Microsoft and Double Fine Productions have announced that Kinect Party will launch for free on Xbox Live Arcade on December 18. You read that right. Double Fine’s successor to Happy Action Theater will launch on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday and will be free to download for the rest of 2012. As of January 1, 2013 the game will come at a price, but we’re not exactly sure what that price will be as of yet. Our advice is to take advantage of this unparalleled deal and download Kinect Party when it launches next week. You can get a peak at all the motion-controlled happy partying action in the brand new trailer for the game above.
Kinect Party is the spiritual successor to last year’s Happy Action Theater (see our review here) which builds upon the concept of pulling players likenesses into zany mini-games. Kinect Party will mark the debut of 18 brand new mini-games including the greatly hyped dubstep mini-game which just may take the award for most anticipated mini-game of all time. Players who own Happy Action Theater will be able to import all of the first game’s mini-games into Kinect Party, bringing the game’s grand total up to 36. You can watch some of the Double Fine and Giant Bomb staff play Kinect Party for over 40 minutes by checking out our story about the game’s reveal from a few months back.
The story of the Oddworld franchise on the Xbox, and now Xbox Live Arcade is a complex one. When Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee launched for the original Xbox, it was published by Microsoft themselves. Many years later, reports have surfaced of Microsoft denying developer Just Add Water the release of their Oddworld HD remakes on Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand. A few months back, Just Add Water announced Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty, a ground up re-envisioning of the original Oddworld title for multiple platforms, including Xbox Live Arcade. So just where do Microsoft, the Xbox and the Oddworld franchise stand now? Our sister site Steam Game Fans recently had the opportunity to interview Stewart Gilray, CEO of Just Add Water, and Yoda of all things Oddworld. Several revelations were made throughout the interview that answer questions, raise a few more, and should be interesting to fans of both Xbox Live Arcade, and the Oddworld universe in general.
That’s quite a bit to chew in one steef sized bite, but it looks like things are very busy in the world of odd. For the full text of the interview, including a description of the development process of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddyssee New N’ Tasty, hop on over to Steam Game Fans. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty will be released on Xbox Live Arcade as well as PC, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita next fall.
Source: Steam Game Fans
Just Add Water has announced that Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty will release for multiple platforms, including Xbox Live Arcade about a year from now, during autumn of 2013. Formerly known as Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee HD, the game is a high-definition remake of the game that started it all, the PSOne classic, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Known for its unique visual style, blend of puzzles and platforming and truly one of a kind humor, Just Add Water’s update does more than just lay on a shiny new coat of paint.
Gone are the days of “screen-flipping” that the original Oddworld games were known for. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty is being built from the ground up as a three-dimensional side-scroller. While approximately “eighty to ninety percent” of the game’s puzzles remain the same as the original game’s, the change in presentation and other small user friendliness related updates are said to have changed the way gamers move through the depths of the industrial dangers that await Abe. Don’t take our word for it however; Above you will find a video of the footage that Just Add Wated presented to the crowd at the Eurogamer Expo, in high-definition. Continue reading “Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty announced for XBLA” »
The folks over at FrontTowardsGamer.Com recently spoke with Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions and published the conversation as part of their podcast. In the interview around the 1 hour and 18 minute mark, Tim mentions that more Iron Brigade content is on the way and that listeners should “stay tuned”. What could this new content be? Could it be something as major as new campaign content, or new survival mode maps? Could it possibly even be snazzy new salutes? We’re not sure what Tim and the gang are working on, but we’re excited that more Iron Brigade may be on the way.
Originally released under the name Trenched last summer, a lawsuit forced Microsoft and Double Fine to change the name of their action packed, mech centric, tower defense title to Iron Brigade. Since the name change, an expansion, Rise of the Martian Bear was released, adding several more hours of single-player campaign content as well as an all new survival mode. If you haven’t yet added the game to your collection, maybe you should take note that Iron Brigade was the recipient of our very own Game of the Year award in 2011.
Source: Front Towards Gamer
Sega has released a new trailer for Arkedo’s upcoming violence filled platformer Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit which contains our first official look at the game in motion. Also revealed for the first time are the photographs of the rabbit prince of hell himself with his rubber ducky that are the center of the scandal that sets off the events of the game. Who ever thought that a path of violence and destruction would come from the sight of a rubber ducky? Well, it definitely has, and this trailer is proof. Check out the prince of hell wreaking havoc and pursuing his revenge one kill at a time by clicking play on the video above. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is scheduled to hit Xbox Live Arcade this summer.
The latest edition of Inside Xbox gives us a sneak peak at Valve’s addictive and uber-competitive shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The video (which can be viewed above) shows off over three minutes of gameplay footage, while Valve’s very own Chet Faliszek talks about what’s new in Global Offensive and what makes it different from the rest of today’s shooter market. Among the topics discussed are the game’s new Demolition Mod, its skilled based matchmaking system which promises to open the game up to newcomers like never before.
The original version of Counter-Strike launched in the year 2000, instantly pulling in millions of players with its fast, frantic skill based gameplay and high levels of competition. The game has received continuous support from Valve since its launch with frequent updates still being released twelve years later. Global Offensive is the latest version of the game, and represents the first time that the Counter-Strike franchise has been brought to consoles since the takeoff of online gaming services like Xbox Live. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is currently slated to bring a new level of competitiveness to XBLA this summer.
The good folks over at Joystiq recently had the opportunity to speak with Starbreeze President and CEO Mikael Nermark, who opened up about the future of the company. During the interview, Mr. Nermark broke the news on P13, a new downloadable title being developed internally for XBLA and PSN. The game is being directed by Swedish film maker Josef Fares, a newcomer to the gaming industry who is now employed full time at Starbreeze. While no additional details surrounding P13 are currently available, Nermark states that the developer is very close to signing a publishing deal for the game. Let’s hope that means we get to see the game in action sooner, rather than later!
Starbreeze is based in Sweden having built their name by developing the graphically impressive Chronicles of Riddick games as well as the recent revival of the Syndicate franchise. The studio is beginning a push to make themselves more visible, as well as more productive by breaking down into four teams to work on multiple projects. One of those four teams is the recently acquired Overkill Software, developers of Payday: The Heist, who will now fall under the Starbreeze umbrella. P13 (which is being developed by a different team) will be one of the first products of the studio’s new business model.
Source: Joystiq
A few weeks back Team 17 announced Worms Revolution, an all new Worms game set to be released on XBLA sometime during the third quarter of this year. Fans of the franchise immediately began to wiggle with joy upon hearing news of the game being built from the ground up on a completely new engine. Today, we’re able to deliver the first concrete details on that engine. In a nutshell, Revolution‘s environment’s will be rendered in 3D, with the game outwardly looking like a classic 2D Worms game, with much better graphics. Team 17 has promised that deformation and destruction of the game’s environments will be on par with the franchise’s classic side-scrolling entries. Team 17 has also revealed that Revolution‘s environments will have four central themes; sewers, gardens, farms, and a beach known as “Rock Pool”. You can check out concept art of each setting by following the link below. Don’t even try to claim you’re not already thinking about blowing these places to bits.
Continue reading “Team 17 details the environments and engine of Worms Revolution” »
Jeremiah Slaczka of 5th Cell recently gave GameTrailers a virtual walk through of a match in their upcoming tactical third-person shooter Hybrid, and there’s video footage to prove it. The video (which can be viewed above) shows off nearly five minutes of gameplay footage taken from a single round of the game’s Team Deathmatch mode. Throughout the video you’ll hear Slaczka narrating, talking about what’s going on in the game, and what makes Hybrid different from the rest of the shooter market. Also of interest is our interview with Mr. Slaczka himself from February in which we got all the juicy details on the game, its unique control scheme, and persistent online world war.
Hybrid is currently scheduled to release exclusively on Xbox Live Arcade this summer, but you might not have to wait that long to play it. 5th Cell will be running a beta for the game that is supposed to kick off toward the end of this month. To sign up for the beta, head on over to the game’s official site. Well, what are you waiting for?
Source: GameTrailers
Diabolical Pitch was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Microsoft. It was released on April 4, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.
When the gaming world learned that Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture were developing a game that would utilize Kinect, taste buds quickly started to tingle. Grasshopper is known as one of the most creative and stylish developers out there, so the prospect of their minds working with the new technology had many buzzing with anticipation. The final product, Diabolical Pitch, is as wild and fantastic as everyone had hoped. In Diabolical Pitch, you take on the role of a professional baseball pitcher who is struck down with injury at the peak of his career. Shortly after this tragic turn of events, our protagonist decides to visit a theme park. It is here that our hero is greeted by a cow in a shirt and tie who enables our hero to throw again. This gift however, comes with a price. McMillan must make his way through this dark and twisted carnival, which is filled with horrors. Mostly just life sized dolls that resemble strange animal-human hybrids. Armed only with his pitching arm, McMillan must take it to this marionette army of zoo animals if he ever wants to return to Hall of Fame form. This is where our strange adventure begins.
