finally allow you to get online and play one of the best beat ‘em ups of all time with your friends. If you don’t buy this, you suck.

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I admit it, I am a Bomberman fan. I know the game isnt’ for everyone, but I even like the N64 versions and the side scrolling Game Boy ones, I just love this franchise, Hudson is a great company. Well here is the info along with pictures of all the new goodies, the 2 new levels will feature a Vegas style theme while the other will be on a Zeppelin of sorts “which features tornado environmental hazards that incapacitate players.” Very cool. To make things even better at this nice cheap cost, they are offering up 10 more costumes for you to choose from, and I love the variety they present here. See pics below for a Fear and Loathing Johnny Depp throwback, a prisoner, a monopoly looking man, and afro bomberman, and.. man, just click the images below to see for yourself, one of the better updates to a game on the XBLA to date. Remember, not only do we get all these great visual upgrades, a new game play mode called “Frag” which will allow players to pre-set the number of enemies they must bomb in order to win the game. I wish I could just give Hudson a hug. So mark your calenders for August 29 (Tomorrow!!)

If you are a fan of the long-running Penny Arcade comics, then you were most assuredly disappointed to hear that the Penny Arcade video game, entitied *takes a breath* Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness *gasp!* would be coming to the PC, Mac and Linux, and NOT the consoles.

Well, now it is. It’s been announced that PAA:OtRSPoD (holy crap) will be coming to the Xbox LIVE Arcade sometime early next year! This is but the first chapter in a series of Penny Arcade Adventures titles, and all of them will make their way on to the Xbox LIVE Arcade.

You can check the official game website for more info on the game, and it’s future installments.

[RainSlick]

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Sega, kind enough to give us here at The Rally 5 copies of Sonic the Hedgehog on Xbox Live Arcade for you. Here is how to get it! Take Sonic and put him in another Xbox 360 game. This can be a full title or arcade game. Scour here at the Rally for screenshots, or just do a Google image search, however you want to find the screens, do it (Note: If you find an image that is watermarked, points will not be taken off). Next, take a picture of Sonic and put him in the game screenshot you just got however you see fit, add rings for bonus points. I did quick entry of my own as an example using Sonic in Crackdown, I know you can do better:

Here goes all the official mumbo jumbo:

• Image of Sonic on Image of some Xbox 360 Game (Full title or XBLA title)
• Post here in the comments with a link to your image or email myself () or JW () directly with the image.
• Include with your comment or your email with your GamerTag.

• Enter as many images as you like, however you can only win one copy. Contest will end on Monday, September 3rd at 11:59pm EST, so you have two weeks to figure something out and get it to us.

Some Helpful Tips:

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We’ve all known for a while that the Xbox 360 Core is going to die. It’s just something that we knew was going to happen. However, Gamernode is reporting that the Xbox 360 Core will, indeed, be phased out. However, the Core console will live on, rebranded as the ‘Xbox 360 Arcade: Just Play’ pack.

The new Core package (since, really, this IS a Core) will come packaged with five XBLA titles and a 256MB memory card, but will still carry a $279 price tag. Also, while not confirmed, it is believed that the new Core will have a HDMI unit, but no HDMI cable.

As you can see from the image above supposedly taken from the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation… they OBVIOUSLY believe in staying in-house with their photo editing. No photoshop there. Nuh uh.

[Gamernode]

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A quick background on Space Giraffe, this is an Xbox Live Arcade game that is only going to run you 400 points ($5) and from the information I had of it, it seemed good. The game runs on an engine that will remind you of the old Atari game Tempest, shooting down enemies, however having that Geometry Wars type crazy colorful graphics flare. A basic game, but at the right cost, it is coming out Wednesday (22nd) and so we all can just try it for ourselves.

Now that you know what it is, here is the amusing news coming from a review of the game put out by the Official Xbox Magazine (#75). Senior Editor Dan Amrich can be quoted from the review as saying something as bad as “Actually made us angry when we played it.” He sites problems of the visibility of enemies vs the backgrounds and ends the review with “Just really bad. Lacks a single redeeming quality, and or it’s busted to varying degrees in its own design, quality or basic functionality. No gamer of any stripe should bother.” Ouch, what a negative nancy. I know that OXM doesn’t have to post only high scores for games just because of the name of the magazine, but man, I don’t recall ever seeing a score that low.

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Xbox Live Arcade, home to so many arcade classics. When I think of arcade classics, I think of Golden Axe. I remember my friend getting his Genesis for Christmas and this being one of the earlier titles we used to play as much as we could. Easy enough beat em up type game play, balancing between magic and using the beasts themselves as weapons, to even fighting off little trolls/elves to get power ups, it was just plain fun. Well JW and I want you to have fun too! Thanks to Sega, The Rally has been hooked up with 5 copies of Golden Axe on the Xbox Live Arcade to give up to our readers… I’m talking about you. Since there is a couple of millions of you readers and all of you are like our children, we can’t just pick 5 favorites, so it shall be decided randomly, literally, with the help of random.org. Here is the official rules on how to qualify:

Make a comment on this page including two things:

• Why you deserve Golden Axe.
• Your Xbox Live GamerTag.

• Make sure the email contact you are required to put in to leave a comment, is a valid address. Contest will end on Saturday, August 25th at 11:59pm EST, so make sure to get it in before then.

That is it. I will throw all valid comments into a random list which will then pick the top 5 choices on who will receive a copy of Golden Axe. Sega has also done us a solid with some copies of Sonic on XBLA, a contest is in the works for that title, which will require MS Paint (or Photoshop) plus a little creativity, not just on detail though, we know not everyone is elite with Phothoshop, but hey, we’ll get to that later in the next day or so, but for now, leave a comment on why you are worthy of a free game, and make sure to include your GamerTag. Winners will be announced on Sunday (26th). Don’t worry about holding out for Sonic, you can enter both contests and win them both (damn we’re nice).

Random note and update: Thanks to all the people who have entered for the “Win Grand Theft Auto IV” contest we are having (link). If you haven’t heard by now, GTAIV was pushed back a bit, however, the contest is still ending October 1st. The prize of GTAIV will still be valid, unless you would like a game sooner, then we *might* possibly just let you pick another title that is available at the time.

Okay, that quote may be a tiny bit inaccurate, however, according to one of Duke Nukem’s creators, George Broussard, it is Microsoft’s call at the moment. While in a chat over at ShackNews he casually let it out during a Duke Nukem convo that, “..we’ve talked to Microsoft about it and have some people that would port it. Just waiting on the good word from Microsoft to continue.”

This could have been anybody, but Shack received confirmation that this is truth, however Broussard added nothing more to this mini announcement. If you care to keep snooping to find out more on the situation, you can stalk Broussard’s many many comments over at Shacknews via this link, just remember to email us at the Rally if/when you find out more, because I can only read so many of his posts until the thought invades my mind of “Finish Duke Nukem Forever instead”.. except my thoughts contain expletives. In the end though, I would easily purchase an XBLA release of this game, tripwires in a multiplayer game = win.

In what is a dream come true for me (link), EA has signed on to become the exclusive publisher for digital games based on Hasbro properties. Two specific titles are mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article about this deal, Monopoly and Scrabble. Hasbro has about a million other games, so you can expect either tons of new Xbox Live Arcade versions of these, or possibly (hopefully) a compilation of various titles. I am attempting to ignore the possibility that they would give us the big screw and do full 360 titles per Hasbro property ($60 Monopoly!? No Wai!), however, we are talking about EA here, so.. it is sadly possible.

This move is all thanks to people buying up the many Nintendo Mini Game compilations, online web based Flash games, and many different XBLA titles that appeal to the ‘Casual Gamer’ that EA is now going to be pursuing more so than before. The first title to come out of this relationship has not been mentioned as of yet, only that the first game will be coming out 2008.

I have been covering this game since May as much as I can, so now the tradition continues with some new video and info. After doing a nice scan of the 1up preview that came out yesterday, I bring to you the facts you need to know:

• Two Player Co-op, online or off
• Multiplayer can have bots
• Capturing/Defending spawn points seems to be the main goal
• Left Analog = Move / Right Analog = Fire
• 3 Classes of Characters (Iron Marine, Nemoidian or Atlantian)
• “Intensely skillful game, but still fun in an accessible”

• I cannot wait for this game! If you want more than just a run down of facts, click here to read the full preview. Right this second though, look at this multiplayer in action!

  
  Check after the break for two more videos. This game looks so fun as well as very “next gen” for an XBLA game. (Side note: I am feeling the need for the retirement of the word “Next Gen” unless it is referring to virtual reality, am I the only one?)

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The servers are melting. Paco spilled his cola on the keyboard. JW’s out back trying to wrangle the horses. In short, we’re all kinds of FUBAR, so we may not be able to update as much as we’d like today.

Sorry, peeps. We’ll be back soon.

Though not exactly the games I want on XBLA, there is a good line up of titles, one coming really soon, the others on the horizon, that will be hitting our hard drives. These three specifically have been hitting the game sites recently, so lets take a quick gander of what is to come:

GEON:emotions: Being published by Eidos, this title will actually make you go through different emotions of game play (rage, passion, fear, envy, rapture, courage, bliss, and melancholy). Yup, I am not sure if I understand what that means either. From the videos I have watched (click here to see one), you are going to control a cube that is on a grid of sorts, you collect things, you can move under the grid. This honestly reminds me of a flash game, a really extremely advanced flash game (advanced graphically and gamewise). This game will feature multiplayer and bad ass trippy visuals with no doubt good music to boot. Release date: Before the end of the year.

Hexic 2: I’m so excited (). Hexic was the first game I ever got all the achievements for, and rightly so, I had to prove to the world that I am the ultimate fan of Alexey Pajitnov, the man behind Tetris, and of course, Hexic. This new Hexic will bring the classic modes from the original, multiplayer battle mode (woot) that has special powers to affect your opponent. With Alexey working on this, I am expecting this to really be catered perfectly to the puzzle game fans. Release date: Sometime this month!

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When ‘Track & Field’ was released back in the 1980s in the Arcade (as well as the NES), it was quickly endeared by it’s gaming audience. Of course, Track & Field is also blamed for the great arthritis epidemec of the late 80s, as hundreds of hours of doing nothing but tapping the A and B buttons ravaged the hands of millions.

Well, now a new generation can prepare themselves for on the field greatness, as Track & Field will be making it’s arrival on the Xbox LIVE Arcade! Featuring both the original and enhanced versions of the classic, this time around you’ll be able to play over LIVE with three of your friends.

Track & Field will be available for download this Wednesday for a cool (and cheap) 400 MS Points.

[Gamerscoreblog]

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There has been a lot of controversy regarding a recently posted rumor regarding SEGA’s possible Tokyo Game Show line-up. Now, I was originally very defensive of this piece because of who sent it in. He, a long-time go-to guy named Rob, has sent me exclusive tips for four years, and until this most recent one, they were ALL accurate.

Regardless, after the link had been posted by reader “Cedge”, I immediately contacted Rob via GoogleIM.

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In an amusing, but very real situation, the new XBLA title to please all of Bungie’s fans has been the cause of an odd side effect happening during game play, people are getting sick. While browsing through users polling each other to find out whether it is just happening to them or not, it seems gamers are blaming the games 60fps speed, asking for an option to cut it down to 30fps. So far the only quick fix people have is to cut down the sensitivity, which doesn’t completely cure the problem. The issue, as funny as it is to me, is actually stopping people from purchasing the game, so I would actually expect this to get some sort of fix very soon. The incident has even hit the IGN offices, from their review of the game comes this:

“The 60fps allows Marathon to run at a lightning speed. You’ll be amazed just how quickly you can zip around a level. But that speed also comes at a cost. And that cost is a very rare sensation in videogames — motion sickness. Because of the tight confines of the levels and the ease in which you can get lost, quite often you may find yourself running about, turning quickly, and watching as the world begins to spin. Though I had a blast playing Marathon, I can’t deny that more than once I felt like throwing up. And I’m not the only one. All four IGN editors who played Marathon for more than 15 minutes began to feel ill. In fact, just thinking about the game is starting to bring back my lunch.”

So before plunking down 800 points, maybe it would be best to hear word from Bungie about a patch for the game, or as IGN says, “download the demo to test out your sea legs.”

[Bungie.net Forums | NeoGAF forums | Xbox.com Forums]
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