At Microsoft’s E3 press conference on Monday morning, there was a video montage of a lot of games that are coming to Xbox One through the ID@Xbox program. Over the next few days, XBLA Fans is bringing you a slightly longer glimpse of those titles than what the montage trailer allowed for. Our coverage of these titles will be in alphabetical order. Below is a look at the second set of seven of those games.

Earthlock: Festival of Magic

Earthlock features a world divided between those that prefer magic and those that prefer technology. In this turn-based RPG from Snowcastle Games, you will play as Amon who is trying to prevent a war from starting in his home planet Umbra. In your quest to save your planet you’ll encounter various terrains including oceans, deserts, and snow-buried lands. Throughout your journey you will try and obtain more allies to join your quest, solve environmental puzzles, and harvest seeds to grow your own ammo.

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It’s a shame that Xbox owners missed out on last year’s smash hit Guacamelee, but DrinkBox Studios is about that by bringing bring Guacamelee to all platforms with an expanded version called Super Turbo Championship Edition (STCE). XBLA Fans caught up with DrinkBox Co-founder Graham Smith at PAX East and spoke to Lead Designer Greg Lesky via email to find out more about what this new version of Guacamelee is all about, how it has evolved and why you should be excited.

For those not acquainted with Guacamelee, Lesky describes it as “a metroid-vania platformer where you play a farmer named Juan whose girlfriend gets kidnapped by a guy named Carlos Calaca bent on ruling both the Land of the Living and the Dead. He then kills Juan, who finds a mystical Luchador Mask that gives Juan the powers of a Mexican wrestler and [Juan returns] to the Land of the Living to stop him.” With these powers, the player fights, jumps and dimension-swaps to defeat Calaca’s undead hordes and save his girlfriend…and the world. The Super Turbo Championship Edition features all-new levels, enemies, upgrades, fixes and a boss fight, making this the definitive version of DrinkBox’s biggest game yet.

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The lucha-themed Metroid-vania adventure Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition will make its debut on Xbox One and Xbox 360 soon. No official date has been given to the new revision of Guacamelee!, but there are some details on how it differs from last year’s Playstation and PC releases. Super Turbo Championship Edition boasts all of the DLC previously released on other platforms as well as additional story content, new areas, a brand new boss called The Trio of Death, and a new INTENSO combat mode among other tweaks. Drinkbox Studios has released the trailer below showcasing what to expect in Guacamelee! STCE.
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Last week, you may have caught our five-part feature looking ahead at as many XBLA games and their Xbox One brethren as we could possibly cram into one week’s worth of articles. If you missed it, go ahead and check it out right now. Start here.

All done with that? Great. Now you know what’s coming. What you may not know, however, is which of those games you should be looking forward to the most. Don’t worry — XBLA Fans has you covered. Read on to find out what upcoming XBLA and Xbox One games select members of our team are most looking forward to getting their hands on. Once you’re done, let us know which ones you’re most excited for in the comments section. We’re asking you to read through our many thoughts on the big releases ahead, so we figure the least we can do in return is to read yours as well.

Strider

Ryan Thompson, Contributor — When Capcom first announced that it was releasing a modern Strider title, my first thought was to listen to a track by game composer Jake Kaufman entitled “Dracula Man X2 Alpha Turbo.” Kaufman was clearly having fun when he created the track, giving one potential answer to what the Castlevania franchise’s music would sound like if Capcom had developed it instead of Konami. With the imminent release of Strider on the 18th of February, Capcom is poised to give something of an official answer to the same question Kaufman must have asked himself — what would Castlevania be like if Capcom released it instead?

First of all, it would have the same level of polish as the best of Capcom’s 2D games, with controls that never fail, leaving players without excuses for failure in the tradition of both the original Strider for NES and the more famous Mega Man games. Second, it appears that, judging by the trailer, there would be more emphasis on combat and slightly less on exploration, though that might be just the frantic flow of activity in a short video speaking. Finally, as Kaufman hints in his tribute, this game would come with a soundtrack worthy of the rest of Capcom’s 2D oeuvre.

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Fire Pro Wrestling was developed by Spike Chunsoft Co. and published by Microsoft. It was released on September 21, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Fire Pro Wrestling is a franchise that dates back to the late 1980s and has been met with a strong fan following. Although only three entries have released in the United States, the series has garnered a large cult following. The franchise gained popularity due to its old school, sprite based graphics and its deep combo and customization systems. The last major entry in the series, 2005’s Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for the PlayStation 2, gained the series a cult following in the West.

Now, the franchise has returned with the long delayed Fire Pro Wrestling, which repackages with a shiny Avatar wrapping; the game hit XBLA earlier this month. How does it hold up? Is it worth your hard earned MSP? Read on.

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Fire Pro Wrestling hits digital shelves today as part of an ever-growing trend of Friday Xbox Live Arcade releases. The avatar-based fighter ships with Avatar FameStar support, meaning that …
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That’s right, next Friday Fire Pro Wrestling will be released. Finally you can pull that luchador mask out of your closet and go all Nacho Libre on your friends, siblings, roommates, or whatever. Over 300 wrestling moves can be used and/or unlocked, and you’ll be able to customize your avatar with over 300 included avatar items. A full campaign mode is included, and you can take your wrestler online for a free-for-all or tag team match over Xbox LIVE. Avatar Famestar support is included as well, meaning that the better you play, the more bragging rights and avatar gear you’ll earn.

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Shank Characters:

Our full Shank 2 Guide will be launching next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this guide to the unlockable character skins which we will be updating throughout the week. 

Shank

Pros

• +10% Health

Unlocked by default

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Didn’t think we’d keep this going? Too much work? Too much copy paste? No such thing! The XBLA Fans Monthly Roundup is back again this time displaying a clear love for features! December was a month of features as we all tackled new ideas, new plans and executed them (hopefully flawlessly). Witness the beginning of the Friday Top Five, a top five list of things pertaining to one awesome thing (because why not?), and the XBLA Primer, a nifty batch of background history on a developer’s XBLA history as well as a list of their games. Hopefully these features will be well liked as we have plans to permeate the rest of the new year with them as well as our other veteran features.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out our Game of the Year awards listed in the Features section!

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Gamasutra editor Ryan Langley has released his Xbox Live Arcade sales analysis for the month of June. Of the seven releases last month Magic the Gathering: Duels of the …
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