I admit I was disappointed when Microsoft didn’t have any surprise XBLA releases during E3. All’s not lost however, since they announced some exciting new games for the service that will arrive later this year. But before I get into that, let’s talk about this week’s nice pair of releases: 1942 Joint Strike and Go! Go! Break Steady.

Those of you familiar with my reviews on this site should already know that I’ve gained an affinity towards shmups recently. So much so that I’ve had some strongly opinionated things to say about recent shmups on the service, such as Omega Five and Triggerheart Exelica (Ikaruga would have been here too if it didn’t make my brain melt , but I’m much less inclined to babble on about 1942 Joint Strike. The 194X series was a quality breed of vertical shmups that were very popular in the 80s, but quickly disappeared from the market soon after. Capcom and Backbone Entertainment decided to revitalize the series with Joint Strike by bringing it to both XBLA and PSN. Being the avid shmup fan that I am now, I was not at all disappointed after playing the demo. The game is a traditional vertical shmup, with the biggest difference being that the game is played in widescreen. This allows the game to be rid of those ugly black bars on the side that plague other vertical shooters on the service. Joint Strike’s biggest problem is that it’s too similar and hardly superior to the previous games in the series. If you have access to the original 1942 or even any other 194X games, there’s almost no reason to pick this up. The improved graphics are barely noticeable and somewhat hinder the old school feel of the series.

But I’m being too harsh. The game is fantastic on its own merits, and I enjoyed the one level demo far more than the entirety of Triggerheart Exelica. One thing that can’t be emulated from the previous games in the series is the two player co-op play (both local and online) which always adds to the fun factor and replay value. The one reason I haven’t picked this up just yet is that I hear it’s very short. The game is priced at 800 MS points, but is only five levels long. But if the first level is anything to go by, those five levels in the full game will offer some of the most solid shmup gameplay of this generation. Once again, the important thing here is that shmups are hitting the service and the emphasis on co-op play makes things all the more better.

Go! Go! Break Steady marks the second week in a row where an XBLA release has unnecessary exclamation points in its title (the other one being last week’s Golf: Tee it Up!). There’s not much to say here either, since I found myself indifferent towards it just ten minutes. Basically, Go! Go! Break Steady is a break-dancing rhythm game with a twist. Instead of just having the traditional rhythm game mechanic of timing button presses along with the beat, it also includes sections that are essentially a clone of Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move / Snood / the million other versions of this same game. So instead of being derivative of the already tired rhythm genre, it also implements the extremely tired aforementioned nameless genre (henceforth now called the Puzzle Bobble genre,since I believe that was the original). And therein lies the irony in innovation. No, I’m being cynical. Break Steady is not a bad game, but one that I personally have no interest in. The combined rhythm and Puzzle Bobble mechanic make the game feel as though it doesn’t know what it wants to be. From my brief playtime with the game, the Puzzle Bobble element happens randomly during the song, making things all the more confusing. The art style is hit or miss, and bound to offend some actual people in the break-dancing scene, but I’m sure there are many people out there who would enjoy this admittedly ironically unique rhythm game which has the potential to strike a good balance between fun and challenge. The best thing about this game is that tries to be good. Even in my few minutes with it, I could see that the developers had put a lot of effort into it. That effort should translate to a lot of happy customers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.

Before I wrap things up, I just want to talk about E3 in relation to the Xbox Live Arcade. As mentioned, there was no surprise release but a lot of surprise announcements. Among these was Portal: Still Alive, which is apparently an expansion to the most popular part of the Orange Box. Details on this are still unclear though, since the teaser was just GLaDOS’s voice mentioning something about new tests. Even vaguer was the announcement of the South Park XBLA game, for which the teaser only consisted of Cartman announcing the game. While these two games have potential (particularly Portal), let’s focus on the games we have more information about. Pac-Man Championship Edition was a huge hit on the service, so it’s good to see that Galaga Legions will be hitting the service in fall of this year. The game, developed by the same people that made Pac-Man CE, is attempting to revitalize Galaga,and the short video footage of the game looks incredible to say the least. Another big announcement was that the classic Rare game Banjo-Kazooie will also be hitting the service this year. One thing of particular note is that the Stop ‘N Swap feature that was designed to connect Banjo-Kazooie to Banjo-Tooie (but never did) will now be used to connect this game to the retail game Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Since Nuts & Bolts looks very promising, and the original Banjo is heralded as one of the best platformers of its time, this is just further incentive to purchase both.

The game I’m most excited for, though, is the game that deserves its own paragraph. That’s right, Geometry Wars 2 was finally announced, and it looks even better than Retro Evolved. Do yourself a favor and look at some screens or videos to experience the visual orgasm that is Geometry Wars. It’s not just eye candy, it’s eye erotica. This time the game will feature six game modes in comparison to the two of its predecessor. Those of you who didn’t pick up Project Gotham Racing 4 (you should) will be glad to know that Geometry Wars: Waves will be one of the modes. But the most exciting thing about the game seems to be the cooperative play. Even though it’s local only due to latency issues, it supports up to four players and looks phenomenal. Of course, all of this content doesn’t seem to fit the 400 MS point range like Retro Evolved did, so this one will be sporting the 800 point price tag. Regardless, it still looks easily worth the price and is one of the rare cases where I’ll be buying it without trying the demo. Fortunately, you and I won’t have to wait long, since it’s releasing next week! It has been a very good summer for the Xbox Live Arcade.

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