Weekly Roundup: May 13
Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends.
Is XBLA’s Most Wanted working?
When we started XBLA’s Most Wanted back in February of 2011 we did so more for fun. It was, in our minds, a pipe dream to actually think some of these games would be hitting Xbox Live Arcade. Yet over the past year we’ve seen both announcements and releases that directly correlate with some of the games on our most wanted list. Now to be fair we realize that we’re just one site, but at the same time we know that developers and publishers look out on the web for what the fans want. We like to think we’re a little part of that. Here are some examples that make us think XBLA’s Most Wanted is successful:
Weekly Roundup: March 24
Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Amped 2
In 2003 Microsoft was doing everything they could to keep their the infant console afloat. One of the ways they attempted this was with exclusive titles of every genre and type, from classic names we recognized like Conker and Toe Jam & Earl, to supplying the market with original titles like Blinx and Blood Wake. Many of these titles, especially the rebirths, were major failures, but some of them were just amazing. Among those is Amped 2, originally released October 28, 2003 (NA) one week behind SSX 3. The two were pitted directly against each other in a snowy race to the top of the charts.
The original Amped launched to good scores but poor sales, leaving Amped 2 with a huge job: improve on greatness, but get noticed this time. Developer Indie Built succeeded, exceeding almost all expectations at launch, delivering (at the time) amazing graphics and decent controls. It quickly was acclaimed a must-have snowboarding game and spawned fans everywhere. It included local and LIVE multiplayer, massive drop selections and a few innovative features. Bundle up and drop into this weeks Most Wanted with us.
Weekly Roundup: March 17
Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends.
XBLAFancast Episode 53 – Robotokami
It’s back to the regular crew this week. We kick things off by talking about last weeks release of I Am Alive, we have some mixed thoughts on the ambitious survival game. Then Todd tells us all about Shoot Many Robots, check out his review to find out more.
Perry drops the usual news bombs, of which there are a lot this week. Andrew grabs a twitter question about the worst XBLA games and challenges us to play Aces of the Galaxy, send your thoughts to @XBLAFans on twitter.
Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!
Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.
[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp53.mp3[/podcast]
XBLA Fans Monthly Roundup (February 2012)
We totally missed January, but the Monthly Recap is back for February! Yaaay. There’s an immense amount of news this month because for some reason February is XBLA month. There’s roughly a million game announcements and DLC as well. I suggest hitting CTRL + F and searching for the copious news about your favorite game. Or games. Or just read all the news, because that’s a good idea.
Beyond the “things that happened”, there’s also several Friday Top Fives and Most Wanted’s this month as we continue to beef up our feature repertoire. Our chief feature, A Year In Review (2011) is definitely worth checking out for some insight into the fluctuations in XBLA cost versus review scores. Lastly, amongst the five podcasts is our Music Special which showcases some of the best XBLA soundtrack tunes since its inception.
Without further ado, welcome to February all over again! Read More
Spring Showcase with XBLA Fans and GDC coverage on the way
The Spring Showcase happened in San Francisco recently and had a lot of great games to show for it. Not to mention a bunch of XBLA games and we have a ton of new content about each game. Look past the break to see what spring is blooming on XBLA.
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Bodoink coming Spring 2012 for 400 MSP
An unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign apparently hasn’t stopped Chicago developer Robomodo from getting their Kinect-based pinball adventure Bodoink released on the Xbox. The game, in which you use the Kinect to guide …
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XBLAFans’ Most Anticipated Games of 2012
Judging by the amount of games we expect to release this year, we already know that 2012 is going to be the biggest year yet for Xbox Live Arcade. With that in mind, we decided to ask each of our staff members to choose one game that they’re really looking forward to playing this year, and tell us exactly what we have to look forward to and why. Without further ado, we present to you XBLAFans Most Anticipated Games of 2012.