Ratings Watch: Galaga Legions now on the OFLC!

After the mysterious title Galaga: Legions showed up on the German Rating Board late last week - it's now shown up on the Australian Classification website!

Things are starting to get interesting...

Source: OFLC - Galaga Legions

Soul Calibur preview over at TeamXbox

Over the weekend Team Xbox got the chance to play a little bit of the original Soul Calibur for the Xbox Live Arcade, giving us a new preview and a whole slew of new screen shots.

The first thing you'll notice is that everything is the same - the textures, the models, the text - all the same. The major addition is the boost of resolution, so now the models look a lot cleaner. No Widescreen mode, instead a - frankly - bland border will go around the screen.

While the resolution boost is great, it would have been nice to see at least some re exported textures. They're looking rather blurry in the screens, and the writing of players names and other text is very ugly - like the sprites in Namco's Mr. Driller Online.

The game will include Arcade Mode, Survival, Extra Survival, Practice Mode, Team Battle, Vs. Battle, and Battle Theater, allowing two CPU players to battle it out.

An interesting omission from the game is the Mission Mode. On the Dreamcast version, Mission Mode would allow players to complete a series of objectives on a map to unlock different artwork. Despite it not being there - the Artwork is! It appears that the Art Gallery is still within the game despite no mission mode, and also gives the player an achievement by looking at everything.

A quick note that may just be a website error, but they specify "Content Downloads" as being available on the Team Xbox page. Maybe some DLC is in the works to add the old Mission Mode?

Check out the more in depth preview over at Team Xbox.

Source: Team Xbox - Soul Calibur XBLA Preview

Mr. Driller Online is patched!

That's right, Mr. Driller Online is now patched! After the disastrous launch of the game - where playing an online game was absolutely impossible to do and could not have been more broken if it tried, has now been patched. And according to NeoGAFfer Jonnyram - online play now works without a hitch!

Now the hard part is finding someone to play with!

Source: Neogaf - Mr. Driller Online is patched!

Ratings watch: Galaga Legions shows up on the USK!

In the latest update on the German rating board, a new game showed up - one I don't think anyone would expect - Galaga Legions!

Galaga is a classic top-down shooter from 1981 - expanding on the Space Invaders craze of the time and the sequel to Galaxian, where you must fight waves of bugs who shoot at or dive bomb the player. The original Galaga is already available for the Xbox Live Arcade for 400 Microsoft Points.

So what could Galaga Legions possibly be? Pure speculation, but I'm really hoping that the game is Namco's next step in the Pac Man: Championship Edition line of games - one of the best titles for the XBLA and a game that is incredibly addictive. Maybe it's Namco Bandai's equivalent of Taito's Space Invaders Extreme - which also takes the Pac Man CE style of gameplay, or maybe like Wiiware's Star Soldier R!

If it's anything like Pac Man CE and Mr. Driller Online though - we won't hear a thing until 2 weeks before release. It's only shown up here - not even on the CERO - so it might start showing up on other rating systems soon.

Soure: USK Rating Board - Galaga Legions

First videos of Soul Calibur XBLA!

The website Exophase has got its hands on the first videos of Soul Calibur for the Xbox Live Arcade!

Obviously, looking very much like the original through an emulator, but I'm sure that's all people are looking for.

Source: Exophase: Soul Calibur XBLA Gameplay Footage

Edit: HD versions of these videos now available at Gametrailers. View them here and here.