Late Night Consoling

Independent studio Chair Entertainment today announced Undertow, an underwater third person sidescrolling action game headed to Xbox Live Arcade. Using Epic's Unreal Engine 3, the game features both a 15-level single-player and cooperative campaign as well as a multiplayer component supporting up to 16 players. This makes Undertow the second confirmed 16-player game headed to Live Arcade, following the announcement of Gaia Industries' Wing Commander Arena (preview).

"We've really enjoyed designing Undertow for Xbox LIVE Arcade because it's given us the freedom to create a pure gaming experience focused on fun, addictive game play," said creative director Donald Mustard. "Whether a player is looking for hours of intense multiplayer or they have just 10 minutes for the ultimate gaming experience, we're confident Undertow will be as exciting to play as it has been for us to create."

Chair Entertainment was split off of GlyphX, developer of the Majesco-published Advent Rising (Xbox, PC). Chair's primary project is a multi-medium franchise entitled Empire, created by novelist Orson Scott Card. Card was also a writer on Advent Rising.

Undertow is expected to be released for Xbox Live Arcade this summer. A gameplay teaser trailer is available at Chair's official site.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it plans to cut the price of the PSP in European territories. The system, currently priced at 199.99 Euros (US$272.19) and GBP 149.99 (US$300.47) in the UK, will be adjusted to 169.99 Euros (US$231.36) and GBP 129.99 (US$260.41) in the UK as of May 4. Along with the system price change, five games will be added to the Platinum game line, which will also be repriced to GBP 14.99 (US$30.03): Namco's Ridge Racer 2, Namco's Tekken: Dark Resurrection, Guerrilla Games' Killzone: Liberation, SCE's LocoRoco and Namco's MotoGP.

The European price adjustment follows a similar drop in the United States, which saw the price of the system drop from $199.99 to $169.99.

This week's Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday will see two new games added to the Xbox Live Marketplace rather than the more common single release.

Klei Entertainment's Eets: Chowdown (screenshots), previously released on PC, will make its way to the service this Wednesday. The 2D puzzle game consists of 120 levels and a new action mode called Marsho Madness. It is available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Pinball FX from Zen Studios will also sell for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The traditional pinball game offers two control options, one based on the standard Xbox 360 and one based on hand motions interpreted by the Xbox Live Vision camera.

As usual, this week sees three new games added to the Wii's Virtual Console service. Konami, Sega, and Hudson are contributing one game each from the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx-16 libraries, respectively.

Konami's Gradius III (Super Nintendo, 1-2 players) is first up, containing ten levels of sidescrolling, space-shooting action. It is available for 800 Wii Points ($8).

Westone's Wonder Boy in Monster World is the fifth game in the sidescrolling Zelda-esque Wonder Boy series, and follows Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, whose TurboGrafx-16 version was released on the Virtual Console as Dragon's Curse (review). It has a price tag of 800 Wii Points ($8).

Finally, Hudson offers Battle Lode Runner (TurboGrafx-16, 1-5 players), a multiplayer version of the classic action puzzle franchise Lod Runner available for 600 Wii Points ($6).