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We had an exceptionally late episode last week, but we’re making up for it this week with possibly the most punctual episode yet! The usual cast of myself, John Laster and Andrew Crews are joined by Deputy Editor Steve Melton to discuss all things XBLA.

It’s a very slow news week this week so we spend more time that we should discussing just why we don’t want yet another Worms game on XBLA.

Things take a better turn when we hit the what we’ve been playing and twitter topic segments, in which there is some pretty interesting discussion of topics ranging from retro remakes to the often discussed friends list limit.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp24.mp3[/podcast]

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The Xbox Live Indie Games service is seeing yet another uprising this summer and a trailer has finally sprouted up to give some insight into the gameplay of the …
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Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was developed by FuelCell & Gagné International and published by Microsoft. It will be released on August 3, 2011 as part of Summer of Arcade for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

There’s always that one game during the Summer of Arcade that, at least initially, feels out of place among the others. It’s usually the game with quirky mechanics, a very unique art style, or any other combination of things that set it apart from your average, mainstream game. Last year, Limbo seemed to be the game that built up that attention and this year it looks like Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be following that same trend. We can’t say we’re surprised, it received E3 2011 Best of Show award.

You play as a little alien confined to a mini UFO that must save the planet. You must maneuver into the depths of the core to save it from evil. The game features animation by Michel Gagné, a transplant from the movie industry who’s worked on Iron Giant and other animated films. It’s a gorgeous world filled with fear, not to mention it plays like a cross between Metroid and a shoot em’ up. Was it worth the wait or was it undeserving of our accolade?
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Toxic Games, a UK-based team founded by former classmates, began development of Q.U.B.E. as a student project in 2009 with no programming experience whatsoever. With the help of many around them and the Indie Fund startup, they were able to bring their dreams of creating a full game to life. Right now it’s PC only, but Toxic Games has informed XBLA Fans they have “strong ambitions to bring the game to XBLA in the Future.”

That game is Q.U.B.E., or “Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion”. Q.U.B.E. takes everything delightful about spatial puzzles, jigsaws and physics manipulating challenges and turns them first person, adding in some platforming to boot. Here’s how it works:

With the aid of technologically enhanced gloves, the player manipulates and navigates a deep space training facility packed with cubes. The player can pull red blocks one at a time, extract multiple cubes of yellow all at once, use blue for jumping, and push green cubes around in the environment.

Not sure how that all comes together? Check out their tech demo and screenshots after the jump. If this has you intrigued, check out Q.U.B.E. at PAX this year between August 26– 28 at Booth 6407 on Level 6. Read More

If you’d asked us, Rally-X didn’t seem like a likely culprit for updating; however, a recent European trademark for Rally-X Rumble popped up hinting that Namco Bandai seems to be …
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Platformance 2: Temple Death was developed by Magiko Games and retails for 80MSP. A copy of the game was provided for retail purposes.

Platforming titles have seen something of an increase in both interest and quantity lately. Fortunately we’ve seen that most are high quality as well. Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Super Meat Boy and Ms. Splosion Man have been getting a lot of attention and rightfully so. But there are many indie titles that are carrying the fire as well and deserve some attention. Platformance 2: Temple Death is one such game. It brings a simple, no nonsense approach to platforming. You jump and swim to avoid insta-death obstacles, and boy is it hard. But the difficulty is the fun in this game, and this game has both in spades.

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While Xbox Live Arcade hosts numerous classics both untouched and unaltered, it also hosts modern renditions of the same titles with contemporary additions. But XBLA is becoming known for games that take the mechanics of classic titles and makes them better. It’s a concept that draws a line in the sand, pitting friend against friend, brother against brother. But in the end there’s a reason why you often see the word enhanced in regards to XBLA titles: they’re simply better than the classics. I chose three classic games to go toe-to-toe with three modern XBLA games. Each defines their genre relative to when they were released.

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We get this question a lot: What do I have to do to get into the video game industry? Well, here’s a fun little reality check. Don’t take this …
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Refer to our Minigame guide for the two minigames at the start of this level

Decorations: Engineer’s Debut: Upgrade any turret This is achieved by simply upgraded your first …
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Versus

• Use a barrage or drivable vehicle to destroy your opponents turrets while your units head into their toy box.
• Focus your attacks on the type of turrets …
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