Halfbrick Studios, those adorable chaps from Brisbane, has sent along a gameplay trailer of its equally adorable XBLA game, Raskulls. Many things in this trailer rub us the right way: the cute, infectious music; the block-breakin' gameplay reminiscent of Mr. Driller; and the unique special abilities for each character. It looks to be a dangerously fun combination, if we may say so.

Very few things tick off the happy-go-lucky team at Joystiq, but when you send us a new trailer for The Warriors: Street Brawl that doesn't have one iota of gameplay footage, nor one single second of anything from the game, then we have an issue with it. We guess we just expect too much these days, spoiled from the 95% of the industry that does game trailers right. Come on, the game announcement had more in it than this! How do you expect to drum up interest and get gamers to come out and play-ay when all you give us is this?

While checking in with Epic's upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title Shadow Complex again today, we were given a nice little tidbit of info from Epic programmer Rob McLaughlin. While playing through the game's introductory level, we casually asked about a price for Unreal Engine 3-fueled shmup, to which Rob replied that the title would likely not see price point below $20. We grilled hm for more info, but, sadly, he couldn't accomodate us.

At its core, Trials HD is a platformer -- on wheels. The entire concept of the motocross racer is to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, while avoiding an array of factory themed obstacles (steel beams, barrels, etc). Based on the PC Steam release Trials 2: Second Edition, Trials HD adds a few extras to the original -- along with a few graphical touches (primarily lighting).

In Trials HD players race through a level (presented with 3D graphics on a 2D plane), which range from simple ramps and jumps to large Micro Machines inspired loops and circus style rings of fire. The game is based on weight and propulsion, as the terrain changes under the rubber of your (cosmetically customizable) motorbike, players use the analog stick to adjust the body weight of their racer. Pushing all the way forward (and thus shifting all weight to the front of the bike) and hitting the gas will send your race pro crashing into the ground below. Added to this is the hilarious use of physics during crashes (and the ability to bail off the bike with the press of a button) and sounds, ranging from bone crunching to nervous screaming.

The original fear we had when Trials HD was announced was that movement would lose precision when a console controller translation. While the analog stick was quick to react to subtle movements in our demo, the directional pad seemed to be tweaked as the more precise weight adjuster, and it works. Trials HD also features a robust level editor to create their own tracks (split into a basic "drop in items" editor for newbies and an advanced editor for hardcore) and freely share them with the online community.

PC gamers will explain, Trials 2: Second Edition became an experience that would get under a player's skin. In the classic sense of "one more turn," Trials 2: SE would somehow suck away hours, just so a player could shave split seconds off a level's completion time, to climb the leaderboards. The same will be said about Trials HD.

Trials HD will be made available on the Xbox Live Arcade later this summer.

Wizards of the Coast has announced that Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers will finally release on Xbox Live Arcade this month. Specifically, the game will launch on June 17. Have no fear, Magic fans, unlike the Xbox version of Magic: The Gathering, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a straight-up card game. And, based on our time with it at PAX last year, it's a pretty good one.

Unfortunately, we still don't know how much green damage the game will deal to your wallet.

Update: We now have the price. Duels of the Planeswalkers will cost 800 ($10).

Major Nelson just confirmed via his Twitter that Xbox Live will be receiving a care package this winter in the form of Rare's Perfect Dark. Major made no reference to price or improvements to game content, aside from mentioning that the title will run in 1080p and that fans will be able to nab it this winter. And if you are a fan of Perfect Dark, keep an eye out for a free theme releasing tomorrow on Xbox Live.

[Thanks to all who sent this in!]

Let there be absolutely no doubt that Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex is heavily inspired by 2D exploration games of yore, namely Metroid and Castlevania. The Xbox Live representative that guided our hands-on demo used the word "Metroid" no less than 437 times (slight exaggeration). The game is 2D, it doles out power-ups gradually and contains plenty of exploration and action. Let's be clear about this: That is absolutely not a bad thing.

Xbox 360 Achievements for Wallace & Gromit's adventure (already ongoing on PC) have surfaced and X360A.org have scooped them up. Like any other XBLA title, Wallace & Gromit's Fright of the Bumblebees includes a possible 200 Gamerscore points to help players pad their personal Xbox profile "baseball card" statistics.

Fans of the famous British-born, stop-motion clay animation series will notice the careful attention Telltale Games put into the achievements -- primarily the the multiple achievements referencing Wallace's love for cheese. Here's hoping the XBLA translation for the adventure game turns out as Gouda as the PC version. Amirite?

We've been getting a lot of tips in the last week informing us that the full version of Arkanoid Live only comes with the first two episodes, despite the fact that there are four shown in the game's menu. While some have cried foul, claiming that the "full" version of the game (800) is really only half of the game, we should point out that both the trial version of the game and its Xbox.com page note that the full version contains only the first two episodes.

What is shady is the way in which episodes 3 and 4 are offered. Apparently, the only way to download the new episodes is to complete the first two, at which point the game will ask if you want to purchase episodes 3 and 4 (reportedly 400). According to a comment on this story and the Arkanoid forum on Xbox.com, the DLC is not offered upon completing episodes 1 and 2. It appears the DLC will be available at a later date. The DLC itself is not listed on Xbox Live Marketplace, so it's not surprising that many gamers are confused.

It's important to note that the extra episodes are not required to get all of the game's Achievements. Also, even with only two episodes, the full version is no slouch, containing 62 levels and plenty of mutliplayer options. We'd say it's more likely that the unorthodox nature of the DLC is the result of bad marketing decisions (remember Lumines Live?) and not a nefarious plan to bleed gamers dry.

All of our requests for comment from Square Enix (parent of developer Taito) have gone unanswered as of press time.

[Update: Clarified that the DLC is not yet available, even upon completing episodes 1 and 2.]

Sega has announced plans to release seven more of its classic titles under the Sega Vintage Collection banner later this year, thus confirming one of Xbox Live Arcade's worst-kept secrets. Included in Sega Vintage Collection 2 are Shinobi (arcade port), Comix Zone, Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Phantasy Star II, Sonic & Knuckles and Gunstar Heroes. Interestingly, Gunstar Heroes is the only title also announced for the PSN.

According to Sega, each title will include online leaderboards, re-worked graphics (using smoothing filters, not HD upgrades) and most will feature network play (Comix Zone, Phantasy Star II and Shinobi excluded). No word on pricing or release dates but Sega plans to release the titles separately this summer, with Sonic & Knuckles appearing last. Why the delay? With Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 2 XBLA and Sonic 3 XBLA owners will be able to use the classic lock-on feature from the Genesis-era to import Knuckles into each classic adventure. Of course, if patience isn't your best quality, you could just buy Sonic's Genesis Collection now (which doesn't support lock-on).

With a demo already out (exclusively on PSN) for this summer's Marvel vs. Capcom 2 revival, we thought it would be a great idea to compare the game's three graphic filter options in glorious HD video.

Originally, our excuse for making the video was to play MvC2 at work, but it turned out to be pretty informative. The filters -- which can be changed at any time-- start extremely "jaggy" in the classic mode, but get progressively softer on the eyes from crisp to smooth. In the end, the consensus around "the office" is that MvC2 is so fast paced, it won't matter which filter you have it set to. But for arguments sake, which filter do you prefer?

That didn't take long. While Sega's Gunstar Heroes was noticeably absent from Achievements uncovered earlier this month, Xbox360Achievements has again given us reason to live. Or at least reason enough to believe that the Treasure classic will be running and gunning for Xbox Live Arcade sometime down the line.

The site highlights twelve Achievements for the fan favorite side-scroller, worth 200 points in all. While we're disappointed at the lack of creativity in the list, which mostly focuses overcoming the game's top baddies, we continue to hope for online co-op play once Gunstar Heroes' XBLA debut is made official. Come on Sega, make it happen!

[Via 1UP]

Another week passes and the epic struggle between Call of Duty: World at War and Halo 3 continues. For a second week in a row Halo 3 netted the top slot as the most played Xbox 360 game on Xbox Live -- probably due in part to the public availability of the Mythic Map Pack, released on April 9. On the top played Xbox Live Arcade list OutRun Online Arcade grabbed the top spot while last week's number one, The Dishwasher, dropped to fourth.

In a show of gamers voting with their dollars, the 1600 ($20) XBLA release Puzzle Quest: Galactrix plummeted from fifth spot to tenth while Capcom's Flock! has failed to make a splash on the top ten. "What will knock Halo 3 from the top slot?" you ask. Halo OutRun Arcade... pictured above and coming soon (but, not really). The full top ten lists are available after the break.

This week, the highly anticipated Lode Runner finally blasts its way onto Xbox Live Arcade. Your regular host isn't available, sadly, so you folks will have to make due with me. Tune into the latest XBLA in Brief and see if the gold-hoarding antics of Lode Runner deserve a spot on your crowded hard drive.

Download the trial version of Lode Runner

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The third, and final, "deleted scenes" DLC for the platform-puzzler The Maw will be released next week on the PC and Xbox 360. The final scene, The Speeder Lane, sees Frank and Maw hijack a Bounty Hunter Speeder GTA-style, which eventually leads to an "old school boss fight."

The final add-on from developer Twisted Pixel is priced at 100 ($1.25). The Speeder Lane is set for release on the Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday, April 29, and for PC via Steam, Greenhouse, and Direct2Drive soon after. We'd hope more Maw content was on the horizon but Twisted Pixel is busy trying to 'spode people in preparation of its next (strange) title.