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In a fascinating read over at the Penny Arcade Report, designer Andy Schatz explains that his upcoming XBLA game Monaco is not a stealth game, despite surface-level appearances.

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Here we are once again at the start of what’s sure to be another fantastic year of XBLA releases. Each day this week XBLAFans will be rolling out a list of eight of our most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade releases of 2013. While we can’t possibly cover every single XBLA game planned for this year, we’ll be giving you a varied list of 40 of the most promising titles we expect to release on XBLA in 2013. Once it’s all done, be sure to check back in next Monday when each staff member makes his/her picks for the game he/she is most looking forward to.

Developer: Double Fine

An upcoming platform-adventure game, The Cave is the brainchild of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert. Channeling Gilbert’s earlier work, The Cave employs classic adventure-style gameplay within an action-platform framework. While we expect The Cave to release this month, an official release date has not yet been announced.

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Deck 13 and dtp entertainment have announced that action RPG Blood Knights will release on XBLA on February 20 2013 for 1200 MSP. According to Deck 13 and dtp, Blood …
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It’s the gift that keeps being given, it seems: Mojang’s runaway indie success Minecraft continues to sell through the roof, reportedly chalking up an additional 453,000 sales across all …
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In a blog post he’s since deleted, Xbox Live Director of Programming, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, announced the “Countdown to 2013” sale for the marketplace. The sale, which begins on December 18 and runs through December 31, will see discounts for a raft of content from certain franchises and publishers on both XBLA and the wider marketplace.

Although the official page has been pulled, the folks over at NeoGAF managed to compile a reasonably comprehensive list of the titles to go on sale and the date their discounts will take effect. Unfortunately, Major Nelson never revealed the discounted prices at any stage. But if you hope to catch any of the games or DLC in the list below for cheap, it may pay to stock up on MSP!

However, the fact that the official page has been pulled (even though most of the details are out in the wild) has us at least a little concerned, so maybe try not to pin all your hopes and dreams on the “Countdown to 2013” sale.

The full list of currently known discounted XBLA items follows:

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Mobile app stores are heavily populated with shameless Super Mario Bros. clones, but the latest entry in the series of the original imitator is now officially headed …
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Over the course of the past month, Zen Studios has released a new blog post each week detailing the various character types players can expect to see in the upcoming CastleStorm. With the final entry posted last Wednesday, we’ve compiled all four entries right here for your convenience. Be sure to check the links to each blog post to learn more details about these characters and even tips on how to use them in-game.

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We’ve now received a host of official details relating to the upcoming release of Capcom’s popular 2D fighting game Darkstalkers Resurrection.

A compilation of two games from the cartoon-style, horror-pastiche fighting franchise Darkstalkers (specifically, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge and Darkstalkers 3), Darkstalkers Resurrection will hit XBLA in “early 2013” for 1200 MSP.

While the games are said to be faithful recreations of their arcade counterparts, Capcom has included a variety of HD filter options and viewing modes. Reportedly, these viewing modes range from full-screen to an over-the-shoulder arcade mode, replicating the arcade experience.

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A karaoke app simply named Karaoke is headed to Xbox Live “in time for the holidays,” according to the Karaoke Channel.

Karaoke will allows users to stream from a library of more than 8,000 songs, all of which will have karaoke-style subtitles enabled. Where it differs from existing singing games like Lips or even Rock Band is that users aren’t required to purchase additional tracks; instead, users spend Microsoft Points to rent the service for 2-hour, 6-hour or 24-hour periods. All tracks can be accessed during this time frame, and the Karaoke Channel says it will add tracks to Karaoke’s library over time.

The app will also make use of the Xbox 360’s new SmartGlass functionality, allowing users to browse and queue songs from a mobile device. Among other staple karaoke features, Karaoke features the option to change any given song’s key to better suit a singer’s range. Xbox Live avatar integration has also been confirmed by the first batch of official screen shots.

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Pool Nation was developed by Cherry Pop Games and published by Mastertronic. It was released on October 31, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Cue-sport video games are relatively rare, which is odd given pool’s popularity and accessibility at bars and pool halls around the world. On XBLA, there’s Bankshot Billiards 2, which offers a basic yet functional take on the game of pool. With its first game, Pool Nation, Cherry Pop Games takes aim at this largely uncontested genre, placing more emphasis on visuals than its peers. But it’s no mere case of “all style and no substance” – Pool Nation manages to deliver a great-looking billiards game without compromising on real-world physics or in-depth mechanics.

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