About Matthew Smail

As a modern gamer it’s easy to look back on Nintendo’s SNES and create a list of RPGs that would probably include several of the genre’s best examples across all platforms. Back in 1993, though, many western gamers (both in Europe and the US alike) were frustrated by the lack of console RPGs that appealed to their popular culture, despite the undeniable quality of JRPGs like Ogre Battle, Secret of Mana and even Zelda: A Link to the Past. Systems like the Amiga featured all the best “adult” games and no matter what we think now, the SNES, with its army of cute, blue-haired RPG protagonists, was considered to be strictly for kids by most adults.

For many, Shadowrun’s release on the SNES changed everything. Based on a pen and paper RPG and featuring a detailed, complex story that incorporated grizzled mercenaries, violent gangs and an acidic populace of orks, trolls and cybernetically enhanced humans, all crammed into a dystopian future of magic and technology; Shadowrun basically delivered everything that European and American kids had grown up watching in movies and cartoons since the early 1980’s.

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Good news for fans of Worms Revolution, as just last week (November 21) saw the release of a brand new Medieval-themed DLC pack for the latest (and arguably greatest) …
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[springboard type=”youtube” id=”dbBGMAAt5zc” player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ] Fans of the classic, cult (or should that be occult?) beat-em-up Darkstalkers had good reason to rejoice yesterday after Capcom announced that a …
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With The Walking Dead: The Game – Episode 4 available now on XBLA, we thought that fans might appreciate this terrifying shot of Clementine being ambushed by a walker to …
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[springboard type=”youtube” id=”8pW3e7x2T3U” player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″] Brian Provinciano’s eagerly anticipated Grand Theft Auto inspired shooter Retro City Rampage launches today on PSN and PC, with an XBLA release scheduled for later …
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Warner Brothers Interactive recently released a new behind-the-scenes video of Monolith’s upcoming multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game known as Guardians …
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As many of our readers already know, Spelunky started life as a free-to-play PC game which was later converted into a superb 1200 MSP XBLA title. Before hitting …
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Here at XBLA Fans, we absolutely love Dust:An Elysian Tail, as Nick explains in his review. Just one of the many things that makes Dean Dodrill’s labor of love such a joy …
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Fans of The Walking Dead will be salivating at the sight of the latest Episode 4 Trailer which has recently been released …
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Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit was developed by Arkedo Games and published by Sega. It was released September 26, 2012 in North America and a week later in the UK for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

It’s difficult to classify Hell Yeah! in a single easy statement. Arkedo’s Xbox Live Arcade debut draws heavily upon classic games such as Sonic, Mario, WarioWare, Parodius, Mortal Kombat and just about everything in-between, but remains almost entirely unique at the same time. Put simply, Hell Yeah! is one of the most enjoyable XBLA titles we’ve played this year, despite the occasional flaw and my own reservations about some of the humor.

The game begins with the most tenuous of story lines as Ash (the Dead Rabbit Prince of Hell and main protagonist of Hell Yeah!) is pictured in the act of bathing with his rubber duck by a nosy paparazzi. The pictures are quickly uploaded to the Hell-ternet and much embarrassment follows for our hero. Determined to have his revenge (and to recover the photos) Ash sets out to defeat one hundred and one monsters across a range of unique and interesting worlds.

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