Microsoft's Greg Canessa, who conceived and spearheaded Xbox Live Arcade for the original Xbox and who now heads up the Xbox Live Arcade business, introduced a new standardized release program for new downloadable titles from this point forward. Appropriately called Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, the program stipulates that all Live Arcade games will be released only on Wednesdays, at 12:01pm Pacific time. Kicking off the new release format was Konami and Digital Eclipse's Frogger, which is now downloadable for a price of 400 Microsoft Points ($5). Microsoft also announced the release schedule for the remainder of the summer, which is as follows.

- July 19: NinjaBee's Cloning Clyde
- July 26: Namco's Galaga
- August 2: Capcom and Sensory Sweep's Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
- August 9: Namco's Pac-Man

Galaga and Pac-Man represent Namco's first venture into Live Arcade. When questioned by an audience member as to the possibility of seeing Ms. Pac-Man on the platform, Canessa was noncommittal, but he did let slip that Namco classics Dig-Dug and Rally-X are likely to see release at some point. During the event, I was able to get some hands on time with each of the currently confirmed titles, and here are my impressions in order of release:

Cloning Clyde
Developer: NinjaBee
July 19, 2006; 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Screenshots

Cloning Clyde had the distinction of being the sole original game showcased at last night's event. It is created by veteran Xbox Live Arcade developer NinjaBee, also responsible for the business strategy sim--and 360 launch title--Outpost Kaloki X. This time around, NinjaBee has created a humor-tinged puzzle based platformer revolving around a hapless experiment subject named Clyde who finds himself cloned many times over. Clyde and his fellow Clydes must find his/their way out of the enormous Dupliclone, Inc. facility by solving puzzles, creating more clones, and beating up chickens.

Though rendered in a high contrast 3D cartoon-like style, Cloning Clyde's gameplay is entirely presented from a sidescrolling 2D perspective. While Clyde must indeed beat up chickens as well as destroy security machines in order to reach his goals, the meat of the game is the puzzle solving. In each level, the player may create a certain number or additional Clyde clones once a cloning machine has been found. At any time, the player can switch control between any of these Clydes in order to solve puzzles. For example, two Clydes may need to stand on a series of buttons, which will open a door that a third Clyde may enter in another part of the level. Or, one Clyde may positition himself in a catapult while another Clyde throws the lever. To complete a level, one Clyde must reach the level's exit; a secondary goal is to save the remaining Clydes.

The game has an appealing presentation to it. While its graphics would not be considered revolutionary, they are bold and colorful, suiting the absurd nature of the game's premise. In some of the first levels, the backgrounds can be a bit bland, but they improve soon as more variety is introduced; the foreground objects and characters are well modeled and animated throughout. Early in the game, control and gameplay hints are delivered via notes left by other Clydes, some of which contain amusing personal notes from one clone to another; one ends with "Love, Me" and another with "P.S. Always remember that you are a special guy."

Cloning Clyde also includes one feature that cannot be ignored, and yet often is by many modern developers: cooperative play. It's a perfect fit in a game all about multiple identical player characters, and fortunately it's there. NinjaBee has whipped up 40 levels supporting two-player co-op via split screen or Xbox Live. I checked out the split screen mode, and I'm looking forward to diving in with a friend. Since two clones can be controlled simultaneously rather than only in sequence, the puzzle solving possibilities are ratcheted up. Players can also kick or even carry and throw each other, which is sometimes necessary to reach certain areas, but sometimes simply entertaining.

All in all, Cloning Clyde seems to be a novel take on the 2D platforming genre, which has all but disappeared on home consoles in the wake of modern 3D platforming collect-a-thons. As great as it is to have old coin-op classics easily available for budget prices, it's just as nice to see Live Arcade-exclusive titles from smaller developers. With that, on to impressions of coin-op classics.

Galaga
Developer: Namco
July 26, 2006; 400 Microsoft Points ($5)
Screenshots

I love Galaga. Before I played it last night, I remembered that I used to enjoy playing it, but until I sat down and started shooting insectoid enemy ships I forgot how much I enjoy it. Galaga followed the more iconic Galaxian, which took Space Invaders and evolved it into something that probably formed the groundwork for the entire 2D space shooter genre to come. That formula was a little more polished with Galaga than with its predecessor, however, and for those who have no aversion to playing games from 1981 it holds up just fine as some pure and elegant arcade fun.

As one would expect, the gameplay and control itself is emulated just fine. There is now a button to quickly fire two shots in succession, but other than that it's the same Galaga you played in the arcades. The most disappointing thing about the transition of many of these coin-op games to home consoles is the significant difference in aspect ratios between a horizontally oriented modern television and a vertically oriented arcade screen. Gameplay is relegated to a narrow strip in the middle of the screen, which on a widescreen display takes up only about a third of the available screen area. This is essentially unavoidable without repositioning interface elements or simply redesigning the game for a new aspect ratio. Namco made the best of it, however, filling the sides of the screen with some gorgeous cabinet artwork from the original game.

The game's Xbox 360 Achievements will likely be immediately familiar to those who have sunk hours into the game before: form a double fighter, shoot down a red captured fighter, find the scorpion, and so on, as well as of course your standard "beat the game" type of Achievements.

For those lacking the patience for traditional marathon arcade sessions, this version of Galaga includes options at the start screen allowing players to change the number of initial lives, the number of points required to obtain extra lives, and at what level number the game will begin. Of course, if you modify these settings you won't be eligible to show up on the Xbox Live Leaderboards.

All in all, this is a fun and faithful port of an arcade classic. More than likely, you have played it at one time or another. If you haven't, this might be a good opportunity to rectify that for a low price.

Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
Developer: Capcom / Sensory Sweep
August 2, 2006; 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Screenshots

By far and away the most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade title, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting has been delayed long past its initial early 2006 release period but has finally been given a final date. The game is a port of Capcom's enhanced and faster paced 1992 update to its original 1991 release Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Street Fighter II laid the groundwork for fighting games to follow, and many still consider it the finest example of the genre.

Understandably, Capcom and Microsoft wanted to get the job done right, and tweaking the online multiplayer component is reported to be the primary reason for the game's tardiness. Presumably, any kinks have finally been worked out, given the game's impending release; unfortunately, at last night's event only split-screen multiplayer was available.

The game's Live Arcade incarnation of course includes an Arcade mode, containing Arcade, Versus, and Training options. Arcade is the original "story" mode, which has players choosing one of the game's 12 characters and battling the CPU in various locations around the world. Versus is the classic single-screen two-player versus matchup. Training pits the player up against an unmoving enemy character to practice moves and combos.

Of course, the online component is the big addition to the game, and sure to be the most commonly played mode. Like other multiplayer Live Arcade games, Hyper Fighting includes a variety of leaderboards, including an overall ranked board, a monthly board, rankings of the best players for each particular character, and rankings of consecutive wins. Players can also view their own detailed win/loss performance stats, which make use of a relative statistical rating system based on the United States Chess Federation's Elo rating system.

Online play consists of ranked and Player (unranked) matches, each of which can be played as Quick, Custom, or Created matches. Selecting a Quick match will simply drop you into the first available game, Custom matches include some limited options such as round length and whether the game will use voice chat, and Created matches allow a player to send an invitation to another specific player.

One option available only in Player matches is called the Quarter match. This game type allows a lobby of up to five players, two of whom face off at a time while the remaining players watch and wait to play against the winner. Here, Capcom is attempting to provide an online proxy for the time-honored arcade method of play, in which the player who wins the most gets to play the most. It's also a nice way for a group of friends to hang out online in a game that generally only accomodates two players at once. Quarter matches are distinct from ranked matches and a Quarter session has its own leaderboard that tracks the performance of each player through the matches.

On the presentation side, the game looks just as good as you remember it; unlike many examples of 3D graphics, well-animated 2D sprites and well-drawn 2D backgrounds tend to hold up pretty well over time. The game is presented in its original aspect ratio, meaning it will not fill a widescreen television, but it's a big step up from the tiny play areas of the other upcoming coin-op conversions. Control feels solid as well; the Xbox 360 d-pad isn't my favorite for control purposes, but it works fine and some seasoned Street Fighter II players at last night's event were pulling off plenty of impressive displays of timing and finesse.

The game's Achievements include some gimmes such as "play 10 ranked online matches" and "play a match in the online quarter mode" but there are also some challenges that mirror the ones that guys would brag about being able to do in the arcade. For example, Hyper World Champion: complete single-player arcade mode without losing a match. This is followed by Perfect World Champion: complete single-player arcade mode without losing a round.

All in all, providing Capcom has completely ironed out the troublesome online lag issues reported in many early previews, this one should go over pretty well. When it's finally released this August, expect Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting to quickly shoot to the top of the Live Arcade charts.

Pac-Man
Developer: Namco
August 9, 2006; 400 Microsoft Points ($5)
Screenshots

There isn't all that much to say about the Xbox Live Arcade version of Pac-Man. It's Pac-Man. You have played this game. And if you somehow haven't played it by now, it's unlikely you have any desire to do so.

Like Galaga, Namco's other contribution to Live Arcade, Pac-Man plays basically identically to the original version, with additional minor tweaks such as the ability to choose the starting level. Like Galaga, it also suffers from having a very small playable area, but again, it comes with the territory. And that's all I really have to say. It's Pac-Man. You eat dots (more dots, more dots), you run away from ghosts, and it's fun. And it's $5 this August over Xbox Live.