That’s right, I’m going to review the demo. Because there’s no way I’m paying 400 points for this game, and the Powers that Be don’t deem it necessary to give the Xbox Topic crew free games..
So Gyruss is pretty much what you get when you take Galaga, and wrap it into a cylinder. This pseudo-3D game (also known as a “tube shooter“) must have been somewhat impressive back in 1983 when it was released, but today it’s just awkward. You travel through the galaxy, heading towards Earth, defeating aliens on the way. You’ve got a little ship that spins around the play area, shooting at alien ships that also move within the invisible cylinder’s walls. Pound on the shoot button, dodge, repeat, and you’ve got the gameplay down. I’m not trying to say this game is easy, I’m trying to say this game is pretty uninteresting today.
Perhaps if they had given us revamped graphics, we’d be more interested, but the old (albeit slightly blurred-edged) graphics are here, with just nothing to make this game stand out. One thing I liked was that the columns that surround the gameplay screen on an HDTV are feathered so that when the game screen is entirely black, the columns have the illusion of being part of the game, with some type of space dust forming a cloud around the playfield.
If space shooters are your type of thing, or you remember 1983 and want to relieve a classic then the low price should be worth it.
According to Major Nelson’s blog we can expect another double release this wednesday for Xbox Live Arcade. The titles slated are Eets: Chowdown for 800 points and Pinball FX also 800 points. We’ll have more on these titles when they become available.
More information on these games can be found on Gamerscore Blog
It’s quite possible that a follow up to 2004’s Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for the original Xbox may be in the works for the 360, now I say MAY because the news is a couple months old. It was said on an italian 360 website that Chronicles of Riddick 2 was on the release list for 2007, where they got their information is unknown as the Official US Xbox site has no indication of a new Riddick game on the horizon.
David Twohy, the director of the 2004 Riddick film had this to say on the news section of his website at the start of the year :
“If I had to put money on it, I’d say you’re likely to see another game hit your screen before another movie.”
The 2004 game was a benchmark in what the Xbox was capable of as it was the first FPS game on the Xbox to sport normal mapping long before DOOM 3 and also used softer shadowing providing for spectacular visuals. With the technology we have with the 360 we can only imagine what the next chapter of Riddick may look like.
Racketboy.com has info stating that the upcoming remake of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo will include high def sprites to replace the old graphics with clean new looks. Check out the image below, from Racketboy.
This looks great! If this is a success I hope other great classics get the same HD treatment!
The folks at the official Forza Motorsports site have released the list of cars that will appear in the upcoming Xbox 360 game. Check out the full list here! Looks like a great selection of cars, from some that you’ll see on the highway to some you’ll only see on the test track.
Advertising Age has some info on an upcoming promotion we should expect this August: Halo 3 Mt Dew. This limited edition Mt Dew will be red, packed full of more caffeine than regular Dew, and come in a bottle with Master Chief on it. Oh, and it’s called “Game Fuel”. They say it should only be on sale about 3 months, so we’ll have to snag as much of this as possible.
In other Halo news, as part of the Video Games Live tour, the Yale Symphony Orchestra performed some music from the Halo scores, complete with an electric guitar finale! Check it out!
Microsoft is giving us two new choices on Xbox Live Arcade this week, with Gyruss, the classic space shooter, coming at 400 points and 3d Mini Golf Adventures weighing in at 800 points.
Looks like Gyruss is sporting some updated graphics, which I always applaud in these re-releases. We’ll see if the gameplay is still any fun. Mini Golf has the ability to be hit or miss (no pun intended), so we’ll wait to comment on this until we’ve got it on our hard drives.
According to Destructoid the newest patch to fix the Whammy Bar problem on the controllers might cause irrecoverable errors to the 360’s OS. Anyone who hasn’t downloaded this update may want to hold off for now, as the only solution to this problem is to send for the infamous 360 “coffin” and thats no fun.
Seems to be bad times for fans of Red Octanes music game, one problem after another. But going from a broken feature to a busted system? Not a fair trade off.
Xbox360Fanboy has found that the German ratings board has posted a rating for Prince of Persia Classic on Xbox 360! This would make an excellent addition to the Live Arcade, with some really great classic side scrolling gameplay.
If the rating has already been given, it seems likely the title is nearly ready for release, so we’ll keep an eye on this in the coming weeks.
