May has historically been a dead month for video game releases, but that looks set to change this year. Sadly, the change occurs in the latter half of the month, so there’s not a whole lot coming out this week. Fortunately, there’s at least one release worth taking a serious look at this week – Taito’s excellent revival of their most treasured franchise in Space Invaders Extreme for Xbox Live Arcade. Also of note is the latest Three Kingdoms brawler Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce for the PSP, and the anime-licensed fighter Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden for the PS2.

Don’t forget to check out the full release schedule for the latest changes and information on upcoming games.

06/05/2009

ARKANOID Live! Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Developer: Taito Corporation Publisher: Taito Corporation RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) Taito unleashes its high definition version of Arkanoid!, its arcade hit heavily inspired (to the point of legal action) by Atari’s Breakout. The basic concept remains the same – bounce the ball off the paddle to destroy the blocks, this time over the course of 60+ stages, with a few boss battles and online play. 800 Points is a bit of an ask given the simplicity of the core game, but that’s just the way it goes on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009.
Space Invaders Extreme Platform: Xbox Live Arcade (Also available on DS and PSP) Developer: Backbone Entertainment Publisher: Taito Corporation RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) Space Invaders Extreme follows in the footsteps of the inexplicably awesome Pac-Man Championship Edition, bringing a new version of the retro classic to the table, embracing its age and original mechanics, rather than trying to completely modernise it. Think the original Space Invaders with a combo system, power-ups and boss fights. It’s also got awesome modern-retro visuals with backgrounds done by the eccentric Jeff Minter. This is the way you do new retro games on Xbox Live Arcade.
Zombie Wranglers Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Developer: Frozen Codebase Publisher: Sierra RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) It’s unusual that we see three Xbox Live Arcade releases in a week, but it’s happening. The third release of the week is Zombie Wranglers a third person shooter that looks like it has been inspired by the LucasArts/Konami shooter Zombies Ate My Neighbours. Unfortunately, it also looks very rough in recent promotional footage, so I’d definitely grab the trial before deciding on this one.

07/05/2009

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce Platform: PSP Developer: Omega Force Publisher: KOEI RRP: $AU69.95 A lot of people like to complain that the Dynasty Warriors series is nothing but a brainless button masher with little difference between each release . These people are wrong, but KOEI has seen fit to attempt to shut them up with Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce for the PSP, which adds some new stuff to the mix, including character awakenings (which changes the appearance and powers up your fighter), new weapons, increased difficulty and a new focus on ad-hoc multiplayer.
Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden Platform: PlayStation 2 Developer: CyberConnect2 Publisher: Namco Bandai RRP: $AU49.95 Naruto Shippuden is the second series of Naruto, taking place roughly three years after Sasuke leaving the Hidden Leaf Village. Everyone presumably spent the three year absence growing up and getting stronger, but as you’d expect, there’s new evils to fight. This game is pretty similar to the other Ultimate Ninja games, which were fairly competent brawlers, but it covers the first 17 episodes of the new series and features over 50 playable characters. Fans of the show and manga will dig it, but almost everyone else will be left rather confused.

It’s a much busier new release week next week, with the heavily delayed releases of the Mushroom Men games and Silent Hill Homecoming for the Xbox 360, three games which debuted in the US last year. Nintendo’s getting off their pile of cash to release two “new” games in the form of Pokémon Platinum and New Play Control! Pikmin 2. On the PC side of things, Australian gamers will finally be able to get their dirty mits on the retail release of Demigod.