E3 2009: Upcoming XBLA games to look forward to

Amongst the deafening din of the big announcements at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, a lot of smaller ones were overshadowed. This includes many newly introduced Xbox Live Arcade titles that look utterly awesome, and deserve your attention. With that in mind, this article will introduce what’s in-store for you on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Splosion Man

This one’s being developed by Twisted Pixel, the guys behind this year’s incredibly addictive ‘ The Maw ‘. Just like Maw (which was based around a creature who’d eat any and everything), Splosion Man’s based around a simple concept - blowing stuff up! The game’s a 2.5D action platformer where you play ‘Splosion Man’ who was “born of plasma and flame in an underground military lab” and uses his body to blow stuff up and get to hard to reach places. By what we’ve seen, the Splosion Man’s cocky style and light-hearted gameplay will probably make for a great, and off-beat platforming experience for all those lazy evenings when you just wanna kick back and de-stress.

Shadow Complex

Here’s another action-sidescroller, but with a serious visage and a lot more eye candy. Shadow Complex is being developed by Chair Entertainment and uses the Unreal Engine 3 to bling it up. The game follows the tale of a guy who’s bent on getting his girlfriend back after she’s abducted to an underground complex. On his way, he blows the hell out of the enemy with a massive arsenal of sweet-ass weaponry. From what we’ve seen, the game seems to have a good mix of stealth and downright shooter action, along with great visual elements such as real juicy particle effects and really hot explosion.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled

What completely made my day was Ubisoft’s announcement - they’re working on a remake for the best TMNT game ever made — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, from the good ol’ 16-bit days. This title will feature four-player co-op and will hit XBLA on 22nd July, and the PlayStation Network on a later date. The game will be a remake of the arcade version of the game, rather than the SNES one. The only difference between the two are a few variations during a few boss battles. By what we’ve seen from the video, the gameplay looks like blast - just the way it used to be, and the visuals seem bright, clean, with fluid character animations, making for a potentially awesome co-op retro-remake party game!

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The Secrets of Monkey Island: Special Edition

If you’ve missed our beloved Guybrush Threepwood, you’d be glad to know that he’s making a return with Lucas Arts remake of their hit franchise, the Monkey Island series. The game will hit XBLA and PC this year, will feature some really polished 2D art, and be followed by other installments of the series in the near future. This series remake will be called “The Tales of Monkey Island” and should be released episodically.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

The Dreamcast hit - Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - is due for a revival on June 22, when you’ll be able to buy this awesome retro two-player fighting game for 1200 Microsoft Points. The game will get a treatment similar to Street Fighter III Turbo HD Remix where both visuals, as well as net code is concerned (which is a great thing). A demo for the game’s already live on the PlayStation network, and one for XBLA should follow soon.

Battlefield 1943

EA DICE’s upcoming iteration in the hit online shooter ‘Battlefield’ series will get a treatment similar to Battlefield Heroes, and be a downloadable title. The game will feature 24 player action in the pacific theatre of war, moving away from the WWII-centric Battlefield 1942. The game will allow you to pick between the US Marines or Imperial Japanese forces and a crap-load of classes. There’ll be a healthy dose of environment destruction too. By the looks of it, it seems to be shaping up quite well and for a 1200 Microsoft Point XBLA title, it should offer good value for money.

Joy Ride

Joy Ride is a Mario Kart/Trackmania-styled free online racer that will allow you to race your personal avatar around really good looking cel-shaded tracks. The game will be free initially, but if you wish to pimp your ride, you’re going to have to shed out some Microsoft Points.

If you wish to check out the trailer for all these games, the montage’s right below: