Media

An Xbox Marketplace listing has revealed that Mini Ninjas Adventures is on the way to XBLA from publisher Square Enix and developer Side Kick. The previously unannounced game mysteriously turned up on the website without any sort of formal announcement from Square, Side Kick or Microsoft. If the listing is accurate, and regular readers know that such is not always the case, Mini Ninjas will be landing on Arcade June 27.

Side Kick’s action-adventure title will feature 21 levels of “intense ninja action.” The Kinect-controlled game is a followup to 2009’s Mini Ninjas, developed by IO Interactive and released by Eidos — now owned by Square Enix — which was developed for 360, PS3, Wii, DS and Windows before eventually making its way over to Mac.

Just a few weeks ago, Mini Ninjas: Hiro’s Adventure turned up on that prolific spoiler of unannounced games, the Australian Classification Board. It does not appear that this is the same project, however, since IO is listed as the developer attached to Hiro’s Adventure, not Side Kick. With E3 now one week away, it’s far from out of the realm of possibility that more news will be forthcoming during the show about one or both titles.

Source: Microsoft

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Rock Band Blitz will let players experience their favorite Rock Band DLC in a new way, shifting the note-pressing craze to an arcade-style format. Players will compete on the leaderboards for the top spots, and the new power-ups will make the competition even tougher. The trailer above proves how power-ups can really rack up points, but have to be used properly for full scoring potential.

The focus may have been taken away from plastic instruments, but the game is still all about the music. A total of 11 songs have been announced from the set list, which can be seen after the jump. Get ready to make some noise, Rock Band Blitz releases this summer.

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Microsoft has dropped a couple of “mystery” screenshots for a motocross game on its Play XBLA site, but Eurogamer, as well as several commenters on the original story, was able to quickly decipher that the game in question is Avatar Motocross Madness. Not that doing so was particularly difficult: the file names of the images are AMX_Mystery_1 and AMX_Mystery_2, and the publisher trademarked Avatar Motocross Madness last month. The name of the game was to be officially announced during Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing on Monday, June 4, but it’s now obviously not going to quite be the surprise the publisher had in mind.

Avatar Motocross Madness will be the first release in the series since Motocross Madness 2 dropped in 2000. It was the sequel to the 1998 original, both developed by Rainbow Studios and published by Microsoft on PC. THQ acquired the developer in 2001 before shutting it down last year. The developer behind the Avatar-themed revival has not yet been revealed.

Sources: Play XBLA and Eurogamer

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Tequila Works has been showing off thrilling gameplay for their upcoming zombie game Deadlight for some time, but the story that will back it up appears just as exciting. The …
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Konami has released several new screenshots for Zombie Studios’ Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition, and unlike George Costanza‘s Frogger high score, these screens have successfully made it across the street to their destination: your browser window. Of course, not even Schlomo and Slippery Pete could have blundered this one. Ah, references.

In any case, this latest incarnation of the 31-years-old franchise, players will be able to square off against each other or the CPU in four-player matches to determine “who’s really the top frog.” And how!

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You might have thought Double Fine had forgotten about XBLA, with their Kickstarter fame all we’ve heard XBLA-wise is rumblings of new Iron Brigade content. Now Sega is publishing their brand new game entitled The Cave, conceived by Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert. It’s an adventure game with puzzle and platforming elements but not in a traditional sense and more Metroidvania-style exploration. You’ll assemble a crack team of spelunkers each with different abilities and personalities. You can switch between any of the three characters on the fly or use 3-player local co-op. The characters include a scientist, a knight and a hillbilly…because why not? Ron Gilbert had this to say about The Cave:

“The concept of The Cave has been bouncing around in my head for many, many years, and then the little voices that tell me to do things said it was time to make the game,” added Ron Gilbert. “I’m thrilled to be working with amazingly talented folks at Double Fine and ecstatic that the team at SEGA believes in adventure games and quirky ideas.

Catch some screenshots after the jump, the game will be out some time in 2013.
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Microsoft Japan has revealed that Crimson Dragon, the on-rails dragon combat title from Grounding, Inc. and Land Ho! Co. Ltd., is set to release in Japan on June 13, reports Famitsu. The Kinect-enabled spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon series will cost gamers 1200 Microsoft Points. No release details have been made available in regards to American and European territories at this time.

A trio of new dragons were also shown and detailed for the first time, meaning that all six of the game’s dragon types are now known. Black Bone makes up for his lack of agility with powerful main attacks and skills such as his “homing-Ray,” which locks on to a multitude of baddies. Golden Hawk has strong defensive attributes and a move called “plasma Barrett.” A rough translation identifies the move as “a power attack fire.” Last up is Silver Tail, who is sort of the smarty-pants of flying lizards. Silver Tail has the highest mental strength but low stamina. His main “Vision Lightning” ability allows for a form of automated tracking, and his main attack will be customizable to some degree.

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More details are surfacing for Double Dragon Neon, the upcoming reboot of old school arcade brawler Double Dragon. In from the new video from G4 we learn that along with …
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Update: Eurogamer updated with a more definitive date of June 13.

Ubisoft has announced that Babel Rising, the HD remake of the popular iOS and Droid game of …
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Techland’s off-road arcade racer Mad Riders got an official release date and a brand new trailer today. The game which is being published by Ubisoft is now set to release …
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