It’s that awkward time of the year when publishers start holding back box launches until the big BUY ALL THE SHINY NEW THINGS Xmas rush.
But don’t you cry, because the Xbox LIVE Arcade has a lineup that should keep you busy in the meantime.
Deadlight
Developer: Tequila Works
Release date: 01/08/2012
It’s a post-apocalyptic side-scrolling shoot-‘n’-punch-‘em-up platforming adventure with zombies. They had me at “post-apocalyptic”.
Deadlight reinvents the Reagan-era 1980s, with a viral outbreak that’s turned humans into brains-hungry mobs. Protagonist Randall Wayne must do whatever it takes to survive in the Pacific West wasteland, including lots of running from left to right and climbing ladders.
Deadlight
Spelunky
Developer: Derek Yu
Release date: 04/07/2012
One part platformer, one part roguelike RPG, and all instantly over with an infected spider bite, Derek Yu’s indie dungeon crawler spelunker is prepping to delve into the caverns under the Xbox LIVE Arcade. What will you awake in the darkness? Probably not a Balrog, but damn, that’s a lot of frogs.
The game is also currently available as a freeware download for Windows – Spelunky website.
Spelunky
Battleblock Theater
Developer: The Behemoth
Release date: TBA 2012
What happens when you’re taken prisoner and forced to fight in a deadly combat theatre for the sadistic amusement of unseen spectators? Ride pigs, obviously. Well, they look a bit like pigs.
Battleblock Theater is the third game from The Behemoth, previously known for Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. Expect lots of unmitigated chaos and anthropomorphic fuzzy-wuzzies.
Battleblock Theater
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Developer: Humble Hearts
Release date: 15/08/2012
After winning Microsoft’s 2009 Dream.Build.Play Xbox development contest, Dust: An Elysian Tail was upgraded from an Xbox LIVE Indie Games launcher to an Xbox LIVE Arcade launcher.
It’s a side-scrolling, Metroidvania-class action RPG featuring a swashbuckling ninja raccoon, a talking sword, and a fairy squirrel-bat…thing, and if you’re thinking it sounds like furry-fanfic, you’re probably not entirely wrong.
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Happy Wars
Developer: ToyLogic
Release date: TBA 2012
The thing about war is that it’s kind of a downer. All that death and destruction and letters to devastated families about sons and daughters shot to bits on the front lines in defence of freedom or flags or fries or whatever. ToyLogic’s Happy Wars attempts to take the waaaaaaaah out of war, and put the weeeeeeeeeh back in it. Somebody has to.
Inspired by Battlefield and Castle Crashers, Happy Wars is an online, 15 vs 15 class-based arena battle game where the objective is to capture territory and murder everything in the way just like a real war, but with totally adorable graphics. Collateral damage? More like collateral omglol, so cute :3.
Happy Wars
Which upcoming downloadable games are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below and on the MyGaming forum.
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What about Tony Hawk HD? Or is it just me excited to play School II again.