GDC '08 - New XBLA media! Castle Crashers, Braid, Penny Arcade, Schizoid and more!

A whole slew of games are being shown for the Xbox Live Arcade at GDC - and a bunch of images have come out to coincide with them:


• “Braid” (Number None Inc.). Developed by Independent Games Festival Winner and experimental game designer Jonathan Blow, “Braid” is a platform experience that bends all the rules with the manipulation of time. “Braid” will launch this spring.

Check out more images of Braid here!


• “Castle Crashers” (The Behemoth). “Castle Crashers” is the second title currently in development by award-winning independent developer The Behemoth, creator of “Alien Hominid HD.” The role-playing game (RPG) adventure will let up to four players hack, slash and smash their way together through a visually stunning hand-drawn landscape. “Castle Crashes” launches this summer.

Check out more images of Castle Crashers here!


• “Defense Grid: The Awakening” (Hidden Path Entertainment LLC). “Defense Grid: The Awakening” is the definitive tower defense game experience designed specifically for Xbox LIVE Arcade and launches this summer.

Check out more images of Defense Grid: The Awakening (well.. just the logo) here!



• “Go! Go! Break Steady” (Little Boy Games). An Xbox LIVE Arcade exclusive, “Go! Go! Break Steady” is the debut title from independent developer Little Boy Games. The combination music and puzzle game combines break dancing with novel gameplay and launches this summer.

Check out more images of GGBS (Just art at the moment) here!



• “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” (Hothead Games). The first video game collaboration between Penny Arcade creators Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and legendary game designer Ron Gilbert, “Penny Arcade Adventures” is an RPG-adventure game set in a highly stylized 1920s universe filled with bizarre characters, outrageous combat and adult humor. The first episode of the game launches this summer.
Check out more images of Penny Arcade Adventures here!

As well as new images for Schizoid!


Check out more images of Schizoid here!

Vigilante 8 Arcade officially announced, with pictures!

Finally, Vigilante 8 Arcade has been officially announced by Activision and Isopod Labs!

V8: Arcade is a brand new re-imagining of the original themes and gameplay, engineered from the ground up for today’s hardware by the original founders of Luxoflux and V8 developers. Could things get any better?Absolutely, because quite soon, the magic of V8 car-combat will be available to millions of Xbox Live Arcade users via digital download, presented in cutting edge audio-visual splendor, and… at quite an affordable price, too!

Features:

• Five newly designed, highly interactive arenas, using Bezier patch technology for maximum surface smoothness!


• Eight gorgeous, highly varied ‘70s vehicles, rendered using advanced metallic shaders at 10,000+ polygons each


• Classic V8 character personas and unique special weapons


• Six standard weapon pick-ups with three advanced attacks each, featuring both ‘classic’ (combo) and ‘casual’ (charge-up) input methods


• Multiple collectible power-ups and ‘salvage points’


• User-customizable car paint color


• Advanced car physics for hyper-semi-realism and ultra high replay value — easy to pick up, difficult to master!


• Spectacular pyrotechnic, destruction effects, and physics-driven interactive hazards


• Single player modes against advanced bot AI


• Local split-screen modes up to four players


• Online multiplayer with up to eight human players


• Voice and (hopefully) camera support


• Leaderboards, achievements, unlockable secrets, and more!


• Free and premium extra downloadable content planned...

So it's not just a port of the first two games, it's a completely new one! From the pictures it looks like some of the original levels are coming back in some form (I loved the Snow Level). A few less levels than usual, but with planned DLC (hopefully more free than premium, at at a reasonable price) we should see some great additional and some classic levels. I hope Super Dreamland 64 makes it in!

The Vigilante 8 Arcade website has a lot of background information on the original Vigilante 8 games. Isopod Labs is made up by a lot of guys from Luxoflux, who made the original games. It's some some great little quips like why the game was called Vigilante 8 in the first place.

Go to the website below. I can't wait for this game to show up. You can view all the pictures here.

Source: Vigilante 8 Arcade Official Website

Preview & Review Wrapup: Tron, Penny Arcade, and Pirates

Gamespot have just gotten around to reviewing the classic game Tron from the release a few weeks ago.

Click here to read Gamespot's review of Tron.

They also have some new impressions of the upcoming Penny Arcade Adventures game

Click here to read Gamespot's PAA Impressions.

And finally, Teamxbox.com have some new impressions of Gamecock and Blazing Lizard's Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball Click here to read them.

Nothing more needs to be said!