We may be seeing much more feature extensive titles hitting the Xbox Live Arcade as it was recently announced that the file size limit for titles offered on the service will now be capped at 2GB.

News comes to us from Microsoft’s Scott Austin who took center stage at TGS ‘09 to say the following:

In order to continue fostering the creation of great titles on the platform, Microsoft has increased the file size limit of XBLA titles to 2 GB. We pride ourselves in being the premier destination for downloadable games, and the new file size limit allows developers to push their creative boundaries.

With this new file size increase the line between an Xbox Live Arcade title and a full fledged title will be drawn even thinner.

via destructoid

In Splosion Man, you play as a scientist after an accident has rendered you inhuman — where “inhuman” means that you can explode at will and destroy everything around you. It’s a platform game that requires lots of jumping around, lots of puzzle solving, and most importantly, lots of explosions. You have basically one skill besides running: exploding. When you explode, you propel into the air, which means you’ll be exploding a lot and it also means you can preform some sick triple jumps as well. However, your explosions are limited to three at a time. Afterwords, you need to cool down a bit before the wrecking continues.

While you’re able to destroy everything around you by exploding, the accident hasn’t just made you a walking bomb, it has also made you a bit crazy, which is hilariously illustrated by the movement an idle actions of your character, who at all points seems to be a bit… crazy. Because of your destructive powers, fellow scientists (who are all fine and dandy, unlike you) will try to stop you. But fear not, you can simply blow them up, and in return, get some snacks which you can indulge yourself in. The action is mostly comprised of jumping from point to point and the occasional puzzle, however, many of those aren’t too difficult and most rely on timing them correctly as the main way of clearing them. The camera is quite odd though, while perfect most of the time, it’ll zoom in sometimes on special occasions, which would be great if it wasn’t for the fact that lots of the view gets blocked out, and you don’t really know what else is going on. But if you fail at anything, you have infinite lives in Splosion Man, and furthermore, there are plenty of checkpoints to make sure you don’t lose too much ground.

The levels are aplenty of and they’re short and sweet, which means you’ll rarely get bored during the 5 hour single player campaign. However, the 50 levels are somewhat repetitive at times, but nevertheless fun to run around and just blow up everyone and everything. And once the single player campaign is over, you can play with up to three friends in campaign mode, which uses all new levels. The art style of the game is very cartoonish, much like Team Fortress 2, but Splosion Man has its own distinctive feel and personality. It’s one of the best games to be released on XBLA this year, and you should certainly check it out if your into platformers, it’s only $10 and well worth it.

The Good:
Plenty of levels
Great humor and personality
Original throughout

The Bad:
Levels can get a bit repetitive
Camera can get a bit annoying

Overall score: 8/10

No word on pricing yet, but we’ll keep you updated.

Brendan Small, the man responsible for both writing and performing the music for the show, as well as creating it, had a few words on the process of creating a premise for the game. “The first idea was we make the band merciless and murderous but that doesn’t work on the show,” says Small. “Our show is really about five narcissistic super-celebrities who can’t open the door by themselves.”

The heavy metal styling of Dethklok will be played throughout the game, so I’m sold on that aspect alone. More details about the game will be released at this year’s Comic-Con.

Read (Wallstreet Journal)

It was recently made known that Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao will be released on the XBLA and PSN in August for 1200 Microsoft Points and $15, respectively.

For those of you not familiar with the Blitz Arcade developed/Namco Bandai published Invincible Tiger, it is a sidescroller that will feature beam em up’ gameplay found in classic titles such as Streets of Rage.

Furthermore, players will be able to progress through the Invincible Tiger’s campaign in other single player mode or online/local co-op. However, if you get bored of that, you can play the game’s timed Endurance Mode which will pit players against a neverending onslaught of enemies.

via EuroGamer

Fans of the popular Serious Sam franchise that first made its debut on the PC back in 2002 will be happy to hear that Croteam has announced a forthcoming XBLA version of the game.

Appropriately entitled Serious Sam HD, this port will apparently be a remastered version of the original title, The First Encounter. However it will include 4-player online-cop a feature that was absent from the original release.

You’ll be able to get Serious Sam HD for the XBLA towards the end of this summer for 1,200 Microsoft Points.

Read (Joystiq)

Microsoft today announced that Snowblind Studios and Flat Games multiplayer shooter Death Tankwill be released on Xbox Live Marketplace this Wednesday.

The title is based on a hidden game within PowerSlave, released for the Sega Saturn back in 1996, and allows up to eight players over Xbox Live (and up to four on the same console) destroy each other on a randomized landscape.

It will be priced at 1200 Microsoft points ($15).

This week’s lone release on Xbox Live Arcade will be EA Canada’s NHL Arcade, the publisher’s 3-on-3 arcade take on the popular Canadian sport. The downloadable game will sell for 800 Microsoft points ($10); the PS3 version was released last week.

Not meant to be taken seriously, the big-head hockey game will feature fast-paced action, power-ups and more. There’s also a multiplayer mode with ranked matches.

Look for it this Wednesday.

Quite unsurprisingly, the most popular Xbox 360 games are Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, GTA IV and Gears of War 2 – in that order. Halo 2 and Fable mark the most popular Xbox games list. Hit the jump for the lists.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles
1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. GTA IV
4. Gears of War 2
5. Gears of War
6. CoD: World at War
7. Guitar Hero III
8. Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
10. Rock Band
11. Fable II
12. Mirror’s Edge Demo
13. Madden NFL 09
14. BF: Bad Company
15. Rainbow Six Vegas 2
16. UNO
17. Castle Crashers
18. COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
19. Forza Motorsport 2
20. Too Human – Demo

Top Arcade Titles
21. Castle Crashers
22. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
23. Braid
24. A Kingdom for Keflings
25. UNO
26. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
27. Fable II Pub Games
28. Duke Nukem 3D
29. Bionic Commando: Rearmed
30. Worms
31. SOULCALIBUR
32. Portal: Still Alive
33. DOOM
34. 1942: Joint Strike
35. Bomberman Live
36. MEGA MAN 9
37. N+
38. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
39. Marble Blast Ultra
40. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Original Xbox Top Live Titles
41. Halo 2
42. Fable
43. Star Wars: Battlfront 2
44. Counter-Strike
45. Fable: Lost Chapters
46. Doom 3
47. Conker: Live Reloaded
48. Splinter Cell Chaos
49. SW: KOTOR
50. SW: Republic Commando
51. Star Wars: Battlefront
52. Burnout 3
53. Guilty Gear XX #Reload
54. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
55. Call of Duty 3
56. Ninja Gaiden Black
57. Crimson Skies
58. MechAssault 2
59. Call of Duty 2
60. Rainbow Six 3

These games will now retail for 400 Microsoft points ($5). This reflects a 50% discount for all three games. However, the price cuts are yet to take effect in Xbox Live Marketplace.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the induction of these titles to the Arcade Hits collection, though an official confirmation is expected soon.

The hex-based strategy game recently hit Xbox Live Arcade last Wednesday and was listed to arrive on the PlayStation Store yesterday.

The delay has been attributed to the game needing a “little more work” to “ensure the online experience for PSN users is as smooth, fun and addicting.”

However, it has been confirmed that the PS3 release will include trophies, the Xbox 360 Achievement-like functionality that rewards users for completing certain tasks.

The game features 30 single-player levels and 16 multiplayer maps. It supports cooperative, competitive, tournament and ranked play.

Billed as the “first original XBLA game from mainland China”, Crazy Mouse can be had for 400 Microsoft points.

Those nosey detectives at NeoGAF picked up the rating in the ESRB database, though they have been since been pulled.

In addition, industry veteran “john tv” posted a picture of the game appearing in the Xbox Live Marketplace on a development console, suggesting that this rerelease will be available online.

The original was released way back in 2000 and has achieved cult status and still maintains a small but lively community of followers.

Developed by Isopod Lab, and seen as a continuation of the series, the game features eight-person online multiplayer, along with gameplay enhancements and tweaks.

It will sell for 800 Microsoft points.

In an interview to IGN, Microsoft VP John Schappert said that "the information about XBLA de-listing had been taken out of context and that there was no plan to do any such thing." Apparently, Microsoft had only put in place “parameters by which we can delist” games, but thankfully won’t move forward with plans to remove titles from the online marketplace.

Additionally, Schappert noted that the upcoming dashboard update will improve sorting options, making delisting unnecessary.

The first title is a party game spinning off from the famous stealth-action Tenchu series. It features a “trap action” game, supporting four-player multiplayer both locally and over Xbox Live. The latter is a music-rhythm title using the standard console controller. It’s music library consists of music from different genres such as electronic and pop, offering two-player versus play both locally and on Xbox Live.

Taking a rather cartoonish approach to the sport, the game lets players pitch and hit in a variety of neighborhoods, each with their very own rules. It will also let you pick up over 120 professional players by collecting in-game packs of Topps “Big Head” Major League Baseball cards.

The game will be priced at 800 Microsoft points ($10) and will be released tomorrow.

Published by Microsoft and Ubisoft, the game will feature 16 mechs, over 100 singleplayer levels and four online multiplayer modes. It will retail for 800 Microsoft points ($10).

The Summer, which saw the release of titles such as Braid, Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando Rearmed and many more top-tier titles, saw a big 58% jump in unique members buying games. Additionally, August revenue of XBLA games broke the previous record by 67%.

"The debut of the new strategy proved to be a huge success," noted Xbox Live manager Marc Whitten, "but the focus on quality games doesn’t stop with the Summer of Arcade. We have plenty more great titles coming out in the next few months and beyond that we think will continue to fuel this incredible momentum."