Crispy Gamer News

Microsoft is touting the latest advergame on Xbox Live Arcade as one of its biggest yet. Apparently the game has done so well that it is getting some love from one of Microsoft’s top executives who is speaking at CES this week in.

“Doritos: Dash of Destruction has been the most downloaded game in the second half of December with just under 1 million downloads,” said Mark Kroese, General Manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Advertising Business Group, during his Game Power Conference Session presentation at CES.

Our own Kyle Orland, who is at the show this week, caught up with Kroese shortly after his presentation to ask him why he thought the game did so well, beyond being a freebie. He pointed out that Dash of Destruction was much better than other free games they’ve offered, like the Yaris advergame: “it’s actually a good game!”

And if you’re wondering why it doesn’t show up in any of Major Nelson’s list of Top Xbox Live Arcade titles in 2008, the answer is simple: it’s free.

Dash of Destruction is a free arcade racing advergame developed by Ninja Bee for Xbox Live Arcade to promote one of the world’s most popular snack foods. The game was released on December 17, 2008 for free and was based on a concept created by gamer Mike Borland, who won the Unlock Xbox competition sponsored by Doritos. His game concept was brought to life by Ninja Bee and released on Xbox Live Arcade.

While fans ate the game up (pun intended), critics derided it for having the most easily unlockable achievements.. ever. Most of them could be unlocked within less than twenty minutes of play. Easy or not, the game apparently garnered the attention of the Xbox Live community. The game also went out of its way to be cheesy, encouraging players to “get their Gamerscore on” or go on a “Gamerscore Rampage.” Personally there’s nothing wrong with being cheesy when promoting a nacho cheese flavored snack food..

Kyle Orland, live from CES, contributed to the report.

Developer Isopod Labs and publisher Activision Blizzard have released Vigilante 8: Arcade to Xbox Live Arcade this week. Vigilante 8: Arcade is a remake of the classic V8 series of driving games from by Luxoflux and Activision from the late 1990s - Vigilante 8 for PlayStation & Nintendo 64, and Vigilante 8: Second Offense for PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and DreamCast.

Isopod Labs, who self-funded the development of the game, has created a whole new experience based on the series now classic gameplay formula and themes. In the game player take control of a classic vehicle armed with some ridiculously powerful weaponry and gimmicks to take on AI controlled enemies or real players online.

You can find out more about it by visiting the game’s official site or by logging on the Xbox Live and trying the trial.

James E. Silva, the winner of the XNA Dream Build Play competition, will soon see his unique action game be released on Xbox Live Arcade. the stylistic action platformer, The Dish Washer: Dead Samurai, will be released “soon” according to the GamerScore Blog. According to some new info supplied by Silva, the game will offer some unique features.

These new features include new mini games, more fabulous combos (which we got a taste of in the demo) and even the ability to use a guitar peripheral to play some co-op. Details, straight from Silva, after the jump:

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Yesterday, Microsoft took the opportunity to try and build on its growing Japanese audience, unveiling a number of upcoming releases during its press event at the Tokyo Game Show. The line-up featured a variety of high profile titles covering multiple genres, coming to the Xbox 360 starting this holiday season and through all of 2009.

The event kicked off with a keynote address from John Schappert, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of LIVE, Software and Studios. Schappert game attendees their first look at many titles currently in development by Japanese studios, along with the latest news from one 360 franchise that’s undeniably Western.
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Capcom passed along word this morning that the first of the downloadable content packs for Mega Man 9 will be available this week. The pack includes the Endless Attack Mode, which throws players into a stage without end. Players jump into this mode and try to get farther than anyone else in the world. Your longest time will be displayed on the rankings page. More importantly, Protoman, Mega Man’s sword wielding brother, is made available as a playable character.
Protoman features the Charge Shot ability, Power Slide ability, and a shield that he can utilize to deflect bullets at enemies. However, Proto Man also takes double damage and has double bounce back when he is hit. Protoman does not get a story mode and is not compatible with Rankings or Challenges.
Both DLC packs are available now on WiiWare Channel today (October 6th) with XBLA following on October 7th, and PSN on October 9th.

Rare’s classic platformer, Banjo Kazooie, will finally see the light of day on Xbox Live later this year. Microsoft announced that the game, originally released on the Nintendo 64, will be landing on Xbox Live Marketplace on November 26. The game will costs 1200 MS Points and those that have pre-ordered the new Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts game, will be able to get their hands on the Arcade version almost two weeks before anyone else.

Anyone who pre-ordered will be able to use the “Stop ‘N Swop” before those who buy the game at retail. Microsoft also said that it plans to release the follow-up, Banjo-Tooie, on XBLA in 2009.

3DRealms may not be delivering Duke Nukem Forever anytime soon (if ever) but at least you can enjoy the classic shooter Duke Nukem 3D on Xbox Live. The revamped and reworked version of the classic feature the politically incorrect action hero gives you all the power-ups one liners lifted from Army of Darkness, and single-player action of the original.

The game also features 8 player cooperative and DukeMatch multiplayer, Play ranked matches, single and multiplayer Achievements, unlockables, bilinear filtering, motion blur, Xbox LIVE Vision camera support for DukeMatch, multiplayer, and more.

Look for it to hit Xbox Live Marketplace on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Find out more about this reimaging of the classic game by visiting www.xbox.com.