Runic Games just announced Torchlight will be coming to XBLA, and instead of leaving the air full of questions and concerns, they quickly followed up with a load of information regarding the upcoming release.

Operating a console menu via the cursor system is incredibly frustrating, thankfully however, the Torchlight user interface has been properly reworked to fit snugly into your TV. The inventory management has changed the most.  It now allows for a maximum of fifty items of any size with potions and scroll stacks counting as one item (each of which can stack to 99, that’s a lot of juice). Instead of mapping each different potion to a button, the potion button contextually decides which strength to take.  There’s no bigger “oops” than healing 5% of your health with a 100% strength potion. As customary for the Xbox 360 controller, all the ground pounds and heavy strikes will be accompanied with force feedback.

Speaking of the controller, the controls have also been reworked to harmonize with the console. There are no cursors, as such melee attacks are aimed at a primary target, indicated by a red highlight.  Other targets within the cone of influence will take secondary damage. The auto-targeting for ranged combat allows for greater range of movement, something enthusiasts of the Vanquisher class will surely be thankful for. “Lobbed” skills (e.g. Vanquisher’s traps) are mapped to pressure-sensitive triggers to allow for more exact throw range.

Other than the loss of secondary weapon sets, everything else will remain intact after the move to consoles. In fact, some “goodies” from Torchlight 2 will make it into the console version. Runic specifically mentions a new auto-mapping system, as well as “three new armor sets (one for each class), some new random quests for one of the miners in town, and a new pet – the Chakawary.” Didn’t see that last one coming. Dog, cat… Chakawary?

I don’t know about you, but I look forward to playing Torchlight in roughly two months if only to find out what the bananas a Chakawary is! But if you just can’t wait to find out, here are some screen shots: