XBLA: Double D Dodgeball, Coffeetime Crosswords & Live Draft Tracker
by Xav de Matos 
{ Jul 16th 2008 at 9:00AM }
First up is Coffeetime Crosswords, a crossword puzzle game with over 150 puzzles. Coffeetime Crosswords features a co-op mode for up to 2 players (local only) to work together to solve difficult puzzles. Coffeetime Crosswords is another stellar Konami release, weighs in at 42MB and is priced at 800MS points.
Double D Dodgeball from Yukes is a dodgeball game (Sup, powers of deduction?). Featuring up to 4 players locally or 8 players online, D-triple is described as a retro-style dodgeball game. The tiny 17MB download is also priced at 800MS points. Originally D-triple was scheduled to hit the XBLA on July 30, so either it was pushed forward, released by accident or something secret was supposed to release but was postponed.
Lastly is the EA Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker, which isn't exactly an Arcade game, per se. The Tracker acts as the middle man between EA's online fantasy leagues. Using the tracker commissioners who host league drafts offline and in-person can import your fantasy league settings. Once settings are established, players can select their picks with the tool and then upload completed drafts to their online accounts on EA's Fantasy Sports website. The tracker is priced at 400MS points.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Boff @ Jul 16th 2008 9:06AM
Woo. Hoo.
I'll give the dodgeball a try though, might be fun.
lun @ Jul 16th 2008 10:26AM
Where's castle crashers!!
I DeX I @ Jul 16th 2008 10:28AM
Dodgeball, lame. Crosswords sounds fun, if it were five bucks. Ten is a little too steep for my tastes.
eric @ Jul 16th 2008 10:35AM
Double D Dodgeball is one of the lamest games... It's sub-Atari 2600 level graphics and gameplay. Additionally, every time I play the demo it logs me off of Live for some reason.
And why doesn't Coffeetime Crosswords support the chatpad?
LAME!
I DeX I @ Jul 16th 2008 10:44AM
Chat-pad support sounds like a no brainer for a game like this. I am so sick and tired of these lazy ass developers looking for a quick buck. Take a little time with your products and earn a little respect in the biz.
andyg8180 @ Jul 16th 2008 11:11AM
Double D dodgeball... The title peeks my interest...
I DeX I @ Jul 16th 2008 12:36PM
That peak will quickly fall when you actually see it.
ccc @ Jul 16th 2008 11:58AM
With a release like this the week of E3 one has to question if MS takes the arcade seriously or not.
Cofee Time Crosswords is a really stupid concept and your just stupid if you buy it as you can get this kind of action out of ANY local news paper for 50 cents or less. Lame.
Double D Dodeball actually manages to be an even worse title that also is way overpriced and is a big heaping pile of dog shit.
I mean, OMFG, warlords retro mode is a step up from this game for real and that game sells for 400 ms points.
I'm not even gonna talk about the Fantasy Draft BS.
What the hell were you thinking Ms?
This comes of as an insult to me on the week of E3.
Anyone else feel that way?
Where the hell is Warworld or Feeding Frenzy 2?
Yeah I wanna know where the other big arcade releases are too but those two games were shown off at last years E3 and there hasn't been a peep about them.
Shame on you MS.
Mighty Healthy @ Jul 16th 2008 1:08PM
I feel the same...insulted by this week's offerings.
(and the bungie stunt)
Tony @ Jul 16th 2008 2:22PM
I don't really feel this way largely because I don't know why MS is expected to do anything special this week. They usually don't in terms of XBLA releases and neither does Nintendo or Sony. Kind of just seems like yet another week in terms of game releases to me.
ccc @ Jul 18th 2008 7:37PM
E3 is like Christmass time to me. Ignoring this from the Arcades perspective really sours the whole thing to me.
Duke Nuke'm would have been an unbelievable moment to me.
But Castlecrashers, Bionic Commando, 1942 or Dishwasher would have by far been acceptable as well.
Tony @ Jul 16th 2008 2:22PM
I honestly thought Double D Dodgeball was fun and I can see some potential in the full game.
Once I got used to the controls I had a good time, but unfortunately the demo doesn't let you try any other options or win more than two rounds. The demo setup is bad.
The problem is that I'd never pay 800 points for it. 400 I'd consider.
SABCA @ Jul 16th 2008 2:22PM
...I think 2D Dodgeball (GET IT?!? It's not about boobs, jeeze...) could be fun with the full 8 players. Who can tell though, it cuts you off of XBL when it's loaded up... -_-;
The game seems to control well, and it's retro graphics are really nothing worse than Pac-man Championship Edition. The fact the game already has DL content listed in it's instructions areas, though "Get this character in the ____ pack" does seem kinda cheap, though. If the Packs come out free (like with EXIT), that would be pretty nice.
And who cared about it's file size? N+ is also a small game. And that doesn't seem to bother anyone.
I'm glad to see Yukes develop an XBLA game (Bring us Evil Zone!), but they do seem to miss the mark on proving the games value to the consumer. That seems to happen a lot with newcomers to XBLA... Small File sizes always start everything off with a bad taste. I dislike Demo's that give a very small taste, with no hint towards how the games progression or depth feels. Schizoid had a very good one, to make a comparison as to how a Demo of an XBLA game should be made.
Coffeetime is not my type of game, so, I won't say anything about it.
It would have been nice to have Castle Crashers / Bionic Commando R / War World / Etc this week, but at least we have a variety of items this time. It's not OPTIMAL, but it's nothing to be extremely disappointed over, either.
The Dark Knight @ Jul 16th 2008 10:18PM
Last year at E3 they released both Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe on XBLA as a surprise. I am feeling let down too. Enough with the causual games targetting the Wiitards! Bring on Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando: Reloaded, and SSF2HDR.