Maybe Kelly's under the desk?

Because that would be Castle Crashers-ist.

Again, can someone explain what this "Castle Crashers" game is?

It's been linked to and mentioned several times in this thread. Below is all you need to know/see.

My friend called me up about 2 weeks ago to get a list of what "big" games were coming in May/June. They wanna release Castle Crashers during a time when nothing huge is hitting retail I guess. I told him about the 2nd week in June would be the best time...so looks like a few more months until we get to play

What I love is the only thing known about the game is pretty much in that youtube vid and everyone's treating it as the next coming of Christ.

I think the game is going to fold under the weight of its own hype.

Bah! Alien Hominid is an amazing game, and I think they're going to do even better with Castle Crashers. Behemoth and Dan Paladin put so much work into their product with the hand-drawn art and the multitudes of extras. It's going to be a steal at $10 and will sell bucketloads for sure!

Yeah, I'm kinda with you, Michael. CC looks like a chaotic button masher to me, and those aren't really fun for me. I'll dl the demo, it's free and I always do, but I'm not riding the hype train yet. I'm not really sure why it's getting all the buzz, unless there's some history to it that I'm not aware of.
Talisman and Magic, I'm very interested in, just based on the original properties. MtG, at least, it would depend on how they handle additional cards; I would like something like Poker Smash, where you buy cards with in-game points/dollars.

Well, OXM featured a bunch of XBLA previews. One they mentioned was Peggle, which is apparently a very popular PC Pop Cap game I'd never heard of. I just DLed the demo. I like it a lot. It's really fun, albeit quite simple. If that's 800 points, I'll pick it up. For the PC, they want $19.99. WTF?? It's fun, but it's not THAT great.

This week on Arcade: TiQal

TiQal will be available this Wednesday for 800 points.
In TiQal, you have been chosen to make an epic journey through many obstacles to seek the help of the gods. The village of TiQal is in deep trouble! Destroy the block walls in your way by moving your magic Dropper left and right, rotating blocks, and dropping them into place to create squares of color. Build up multiple squares to score bonus points and unlock helpful power-ups. Do you have the skill and courage to complete your quest and save TiQal from certain destruction?
Loads of excitement: The full game includes 120 action-packed levels for you to master.
Fun and challenging: TiQal is addictive and easy to learn, yet presents challenging gameplay.
Power-ups galore: Unlike other games in the genre, TiQal includes fourteen formidable power-ups to assist you in your block destruction.
Multiplayer modes: Play with a friend in the co-op Adventure mode, or go online and challenge a buddy.



Plus, if Switchball is your thing, Wednesday will also see a free update that will 'that delivers enhanced graphics for a smoother gameplay experience and enhanced leaderboards.'

Yawn. A block puzzle game on XBLA, how original!
Oh well, might check out how Switchball improved, see if it's worth a purchase now...

The Penny Arcade game is coming in at 1600 points ($20) to buy when it hits the arcade. Well, hope they enjoy the low sales.

Yeah, a version of Peggle came with the PC version of The Orange Box which i think exposed a lot of people to it. Fun little game.

Just change the thread title change from "the XBLA Thread" to "The Bitch About $10 Games Thread" already.

Oh, enjoy that $130 Halo helmet, everybody.

Not all 10.00 games. I like Poker Smash and love Puzzle Quest.
I'm assuming/hoping there's something more to Castle Crashers, and that it's not just that lots of people like lots of little differentcolored people running around on a screen, but I personally haven't seen it yet. Then again, I also don't really like obscure cutesy Japanese-only twitch bullet hell shooters very much. Bangai-O on DC was good (how many 'hardcore' nerd points is that worth? Sorry, it was the US version.)

Peggle is a good game, it's deceptively simple. I think the target demographic of most of those PC 'casual' games is different from that of the XBLA 'casual' game, and the PC casual demo is more likely to spend 20 bucks on a game that he can play during his lunch break at work, whereas the XBLA casual gamer is either so casual, 20 bucks is out of 'casual' reach, or has a very large selection of games already on XBLA to choose from so has to be more discriminating, or is younger and doesn't have the disposable income that the PC casual gamer would have.

Exactly. PC Casual will drop $20 no question on one of these games since that is all they play. $20 for a casual game on consoles is very high considering we supplement our casual games with a $60 or more game purchase every month.

I ain't paying $20 for anything short of Goldeneye, and even then I'd put it under a lot of consideration.

When the heck is Bionic Commando supposed to be released?

Obviously games like Rez for $10 (and with potentially Ikaruga and Bionic Commando coming at that price) have reset the bar as to what gamers expect for their $10. It's a little tough on developers but that's reality. And no one made you buy the Halo helmet Pixy. If I recall, the regular edition was readily available for $50 or less shortly after launch.

Pixy, I don't know who you were referring to. I certainly wasn't complaining about a $10 game, in fact I said I'd buy it for that. It's $20 for the PC version download and that seems like a rip-off to me. I think the market reflects that 800 points is a fair value for a good XBLA game. I have no qualms spending that on Poker Smash or Pac Man CE or Bomberman. That's a great bargain (DRM issues notwithstanding). Anyone who complains that these games aren't 400 points at launch is being foolish.

There are some legit complaints to be had -- I think 800 points is a lot for Hexic 2 since the original is free. The Tetris game seems a little high considering, well, it's just Tetris. When Lumines was 1200 points, I took exception because it's such a limited, stripped version of the game (but at 800 points, I think it's very fair). Overall, I expect new original and recent port games to be 800 points and I have no problem with that. Likewise if there's an exceptional game full of content like Puzzle Quest, I would think that a higher price point is totally fair in that case.

Peggle is so simple, but having played it it is worth $20 to me. It was one of my favorite gaming experiences of last year. So basic, yet so glorious. I'm curious to play it again to see how the controls work. I hope they have some icon on screen that simulates the mouse cursor instead of just having you control the peggle gun's direction -- which would allow for more precision.

The XBLA pricing structure was weird for a while, but I think they have a decent tiered structure now. 800 points for most games and budget games for 400 points. Sure, there are some games that aren't worth 800 points, but the is no different than COD4 and Halo 3 being pretty well regarded full retail games that give a lot of bang for their buck, and then Turok being priced exactly the same.

I'm still incredibly judicious with the XBLA games I buy though.

Mr. Driller Online will be released next Wednesday.

NO REFUGE. Ikaruga will be released the Wednesday after that.

About time. Now I get to see what all the fuss was about (I could never track down a gamecube copy).

I wonder if the XBLA version of Ikaruga will be worth it if I already have both DC and GC versions.

I'm a big Penny Arcade Fan and was really looking forward to that game.

There is no damn way i will pay 20$ for an Arcade game.

They put it on a disc i would happily pay that price (oddly enough) but not for a downloaded game.

I'm prepared to be disappointed after trying Rez and thinking it was boring and kinda lame.