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Recently we had a chance to speak with 7sixty Games about their upcoming new age beat’em up, Kung Fu Strike. In this interview we talk about the games origins, graphics style, even a little tidbit about DLC. So put on your favorite kung fu themed fighting music and dive in to the rest of this interview.

XBLA Fans: Tell us a little bit about 7sixty games.

Rob Burman: 7sixty is a relatively new publisher set up in 2011 with an aim to release great digital games. Many of us play games at the company and over the years it’s become more apparent that a lot of the more creative and imaginative titles are released digitally, so we thought it would be great to focus on this aspect of gaming. Kung Fu Strike will be our first XBLA release and we’re more excited than a black belt in judo who has just smashed his hand through a pile of bricks.

XBLA Fans: How did the idea of Kung Fu Strike originally come about?

Rob Burman: We are action game fans and we are Kung Fu lovers. However if you want to be a Kung Fu master you have to work very hard for years and years. As a result we wanted to create a similar experience in a video game, so you can do all kinds of incredible Kung Fu moves without ever leaving your sofa! Therefore it’s a title for hardcore gamers but it’s also for casual Kung Fu fans.

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Pinball Arcade was developed by FarSight Studios and published by Crave Entertainment. It was released on April 4, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Pinball Arcade is bringing a new feel and set of priorities to the XBLA pinball landscape. Long dominated by the venerable Pinball FX2, there is now another choice on the market that both borrows from the latter while striking out in its own direction as well. Having already developed the highly regarded Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, FarSight is no newcomer to the genre. They have brought their expertise to craft a game that accurately recreates classic pinball tables. The resulting product is one that will feel immediately familiar to veterans but distinct enough to warrant its own release.

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Star Trek’s John de Lancie has picked up his next generation starring role in the upcoming first person puzzler Quantum Conundrum from Airtight Games. Best known for playing Q …
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Sonic the Hedgehog: 4: Episode 1 didn’t exactly spin dash to fan’s hearts when it released in 2010–it contained a wonky physics engine and lackluster gameplay, but Sega plans to turn that perception around with its aptly titled sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2.

The demo we played at PAX East had Sonic speeding through an act covered in blizzard conditions with huge snowballs gaining mass while fumbling toward our blue protagonist, so it was important that Sega’s promise to include retro physics and more refined gameplay were included to overcome the demo’s obstacles.

Sega has succeeded so far, sort of. The most obvious inclusion, the ability to harness Tails’ hovering skills to carry the grounded Sonic to distance ledges makes for an enjoyable distraction, but once vertical the overbearing weight of Sonic becomes apparent. He still needs more momentum to maintain a steady speed than his incarnations in the 90s, and any and all gameplay distractions like dropping straight down from flying high with Tails just makes Sonic seem heavier than a Hummer.

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Find out what developers and publishers the XBLA Fans team will meet with at PAX East
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Sometimes there are games we have to let you know about even if it isn’t quite clear whether XBLA will be home to it upon eventual release. This especially includes indie darlings, such as 2010 IGF Excellence in Design and Seumas McNally Grand Prize winning, Monaco.

XBLA Fans’ PAX East discussions with Andy Schatz, Founder of Pocketwatch Games and designer of Monaco, have revealed extended plans for multiplayer in the over-head, co-op heist game that make a turn for the competitive.

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Complete deck customization is what makes collectable card games so personal and fun. Every deck is different and can be suited to the style of play the owner is comfortable with. It’s one of the reasons why Magic the Gathering has had such a long and legendary life. When Wizards of the Coast released Magic: the Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers back in 2009–as well as its updated 2012 edition–it felt like something was missing. While the player was provided with decks by progressing in the campaign not much could be done to make that deck feel different and special from person to person. Cards earned could be substituted while not compromising the theme of a given deck, yet full deck building has not yet been a part of the Duels series. That is not set to change anytime soon, either.

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When Ben Fisher and I started XBLA Fans we had no idea the idea would take off like it has. We’d begun planning the idea the fall of 2009 …
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After spending the last four years releasing a multitude of sequels and spin-offs for its popular Rock Band and Dance Central franchises, Cambridge-based Harmonix Music Systems is scaling things back a bit with its next release. The next Harmonix-developed title the world will get is still part of the Rock Band series, but it will arrive at some point this summer sans the band. On Tuesday the developer unveiled Rock Band Blitz — a single-player XBLA and PSN game that rocks out without rock instruments, instead requiring the use of a regular controller for solo-jamming along all five instrumental tracks at once.

The simplicity of the concept isn’t exactly in line with what fans have come to expect from the company that popularized plastic instruments, so it’s understandable if there is some hesitation from the community to accept this new direction. Project Director Matthew Nordhaus explanation during my trip to the developer’s studio that the team’s goal is to release a product that removes the series’ high barriers of entry through a more simplistic approach probably won’t have plastic rock stars pumped for the big show either. Read a few quick-and-dirty details on the internet and watch a quick clip of Blitz‘ gameplay and you might get the impression that this is just another case of a developer dumbing its game down for modern gamers who are, supposedly, unable to process complexity in their video games. Well, guess what? It’s not.

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Anomaly Warzone Earth was developed by 11 Bit Studios and retails for 800 MSP. It was released on April 6, 2012. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Anomaly Warzone Earth takes the tower defense genre and turns it on its ear. Instead of placing towers and picking off enemies you are thrust into the difficult scenario of finding a way to run the gauntlet. In the not so distant future aliens crash to earth and tough times ensue. A small convoy of soldiers must infiltrate and investigate the destruction. Anomaly Warzone Earth is an updated version of the iOS title that delivers new features to make it worthy of a XBLA release.

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