24/7 Player

Yearning for a hearty adventure, but struggling to get by on the pathetic wages of a Caribbean flooring inspector? If so, today’s advertised Xbox Live Deal of the Day (part of an ongoing promotion) should float your cup of tea — right onto the shores of Monkey Island. The Xbox Live Arcade version of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition has been marked down by 50 percent to 400 MS Points ($5).

Some readers reported having some difficulty obtaining yesterday’s deal at the advertised price. If the reduced price doesn’t reflect on the Xbox Live Marketplace yet, be sure to try again later today. And if you’re the good sort that’s already completed this classic bout of pirating, perhaps you should join us later today as we taste pies and assign numerical scores to them.

Add The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition to your Xbox 360 download queue

Today’s Xbox Live deal: 50% off Secret of Monkey Island: SE originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Posted on December 25th, 2009 at 12:30pm by Ludwig Kietzmann
Filed Under: Holidays, Xbox Live Arcade, adventure, lucasarts, monkey island, the-secret-of-monkey-island-special-edition, xbla, xblm, xbox-live

It doesn’t feel like much of a roundup when there’s just one game to be rounded up, but hey, at least the game in question is in the spirit of the season. The one and only XBLA release this Thanksgiving week is Madden NFL Arcade, a bite sized version of the popular Madden NFL franchise. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and what better way to celebrate than by kicking your loved ones’ asses at some football? Madden NFL Arcade is a fast paced football game with a stripped down set of rules designed to keep things fast and furious. There are no first downs, no time limit, and the first team to hit 30 points wins. Games go by quickly, and the gameplay works well for multiplayer matches. My only complaint is the lack of depth. The game is supposed to be accessible, but with only three options for each play, things get stale pretty fast. For 1200 Microsoft Points, I would have liked to see some more replay value, but hey, $15 is a small price to pay to see the look on Uncle Dave’s face when you wipe the floor with him after a hearty turkey dinner, and before the tryptophan nap.

Posted on November 25th, 2009 at 10:25am by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: News, XBLA Roundup, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, dlc

Worms 2: Armageddon

Worms 2: Armageddon fans you are in luck because your favorite game is getting a title update on Xbox Live Arcade. Even better than that…it’s free.

The free update has improvements, fixes and features requests as well as play balancing. Which is important if you want…a fair game.

The update details are on the Team17 Facebook page, which they didn’t give the address to. There is larger DLC coming for Worm’s Armageddon so keep watching for that!

Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 2:45pm by GamingAngel
Filed Under: Arcade game, News, Video game, Xbox Live Arcade, worms-2-armageddon, xbox

This week on XBLA we have two top notch titles; Diner Dash, the XBLA remake of the 2003 PC hit, and Gyromancer, the much anticipated puzzler from Square Enix.

Diner Dash

If you’ve ever worked in food service before, this game will give you flashbacks. You play as Flo, a plucky waitress who has to  keep her customers happy by seating them promptly, taking their order, bringing them food, bringing the check, and then busing the table so she can seat the next customer. If things take too long, the customers get angry, and leave without tipping. Every unhappy customer takes one star away from you. Once you’re out of stars, it’s game over. There are also a wide variety of multiplayer modes to sink your teeth into either locally, or over XBL. Diner Dash is a pretty good buy at 800 Microsoft Points. Just remember – that price doesn’t include the tip.

Gyromancer

I went through a rough period in my life a couple years back. I lost touch with friends and family, stopped eating and sleeping properly, and I didn’t go out much. I’ll be honest, I had a monkey on my back, and it’s name was Puzzle Quest. It took some time, but with a little work I was able to kick the habit. Now Square Enix is pushing a new poison on me in the form of Gyromancer. You travel the game world with your trained monsters close at hand collecting treasure, and fighting the big evil that’s pestering the land, and by “fighting” I mean sending your monsters to do your dirty work for you. Each monster has special abilities that become available after you’ve cleared enough sets of pieces off the board. Instead of moving just one piece at a time, you rotate four pieces with each move in an effort to line up 3 (or more) of a kind. At 1200 Microsoft Points, I would have liked to see a multiplayer mode included.  Each encounter in the game is a battle between your monster, and an enemy monster. This would have translated nicely into some sort of competitive online mode. Still, if you share my puzzle game addiction, then Gyromancer won’t disappoint.

It’s going to be hard to decide which of these two XBLA games to spend your Microsoft Points on this week. Both are highly addictive and provide hours of entertainment. If only there were some way to merge them into one game to make the decision easier… one game about a puzzle-solving monster who waits tables to support their monster family. I would totally buy that game.

Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 5:04pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: News, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

PopCap is giving gamers more ball bouncing, peg eliminating fun.  Ode To Joy!!!  That’s right; the PS3 is getting in on some Peggle action.  The Peggle Nights expansion is also flower powering its way to the 360 and PS3.

Fans on the 360 will get the Peggle Nights expansion pack.  This expansion includes 60 levels, 60 challenge levels, more achievements, two-player Duel mode, four-player Peg Party, and a new Peggle Master.

PS3 fans will get both Peggle and Peggle Nights.  Peggle brings 55 levels of ball shooting fun.  There are 10 Peggle Masters to unlock, 75 challenge levels, and two-player modes.  Peggle Nights will add 60 levels, 60 challenge levels, and a trophy room.  Both options will support remote play!

Look for both Peggle, and Peggle Nights, to hit the PSN on November 19, 2009.  Peggle will run $9.99 and Peggle Nights will run $4.99.

360 fans can snag Peggle Nights on November 18, 2009 for 400 Microsoft points (that would be $5.00).

Posted on November 17th, 2009 at 5:42pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: 360, News, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, peggle, psn