In news post yesterday, Penny Arcade's Gabe revealed the top four best launches ever for Xbox Live Arcade, with the launch window being the first three days of availability. The list is as follows:

1. Rez HD, 25k units
2. Ikaruga, 22.5k units
3. Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1, 16.5k units
4. N+, 13k units

Honestly, we're a bit surprised by the initial success of Rez and Ikaruga. Not that we didn't want them to succeed (they really are awesome games), but we didn't expect to see Xbox Live community rally so quickly around years-old re-releases. Now, if we could only see data for worst XBLA launches, or even total Rez playtime using multiple controllers as trance vibrators.

[Via X3F]

OK, OK, so we basically knew that the beautiful, inspiring Rez was coming to the Xbox Live Arcade this week. But we were still relieved to see official word come down from on high, and we're betting you will be too: The newly-updated, fully-trance-vibrating Rez will be available this Wednesday.

The best thing? It's only going to run you 800 points (or 10 Earth dollars). If you've never played the game before (or even if you have) you need to take our word on it that a ten-spot (especially when you consider the newly added sounds and visuals) is nothing short of a steal.

The other (criminally, but for a different reason) $10 release this week: Chessmaster Live, which is like chess but ... live.

As vector-like throwing-star enemies corkscrewed towards me, I defended myself with a gun that made electronic clapping sounds. I fired the gun. Clap. I fired two quick shots. Clap Clap. My applause aligned with the electronic beats spilling from the speakers. It was Korg-like synth-aesthesia, and almost immediately, I cared more about clapping in-time to the music than shooting back.

Rez HD surrounded me in a coordinated, sensory bombardment. The controller in my hand shook and bobbed with the beats while controllers under my feet and on my back vibrated a counter-tempo pattern. 5.1 surround-sound flew from all directions, and the neon-sharp HD game-world pulled me into its reality.

In my brief time with Rez HD, I decided that it wasn't a game as much as an experience. There's a game inside somewhere, but the title feels like a journey, rewarding meandering through levels instead of racing to the end. And even though it's a linear shooter, Rez HD hides a lot of exploration; I look forward to moving slowly through the game after its January 30 release.

Not content with merely updating their hypnotic trip-out sim REZ with fancy high-definition graphics and stimulating surround sound for its Xbox Live Arcade debut, the folks at Q Entertainment have decided to gift upon the world 50 free copies of the Mizuguchi masterpiece (no, not that one). To potentially grab one of 50 prepaid Xbox Live Marketplace codes, you need only visit the official REZ HD website and enter your details into the registration page.

Do that between now and Sunday, January 27th, and you might just REZ-eive a free copy of the game within 72 hours of the closing date. Don't fret if you lose out though -- with the game launching before the end of the month, we're all winners here.

Sure, many argued that this wasn't the duo's strongest game-related comic of the week (most cited Rigorous Scholarship as the better choice), but Penny Arcade nonetheless took top honors in this week's webcomic wrapup for their Rez-inspired strip.

Second places goes to Digital Unrest and third to Ctrl+Alt+Del. Thanks for your feedback on the new polling system, which is here to stay although adjustments will be happening (such as including the strip name in the choices to make an easier connection). Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

Good news for synaesthetes and fans of all things awesome: a friendly press release from Q Entertainment informs us that Testuya Mizuguchi's Rez HD will be landing on Xbox Live Arcade in "only a few weeks," for the very reasonable price of 800 Microsoft Points.

Along with the highly-anticipated "trance vibration" support, the enhanced port of the Dreamcast/PS2 classic will include a high-definition upgrade to the visuals, and feature 5.1 surround sound. The game will also introduce new audio and visual effects, a new Replay Theater for re-watching play data, and the usual suite of XBLA leaderboards and achievements. Check out the gallery below for some gorgeous new shots of Rez in all its trippy, HD glory.

If you were one of the many shmucks who didn't pick up Rez when it came out on the Dreamcast and PS2, you can redeem yourself in our eyes when a visually souped-up version of the game drops on the Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the (hopefully) near future. Yes, it might be sans one unintentionally stimulating peripheral this time around, but it still feels like playing an absinthe-fueled round of Panzer Dragoon in the middle of a warehouse rave. Hopefully the surfacing of the above gameplay footage from the uncleverly titled Rez HD is a sign that we'll find what we really want under our tree this holiday season -- a good case of synesthesia.

As anyone who follows the new releases already knows, the quality of retail releases has been dropping precipitously since November. Thankfully, we spotted some help on the horizon when Microsoft recently released a list of XBLA games that will be coming to the 360 this month and next.

We already knew that Sensible World of Soccer was coming on Dec. 19, but we also have games to look foward to like N+, Arkadian Warriors, Rez HD, Brain Challenge, Omega Five, GripShift and Poker Smash. So keep up the the faith, even as only The Golden Compass stares up at you from the new release shelf: Fun is on the way.

If you missed out on our liveblog of Microsoft's pre-TGS conference in Japan (it does, after all, require an excessive and strenuous amount of scrolling to access), you may appreciate and respond with delirious joy to some of the pertinent news to emerge from it. You should also appreciate the amount of effort that went into the preceding and vaguely professional sentence -- we really just wanted to blurt out that REZ ON XBLA YAY.

Ahem.

Microsoft confirmed that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's melodic shooter will soon make you hear everything you see and see everything you hear on Xbox Live Arcade. Other things you'll see are waves of hypnotic bullets (Ikaruga), saviors adorned with fine hats (EXIT), pulsating geometric shapes (Every Extend Extra Extreme), flying robots (Omega Five) and... er, some sort of Japanese car (Triggerheart Exelica)? No release dates have been announced for any of the games, though we suspect none of them are likely to come soon enough.

In an editorial published last weekend, film critic Roger Ebert seems to renege somewhat on his previous insistence that video games, a medium he finds to be "inherently inferior to film and literature," cannot be considered a form of art. "Anything can be art," admits Ebert. "Even a can of Campbell's soup. What I should have said is that games could not be high art, as I understand it."

The "high art" label is almost as old and heavy as most of the works one would apply it to, and expecting a medium as young as video games (never mind the superior class of film) to hold it up would surely be met with crushing disappointment. While it's not impossible for video games to eventually reach such a lofty status in our culture, Ebert's clarification is far more agreeable than his previous statements. Of course, since we can beat down the status of art with a can of soup before allowing video games (and seemingly any old thing) entry, it's not much of a change. The same problems Ebert has always had with the medium are reflected in the rest of his response to Clive Barker's recent comments on the subject.

Like everyone else, we're pretty sick of all the Second Life coverage; it seems like buying real estate in the massively multiplayer non-game is the modern, big-business equivalent of setting up a website for your dad's repair shop. Still, it's one thing when Mercedes sets up a virtual dealership, and a very different matter when Lumines and Rez's Tetsuya Mizuguchi decides to build a re-imagined Tokyo for the denizens of Linden Labs' mammoth world.

What makes Mizuguchi's Tokyo different than other architectural projects in Second Life is his intent in building the city. 1UP reports that rather than building an exact replica of the Japanese city, Mizuguchi wants to fashion his facsimile based on the perceptions of both locals and visitors. Speaking to 1UP, he states his hope that the project, which is a collaboration between himself and advertising firm Dentsu, can become a "museum of Japanese pop culture." We might need to dust off our Second Life avatars just to check it out when it launches.

EA's first downloadable console title will be Boom Boom Rocket, a new rhythm game from the geometric warmongers at Bizarre Creations. The game sees players traveling through a 3D cityscape and launching rockets to the beat of the music -- the more accurate you are, the more spectacular the resulting fireworks become. Gamedaily Biz reports that Boom Boom Rocket should arrive on Xbox Live Arcade in Spring.

Chip Lange, EA's vice president of online commerce, feels they've crashed the party at the opportune moment. "Now feels like the right time. Across EA there's been a lot of internal excitement about Arcade and we're at a point where we can dedicate resources to building Arcade games. We're very excited to be entering this space. This is a great way to develop new IP and work with small development teams internally and externally to build a casual, fun game experience."

Originally thought up by EA's own Pogo casual games team, the game should be a welcome addition to the XBLA lineup, especially given the grievous lack of any other rhythm games. The fireworks in Boom Boom Rocket will be accompanied by ten original tunes from Ian Livingstone -- we certainly hope he's familiar with synesthesia.

This article over at bit-tech.net looks at ten of the more offbeat game control schemes -- from bongos and maracas to cameras and dance mats. It's a nice reminder that gaming isn't all "up up down down" and that sometimes you can have a little fun with the controller as well as with the game.

Of course, collecting multiple peripherals, one for each game, quickly becomes a hassle -- will next-gen's out of the box accessories render a cupboardful of controllers unnecessary? Or will we see some manufacturers continue to make third-party peripherals because their games simply aren't possible otherwise? Perhaps it'll be a bit of both -- the thought of playing Guitar Hero with a PS3 joypad, or dance games with the Wii, has us reaching for our plug-in accessories already.

In our final interview from the Develop Conference, Jen and I had a quick chat with Tetsuya Mizuguchi from Q Entertainment (and Rez fame) about the problems western developers face in trying to tackle the Japanese market, Rez 2 (he regrets never making it) and the issue of games that are critically successful, but don't sell so well (Rez again).

Earlier on in your career you worked on titles like Sega Rally, Channel 5 and Rez. These are all very different genres and styles of game. What's inspired you to create such varied styles in your games?

I don't care about the genre. Somebody once told me that I'm "hopping genres", but I've never really cared about genres. I always think about the human being, the wants that I think people have. Their basic instinct. So my games speak a universal language, so everybody can feel what is fun.