Summer of Arcade 2012

This year we decided to collectively look at each of the Summer of Arcade games. So all this week we’ve been posting roundtable discussions of the games in order of release (Tony Hawk, Wreckateer, Deadlight, Hybrid). Today we end with the most well received game in the line-up. Humble Hearts’ Dust: An Elysian Tail, takes a tried and true formula and adds some oft-times breathtaking art to make an incredibly solid package.

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We’re more than halfway through our roundtable series looking at the Summer of Arcade 2012, which means it’s time to talk about 5th Cell’s take on the third person shooter, Hybrid. Though fun and unique, it’s not without it’s issues, some of which our EIC took issue with. Hit the jump to find out what he and our other staffers thought of the game in general.

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We’ve hit Tony Hawk and Wreckateer, now our rountable moves onto the third title in this years Summer of Arcade. Deadlight is the first game from Tequila Works and unfortunately it was not well received by most. We discuss just what went wrong. Read More

Continuing our look back at Summer of Arcade 2012, today’s roundtable discussion focuses on Iron Galaxy’s Wreckateer. The cheapest of this years line-up at 800 MSP and the only Kinect title, it also ended up being one of the better reviewed games. As you’ll see our staffs discussion reflects that. Read More

This year’s Summer of Arcade promotion has been a contentious one, most would agree it was one of (if not the) weakest offerings we’ve seen since the promotion began in 2008.

Now that all the games have been released, we here at XBLA Fans thought it’d be a good time to look back at the five games that were part of the promotion. Starting today and continuing every weekday we will be posting a roundtable discussion between our writers, focusing on a game a day. We’ll be going by order of release so let’s kick things off with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Read More

A new launch trailer has been released for Dust: An Elysian Tail. The game, which marks the end of this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion, comes from the one …
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Deadlight was developed by Tequila Works and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on August 1, 2012 for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Deadlight is a 2D platformer with a survival horror bent, at least in theory, but we’ll get to that shortly. You play as Randall Wayne, a survivor of some kind of apocalyptic event, which has caused the dead to rise. Though they act like zombies, these particular undead have been branded “Shadows”, represented in-game as silhouettes with glowing red or white eyes.

Randall is searching Seattle for his wife and daughter, who he’s been seperated from since the start of the disaster. When the game begins, Randall is with a group of survivors, but they quickly go their seperate ways as Randall begins the search for his family.
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Wreckateer was developed by Iron Galaxy Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on July 25, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Wreckateer made a surprise showing during this year’s Microsoft’s E3 briefing, arguably stealing the show in the name of XBLA, and looks to be one of the more promising Kinect titles released this year. Essentially it’s a physics-based destruction game for Kinect that comes suited and booted with the new 400 gamerscore standard, along with three avatar awards and is the first game to utilize the new Avatar Famestar App on release. It’s also the second game released during this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion, and the inclusion of a Kinect game inevitably draws more than a few groans. Thankfully the game’s tight controls and surprisingly addictive scoring, means that Wreckateer deservedly warrants it’s slot in this year’s line-up.

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It’s no secret we’ve been big supporters of Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD. In fact, it hit our XBLA’s Most Wanted well before it was announced. We awarded Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD  in our Best of E3 highlighting the nostalgic feelings that made us wish we were back in school playing with a bunch of friends. But the game has more going for it than just fond memories, Robomodo has taken the pieces that fans loved from the original two games and rebuilt them from the ground up in a way that shreds even our most nostalgic expectations. The game looks and plays better than we remembered.

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Tequila Works wanted to create a realistic apocalypse story for their upcoming zombie puzzle-platformer Deadlight. In their second developer diary, the developers discuss how their story was created, from interpreting a …
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