I find it interesting that certain XBLA games languish in development hell for months and months awaiting MS approval and yet a totally unplayable piece of complete crap like Piss Island gets released. It's just weird.

Ugh, the 1942 remake looks so fucking bland.

Why does "Next Gen" = Lack of Color?

US, March 13, 2008 - In January of 2007, Microsoft made a special exception for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which could not stay under the then 50MB cap. In May of '07, realizing the 50MB cap was stifling development of original games, Microsoft pushed the limit to 150MB. It's possible that even this size is about to become a thing of the past as two Capcom titles have been granted special permission to ignore Microsoft's restrictions.

Both Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Bionic Commando Rearmed will exceed 150MB. Capcom said that Rearmed holds far too much content to fit the current limits. To meet standards, Rearmed would need to shed some of the bonus material that would still appear on the PlayStation Network and PC versions. According to Capcom, SFII could not run in 1080p if not for Microsoft loosening the file size cap.

Bionic Commando Rearmed arrives this spring on XBLA, with Super SF II Turbo HD Remix coming in the summer.

Good. Even the 150MB limit is archaic.

Omega Five at 50MB says hello.

Creating a great game in 50MB and enforcing a game to be no more than 50MB are two entirely different things.

The fact that they had any limit to begin with is because of their stupid decision to sell consoles without a hard drive. That was a terrible idea from day one.

I'd be more willing to bet it just shows developer incompetence. I think it's better to have the 150MB limit and have Microsoft evaluate when a developer has an actual legitimate reason to go over it. Without the limit we'd have far more over-bloated games that would be no different than they would be had they been optimized for the limit than we would games that made good use of the extra space.

Good example? Super Stardust HD on the PS3 is 300 American Megabytes. 300. It's got four bland levels and maybe half a dozen enemies that aren't rocks. Compared to Mutant Storm Empire (a similar styled multi-direction shooter) which is 45MB and has sixteen large and varied levels and over eighty enemies.

I'd rather MS force them to optimize than force us to buy their $180 hard drive.

Before playing Bliss Island, I didn't think any game could be worse than Yaris. I was wrong.

BTW is there a tutorial online on how to get great scores on Poker Smash, i.e. strategy?

You can go to the in-game theater mode and watch replays of the best runs. It's really amazing to see. I sure as hell can't do what they do; it's real impressive.

The top scores are the programmers.

Now I'm depressed

Unfortunately, it looks like the criteria is:
1) Come from a big publisher
2) Be offered on both PSN and XBLA
3) threaten that the XBLA version will be inferior to the PSN version unless the limits are lifted

Oh, I'm pretty sure #3 was the only reason they needed.

So all that stuff about how Bionic Commando wouldn't look as good on XBLA as it will on PSN. . . that's no longer the case?

Sounds like it. Same with SF2 Remix. I'm happy

As a side note, citing "developer incompetence" for game size is funny to me.

I'm pretty sure if the Space Giraffe guys pulled this with a minor license, they'd be laughed at.

Ok, I got Brain Challenge or whatever is called the Brain Age clone. It was kinda meh for me. I've played the same kind of games in the Wii and DS and they somehow more entertaining. Brain Challenge, of course, follows the same formula but the minigames just don't click with me.

Also, I think it's kinda expensive, 800 pts, for an XBLA game, but I guess is cheaper than the Wii or DS alternatives.

It is cheaper than the DS version ($19.99), but it's twice the price of the ipod version ($5), so I don't know if it's a fair price or not. I hate the controls. The part with the 3 bouncing balls is really hard because you have to select the right color with your right stick and press A to confirm. It's WAY too easy to pick the wrong color when you only have a spit second and have your eyes fixed on the top of the screen. I imagine it's a lot easier to use the ipod's 3 button system or using the touch screen of the DS.
It's not a bad game, but I never really like those brain trainers that much -- it feels like homework.


I have a new standard for buying 800 point games. I call it the Rez standard. Basically, I haven't purchased Rez yet and I think it's a beautiful, fun game. I just haven't felt like pulling the trigger yet. If I play another 800 pt game and I like it (like Omega 5 or this one), I have to stop and think "Do I like this game better than Rez"? If I'm not sure that I do, I won't buy it and I keep my points. So far, the only game I have that met the Rez standard was Poker Smash. One day, I'll get cheap points (I hope) and I'll break down and buy Rez. Until then, it holds up as a pretty good barometer.

Don't wait to buy Rez! It's totally worth it. Poker Smash looks fun too.

And... yeah, looks like its confirmed.

http://blog.capcom.com/archives/1011

Fuckin' awesome!

No new games this week but Assault Heroes and Doom are dropping to 400.

Now be fair, Yaris is the worst game on XBLA.

Bliss Island is a close second.

I was just playing some Total Carnage the other day, and couldn't help but think how fucking awesome it would be on XLA, what with the possibilities of co-op, leaderboards, HD and everything. Heck, SmashTV is on there and Total Carnage improved on SmashTV in every way.

Heavy Barrel (arcade version, not the crappy NES version) is another similar game that would be awesome on XLA.