Microsoft Studios

Microsoft announced new XBLA title Avatar Motocross Madness in a press release, stating that players would be able to “Engage in intense MX racing, exploration and …
Read More

Happy Wars, the upcoming 15-vs-15 hack-n-slash from Japanese developer Toylogic, is showing just how fun war can be in these two new trailers. The above trailer gives the run-down of a typical online match. All 30 players begin the match by spawning in their team’s castle, and once the war begins you have to advance the enemy line by building towers. Towers act as a spawn point once built, but can be destroyed by the opposing team. Dying means having to select one of the three classes and choosing from the avialable spawn points. Battle the other team but be on the look-out for deadly gimmicks, some of which are player-controlled. Once your team reaches the enemy castle, fight your way inside and destroy the big tower in the center. At this point, your team wins! If you’re looking for something more team oriented, there is also a co-op mode where your team defends a castle from swarms of AI. Each map will feature themed swarms, from zombies to sentient tomatoes.

Read More

The 4J Studios port of Mojang’s world-building PC title,

We love Trials Evolution. It’s easily in our overall top 10 XBLA games. But amidst all its greatness it had one tiny flaw that nobody could have predicted: Track …
Read More

Japanese developer Toylogic announced today that its 15 vs. 15 online action title for XBLA, Happy Wars, will be making its first public appearance in North America at …
Read More

Nexon Korea and Microsoft Studios will host a media showcase event to demo Dungeon Fighter Live: Fall of Hendon Myre at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles …
Read More

Huzzah! Finally some worthy Supercross tracks have popped up. We’ve also got some classic-styled skill games and a handful of Trials courses to keep your thumbs in tip top shape.

To download these tracks by entering Track Central, selecting Get Tracks, then pressing X to search. Enter the gamertag below to find the track. Be aware that the search is case sensitive. A big thanks to the Trials Evolution community for the borrowed videos. Hit the jump to see this week’s picks.

Read More

Joy Ride Turbo was developed by BigPark and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on May 23, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Mario Kart. Since its introduction in 1992 many other games have tried to dethrone it. None have truly succeeded. Nintendo has held their karting trophy high for 20 years now while characters like Sonic, Crash, and Lightning McQueen stand lower on the podium. Joy Ride Turbo seeks to put a boot in the overall-wearing plumber’s … err … pants by throwing aside the licensed franchise and offering great gameplay at a lower price. Joy Ride tosses aside the Kinect controller of its predecessor in hopes that a gamepad will help the game become the best value in karting games out there.

You know what? It succeeds.

Read More

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

Read More

Dragon’s Lair was developed by Digital Leisure and published by Microsoft Studios. It released May 18, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Odds are, you’ve played Dragon’s Lair – or, at least, know the basic style and premise well enough. Since its release in the early 1980s, Don Bluth’s magnum opus has been released and rereleased literally dozens of times on as many platforms. The game puts the player in the shoes of Dirk the Daring, a knight who ventures into the lair of the evil wizard Mordroc to rescue Princess Daphne from the nefarious dragon Singe. Rather than controlling Dirk directly, the player controls his reflexes at periodic intervals as he traverses through the castle – think quick time events – and slow reaction time or choosing the wrong action at the wrong time spells certain doom for the hero.

Until last week, the Xbox 360 was one of the few systems the game hadn’t been ported to. How does Digital Leisure – no stranger to repurposing the game for new platforms – do with the transition? About as well as can be expected…but that may not be a good thing.

Read More