Beat the summer heat by staying indoors with five new XBLA games starting July 18.
It’s so hot outside… how hot is it? It’s so hot outside, that I couldn’t come up with a witty punch-line to this joke. Oh, but I tells ya’, if it weren’t as humid like the armpit of a desert burro, you would be in stitches right now. As for Microsoft, they’re busy stitching together a clever way to keep anyone out of the simmering rays of the summer sun with their annual Summer of Arcade showcase.
Once again, the Xbox 360 stewardship is assembling together five exciting new downloadable games (hmm kind of like The Avengers… but totally not affiliated in any way as to not infringe on copyright law), which will begin releasing July 18, same Xbox Live channel, week by week. With that said, let’s get to this year’s Summer of Arcade line-up:
*Protip: when you purchase any three of the titles below, you’ll get 400 Microsoft Points back!*
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD
July 18
200 Microsoft Points
How do you bring back a franchise from the brink of irrelevancy? Well, if you’re the Tony Hawk brand of skating games, you HD convert seven of the best tracks from two past titles that put you on the map, Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, and attach online multiplayer. Bingo, blamo: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD.
Wreckateer
July 25
800 Microsoft Points
The name alone definitely gives you a deep, Bruce Lee-insight into what this Kinect-powered game is about, and the explosive, demolition gameplay of firing projectiles at monster-infested castles, using hand and arm gestures for aiming and shooting, might as well be one of the legendary martial artist’s fists driving into Chuck Norris’s chest.
Deadlight
August 1
1200 Microsoft Points
Most zombie games tend to focus their gameplay on quantity over quality, specifically with gun-combat that’s more akin to a John Woo flick than an actual depiction of a post-zombie outbreak world. Not so with Deadlight mates, a 2D side-scroller that places precision jumps and knowing when to vamoose ahead of everything else.
HYBRID
August 8
1200 Microsoft Points
Third-person cover-based shooter? Developer 5th Cell (Scribblenauts, Lock’s Quest)? Jet packs? A recipe for a jolly good time if I ever seen one. Throw in some Platinum Games’ Vanquish-ish motifs and a massive online-world multiplayer, and duders, must I need to explain more? Oh, alright, here’s a gameplay trailer… geesh.
Dust: An Elysian Tail
August 15
1200 Microsoft Points
Out of all the Summer of Arcade titles, Dust might be the the Cracker Jack prize out of the bunch. The amazing, tireless work of one person, this 2D action-RPG is both love letter to retro classics in its genre, but a beautiful sight to behold with its hand-drawn animation that is Disney-esque, except more bad-ass.
Want to see some incredible Pac-Man street art or a Space Invaders bathroom? They’re all right here and away from the scorching summer heat thanks to your geeky pals at Walyou.
