This Wednesday: XBLA brings Gyruss, Minigolf Adventures, end of world
You'll need to hang on to something for this. When Wednesday arrives, it will bring with it an unstoppable, apocalyptic event that will inevitably tear the very fabric of existence apart and toss a stick of dynamite into the resulting hole. On April 18 at 9AM GMT (2AM PDT), Xbox Live Arcade will receive two new titles. Simultaneously, at the same time, and concurrently!
The beast of Armageddon, hideously comprised of both rancid flesh and newborn baby skin, will roll onto the digital shore and spew forth Konami's old-school shooter, Gyruss, and Sierra Online's take on very small Golf, 3-D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures. Coupling the old with the new(er) seems like an excellent strategy to adopt for future release days. Why, it's only matched in sheer brilliance by the concept of releasing more than one game per week. At the rate things move in the gaming world, it's surprising how long it took us to get to the end of it.
If you want to shoot things in space (who are coming to kill you, by the way) this week, expect to pay 400 MS points ($5).
If swinging clubs is more your thing, be prepared to set aside 800 MS points ($10). And if you want to do both, well, you can!
The beast of Armageddon, hideously comprised of both rancid flesh and newborn baby skin, will roll onto the digital shore and spew forth Konami's old-school shooter, Gyruss, and Sierra Online's take on very small Golf, 3-D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures. Coupling the old with the new(er) seems like an excellent strategy to adopt for future release days. Why, it's only matched in sheer brilliance by the concept of releasing more than one game per week. At the rate things move in the gaming world, it's surprising how long it took us to get to the end of it.
Gallery: Gyruss -- XBLA
If you want to shoot things in space (who are coming to kill you, by the way) this week, expect to pay 400 MS points ($5).
If swinging clubs is more your thing, be prepared to set aside 800 MS points ($10). And if you want to do both, well, you can!













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
joe smith @ Apr 16th 2007 3:32PM
Cool. Nice to start seeing these thrid party games (Boom-Boom, golf).
mikebz28 @ Apr 16th 2007 3:36PM
Boycott mini golf un til they fix the MP in Assault Heroes!!!!
Diskoboy @ Apr 16th 2007 3:34PM
Gyruss rules! I hope the mini golf game is fun, seeing as there hasn't been a good one since the Amiga/386 days.
GJM @ Apr 16th 2007 3:39PM
Gyruss was an excellent title back in the day. The updated graphics look great. For $5 you can't go wrong!
samfish @ Apr 16th 2007 3:46PM
Usually XBLA gets absolute crap (especially in light of the VC).
But this weeks releases all seem fairly good. Certainly Gyruss is, at least.
Blue_Falcon @ Apr 16th 2007 3:48PM
@3
You mean Wanako STILL hasn't fixed the multi-player for Assault Heroes? Jesus, it's been over 4 months.
Donald @ Apr 16th 2007 3:52PM
Serious Cat is pleased
mikebz28 @ Apr 16th 2007 3:53PM
Nope no fix for Assault heroes yet. tons of pissed off people still.
WiNG TT @ Apr 16th 2007 3:58PM
w00t for golf
sheppy @ Apr 16th 2007 3:57PM
What's this Assault issue? I have some MS points burning a whole in my pocket and AH looked swell to me.
Also, that minigolf looks rather... bland. Seriously, the look is soo generic, it should have a Daz Studios logo on it.
Here's hoping the Minigolf in Hot Shots 4 not only makes a return in HS5, but becomes drastically expanded upon.
Vidikron @ Apr 16th 2007 3:59PM
@5
XBLA release have been pretty good recently.
Anyway, that golf game looks like it mught be really good. It's also supposed to have a level editor. Hoepfully you can send levels to other users.
mikebz28 @ Apr 16th 2007 4:22PM
Assault Heroes has many online MP problems that have been around since it came out. Sierra and MS both know about it and have done nothing to fix it. All we get is were working on it from them. i suggest not buying it cause you dont know if your gonna be one of the unfortunate ones that MP doesnt work for.
mikebz28 @ Apr 16th 2007 4:27PM
http://forums.xbox.com/8956418/ShowPost.aspx
Here this is if no one believes me on the AH issues.check it out. if your having problems also make your voice heard!!!
Jake @ Apr 16th 2007 4:59PM
Samfish,
It depends on what you are looking for. The VC has more total quality, but all of it is old. Live doesn't have as much total quality, but there is a lot of new and unique material there, as well as online coop and multiplayer, leaderboards, HD, indie games, etc.
Both Live and VC have their own merits. I have access to both, but spend more on Live. SFII, UNO, and MarioKart are the only two classic games I have purchased. MarioKart is the only VC game I have.
It also kind of bothers me how Nintendo is straight emulating games and selling them for the same as a brand new game or a retro game with HD, online, gameplay modes, etc. goes for on Live. Piracy is wrong, but people have straight emulated everything on VC with some spare time and given it all away for free just for the hell of it. Hell, I have most of it running on my Dreamcast.
I know MS or Sony would/is doing the same thing. It is a business and you gotta make money. But digging up the code for an old game and drag/dropping it through emulation and testing it through just seems so cheap and easy. At $1-5 per NES/SNES/N64 game Nintendo would have a lot more of my money to roll in.
Mr Khan @ Apr 16th 2007 6:03PM
Question:
Didn't Live Arcade have absolutely nothing last week?
That may explain it. Instead of trying to blow up the universe, MS is just trying to balance it out
Zheng Daoling would be pleased...
CB4D @ Apr 16th 2007 6:07PM
Umm... last week Live had Boom Boom Rocket, and the week before that it was Luxor 2, and Jet Pac Refueled, etc...
Dan K. @ Apr 16th 2007 6:52PM
Nice Arrested Devoplment pic! I love that show
Rubang B @ Apr 16th 2007 7:17PM
This Wednesday the XBLA will have released 54 games in 73 weeks at a rate of .74 per week.
Today the VC has released 78 games in 21 weeks at a rate of 3.71 per week.
Khan was right. MS is making up for the many weeks with nothing.
Meanwhile, has anybody played this minigolf game? Is it any good?
Vidikron @ Apr 16th 2007 7:48PM
@18
Or you could look at it as Nintendo making a cheap money grab by simply making hordes or over-priced ROMS available on the Wii while MS attempts to add value to the classics and also include original content. MS doesn't have to make up for anything. I've been very pleased with the XBLA.
Rubang B @ Apr 16th 2007 8:12PM
Adding value to the classics?! Are you implying the classics have no value anymore?!?!? Well I never.
JesterT @ Apr 16th 2007 9:04PM
20. Adding value to the classics?! Are you implying the classics have no value anymore?!?!? Well I never.
How is adding value the same as having no value? XBLA adds leaderboards, updated graphics, online capalities, multiplayer to some games that didn't have multiplayer, achievements, etc, with the VC, you get the game the exact same with no improvements, usually for the same cost. So the XBLA adds value, but not that the classics have no value to begin with though, because they do. This why there are a ton more VC games, because they aren't adding anything. Adding to them takes time and money. And the XBLA has original titles as well while the VC has none. XBLA>VC though VC is good.
Rubang B @ Apr 16th 2007 11:26PM
The Wii gets original titles soon though, like the Sam and Max episodes, which are coming to the Wii and the 360 but not the PS3. I can argue quantity and you can argue quality, but we both get Sam and Max, so in reality, we both win.
Mr. Nosuch @ Apr 17th 2007 6:59AM
And I'm still wondering what hole Catan fell into. I just looked at my calendar and it's not 1st Quarter of 2007 anymore...
Minigolf is no comfort. What's next, a port of Desktop Invaders?