About Steve Melton

Forget Power Rangers, Voltron was the original team robot. We sit down with Producer Russell Brock to discuss why.
Read More

We still have a two more XBLA’s Most Wanted features waiting in the wings for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, but we thought we’d take a minute and ask you, the everyday gamer, what your number one XBLA game wish is. Remember to be realistic–we aren’t going to see any Super Mario games on XBLA–but have fun with it. Who knows, you just might have your favorite game featured in a future Most Wanted column, and if you do you’ll have all of your wildest dreams come true.

If you need a refresher, hit the jump to take a look at all of the games we’ve featured this year. If a game seems interesting to you, be sure to comment on it. We can’t guarantee it’ll come to XBLA, but we do know that developers and publishers frequent forums and journalistic sites looking for what the fans want.

Read More

Gamasutra Editor Ryan Langley has published his XBLA sales analysis for the month of November. Four titles were released, and each has leaderboards that could be tracked for relatively …
Read More

Voltron: Defender of the Universe was developed by Behaviour Interactive and published by THQ. It was released on November 30, 2011 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

It’s a trend in not only Hollywood, but also in the game industry across the world. Companies are looking back to their roots, resurrecting franchises, and bringing them to new and old audiences alike. It comes as no surprise, then that the 1980’s anime Voltron would get similar treatment. It was beloved by so many children of that decade, and it’s been the subject of a comeback in the last few years. The original series is available for streaming on Netflix, a 2011 resurrection of the series, entitled Voltron Force currently airs on television, and Voltron has finally graced current-gen consoles in the form of Defender of the Universe.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe is primarily a twin-stick shooter. Players are given control of one of the five Voltron lions, each with a unique special attack and stats. Primary cannons are controlled with the right thumbstick, while the right trigger is used to pounce. Melee attacks can be performed with the right bumper, and the left trigger powers a given lion’s special attack. The Voltron stages are presented as a turn-based/quick time event hybrid.

Read More

Ahhh Unreal Tournament. The Quake killer. The time sinker. The first worthwhile shooter that didn’t have some over-the-top story. It was just you, a gun, and an agenda. There were no worlds to save, no personal vendetta, just the tournament–the Unreal Tournament. And 1999’s success story was followed up multiple sequels and even a console spinoff, the Unreal Championship series. To most the culmination of UT hit with Unreal Tournament 2004. Sure, 2007’s Unreal Tournament 3 was great, but it went up against the likes of Halo and Call of Duty. It’s not surprising it didn’t float.

That’s why today we set our hopes on a digital UT2004. Xbox Live Arcade is a unique beast; a game can be successful on gameplay alone. It’s a place where flashy graphics are nice, but not necessary. And more importantly, it’s digital. That means people won’t be trading the game in as soon as they get bored. They’ll put it aside for a bit and come back to it once a week or so. And that, my friends, means a persistent community.

Read More

Playing through Halo Anniversary this weekend with my brother-in-law I had a very eye opening experience. After all of the PR fluff and critic reviews based more on nostalgia I found myself more critical of the quality of the updates to the original Halo: CE. I wondered why I was knocking all of these little issues I found when I was having a blast playing through a game that can still suck me in. Then it hit me: Bungie didn’t work on Anniversary, and that’s who I was comparing 343’s work against. Sure, Saber Interactive provided the new HD graphics layer and Certain Affinity developed all of the multiplayer maps, but as the primary developer 343 had the end say as to whether something qualified as Halo-worthy or not.

Read More

Gamasutra’s October Xbox Live Arcade sales analysis hit us up this past weekend. Last month saw 11 new releases, with genres ranging from sports to tower defense. The top …
Read More

So many of us still mourn the delisting of Marble Blast Ultra. It was one of the classic greats of Xbox Live Arcade, and still has no equal in its genre. Those who missed out may never know the joy of the marble genre. There’s something about feeling the weight of the marble in your thumbstick while trying to navigate stupidly hard (read: extremely hard) levels.

The Super Monkey Ball series is a different spin on the same idea. Instead of controlling the marble (in this case a monkey inside a clear ball) players have control of the game world. The left thumbstick tilts the world in a given direction, then gravity does the rest. Super Monkey Ball Deluxe added several fun minigames such as soccer and bowling. Super Monkey Ball Arcade would take all of those ideas and…well, roll with them.

Read More

Update: While the NewEgg deal says expired, it is still valid. Also, Amazon is offering a similar deal $40 for Halo Anniversary with $10 Amazon gift card.

It’s not exactly XBLA news, but …
Read More

September brings some interesting new releases, and with them sales data from the folks at Gamasutra. The data lists two late August releases and the eight September releases we …
Read More