Announcements

We've just received word that this week will be another to spin by -- Sonic The Hedgehog 2 will be released at the usual time this Wednesday. I anticipate the retro-standard price point of 400 MSP. And the xbox.com page backs me up on this.

SEGA continues adding to their SEGA Vintage Collection by giving us what many consider to be the best Sonic game ever (I think I'm in this camp). Do you still have love for good ol' 2D Sonic? Or did the load times on the retail 360 Sonic game sour you completely on the spunky hedgehog (whether in 2D or 3D)?

In addition to Sonic 2, we'll also be getting some new DLC for Bomberman Live! and Band of Bugs. No details yet on what we're getting but we'll let you know when we know.

E-mail after the break.

[via Gamerscore News, xbox.com page here]

[Update]: Added a screenshot (click for high-res) which seems to show a massive amount of smoothing graphically. (For comparison, here's an original screen at MobyGames.) Any purists out there upset by this?

A sad day for all the 2D platforming fans out there, as Eternity's Child has jumped the XBLA ship to make its debut as a retail title on the Nintendo Wii.

Eternity's Child, which was shaping up to be a lush 2D gem for the XBLA library, was deemed unfeasible due to the size restrictions of XBLA. But how's this for irony -- the massive amount of high quality 2D art (which created the space problem in the first place) is now being reworked for the Wii's 480i/p output.

More and more it seems that the Xbox 360 platform could benefit from a new category of downloadable titles for games that do not fit under the 150MB limit of XBLA. I certainly doubt that Penny Arcade Adventures will be under 150MB per episode, so maybe exceptions are already being made. But will those exceptions become a new class of downloadables for the 360? One could hope. And then we would not lose games like Eternity's Child.

[via Shacknews, originally from ArtduJeu (Link to French language site)]

[Update]: According to an email from Luc Bernard (the game's creator) to xbox-archiv.de, this game is not only destined for the Nintendo Wii but also for the Nintendo DS (although different from the Wii version) and for the Playstation 3 as a PSN download. The PSN version is not mentioned in the ArtduJeu interview at all, so we'll have to take xbox-achiv's word for it at this point.

In addition to Eternity's Child, he is also working on other games including a "mature fairytale" called The Pink Princess (or is it The Rose Princess) which may arrive on XBLA. [via xbox-archiv, translated (poorly) here, thanks Wasabi]

After getting our hopes up, Xbox 360 Fanboy is crushing our spirits with the news that another Castlevania port is highly unlikely.

When speaking with the current producer on the Castlevania series, Koji Igarashi, 1UP was able to discover why XBLA won't be getting any more Castlevania after already getting Symphony of the Night. Igarashi gave the following explanation:

There are two reasons why I am reluctant to create a game for such channels: 1. The price is frankly too low for what we'd want to do, and 2. Most of the next gen players are expecting really high fidelity games, so I'm really not eager to go that route.

In other words, too much cost and not enough return. He also says that the XBLA version of Castlevania: SOTN "did well" but maybe it did not do as well as I expected.

[via X360F]

You don't know who Dr. Reiner Knizia is? Why he's the "best living board game designer in the world" according to Lloyd Melnick, Chief Customer Officer of Merscom. What's Merscom? The company that will be developing Knizia's board games into video games for Xbox Live Arcade, the Nintendo DS, and the PC.

Considering the Knizia has over 300 board games (pdf link) and books published, they will have a broad catalog from which to choose. And the games could start arriving in early 2008. I say, why not just bring them all over to XBLA? Anyone object to that?

Press Release is here.

[via TeamXbox, thanks weesheng]

The folks over at GamingTarget have complied some interesting stats, graphs, and figures to help uncover the truth in the console battle of exclusives. Originally, they did not consider downloadable titles worthy of comparison with retail titles. But now, their readers (and a lovely quote from Steve Dille of Sony Computer Entertainment America) have forced them to reconsider and finally detail the battle of exclusive downloads between the three consoles.

Steve Dille, Head of Marketing SCEA: Whereas our competition takes a bunch of old content and catalogs content from previous generations and offers that in a download fashion, our development organization are making games specifically for PS3.

I can see right away why this quote might motivate some investigation but is not the first time someone from Sony (or strongly tied to Sony) has made these types of comments. But to be fair, XBLA has released a ton of great content that is also on the PC. But if the content is good, why would that be a bad thing? Especially when the XBLA price is typically half the PC price. More inflammatory quotes and analysis after the break.

Apparently, XBLA's "Hot August" has left a little fire damage on Microsoft's stock of old XBLA games. The big M has announced that they will be offering special Labor Day weekend XBLA deals (at least for four XBLA games). Small Arms, Gauntlet, Zuma, and DIG DUG will all be half price from 5 p.m. PDT on Saturday through 4:49 p.m. on Monday.

For those of you keeping score that means the previously 800 MSP priced Small Arms and Zuma will be only 400 MSP and Gauntlet and DIG DUG will be available for the ludicrous price of only 200 MSP.

Apparently, if we tell David Edery what we want, we might just get it.

And this is the weekend I choose to travel. Damn.

Who is going shopping?

[via Gamerscoreblog/IGN, thanks Blue_Falcon]

Naked Sky Entertainment has been prepping some serious DLC for RoboBlitz. Who knew? This might come out of left field for me, but those that enjoy this game should be seriously stoked by the news because this DLC expansion will include multiplayer.

Besides the new multiplayer maps and modes, you also get new costumes (including Spartan, Cheerleader, and Vegas) to enjoy while you compete in standard deathmatches and also a mode called "Upgradium Blitz". In that mode you will be hording the good stuff for yourself and stealing it from your opponents.

But the best part of the whole shebang is that the expansion will be free. Music to my ears. That 1200 MSP price suddenly doesn't seem so steep anymore.

No release details yet, but it is firmly planted in the certification phase. Keep your eyes peeled (and check out the screens). It could be close.

[via Roboblitz Forums/Xbox Domain]