Microsoft Unveils 2011 Summer of Arcade Picks

Ah the Summer of Arcade, that special time of the year when children and adults alike can avoid basking in the warm summer breezes and touching anything that remotely resembles fresh air, and instead spend five straight weeks downloading and playing through five new Xbox Live Arcade games Microsoft deems rad enough to put in its Summer of Arcade promotion.

Most of the lineup actually consists of titles we around the Giant Bomb offices have been looking forward to for quite a while now, such as the debut title from Fuelcell Games, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and Ubisoft's intriguing "spiritual successor" to Populous, From Dust. One I'm personally looking forward to is Toy Soldiers: Cold War, the follow-up to Signal Studios' surprisingly enjoyable tower defense game.

And then there's Fruit Ninja: Kinect. Yeah. Fruit Ninja. Kinect. Mmmhmmm.

Moving on! Last, but definitely not least is the debut title from Supergiant Games, Bastion. Obviously, we have a slightly vested personal interest in that one, what with all the coverage of it we've had via our Building the Bastion segments on the Happy Hour shows. Still, I'll try and remain as objective as possible in wishing congratulations to the Supergiant posse regarding their inclusion.

The promotion kicks off July 20th. No specific dates have been given for each title yet, but expect one a week for the five weeks starting on the 20th. Can we maybe have Fruit Ninja come the last week? During Gamescom? That'd be swell. Thanks.

yea Bastion

Get your iOS out of my Xbox please!

Looking forward to Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.

Weakest Summer of Arcade yet. Shadow Planet is the only one I am interested in. 

Should've replaced Fruit Ninja with Trenched.

Kind of expected Ms. Splosion Man to be in there.

Good for Bastion. Now they just need to get it on PC or PS3.

Sweet. Good on Bastion. Psyched for that game.

Bastion is a beacon of hope in a summer filled with Fruit Ninja.

Hurray for Bastion!

Fruit Ninja should have been Ms Splosion Man. You know an interesting game that's not a phone game.

Should've replaced Fruit Ninja with Trenched.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is going to be awesome. I hope it's $10 but I'll gladly pay $15.

No Trenched? Denied.

You can count on all of the Summer of Arcade games to be $15.

Jeez, you guys are no fun. Fruit Ninja seems like a hilariously appropriate game for Kinect.

Where the fuck is Trenched? I sure hope it gets out before the summer of arcade starts. holding it until after would be Balls!

No Trenched or Ms. Splosion Man? Probably the two biggest exclusives coming to XBLA, would have thought they'd be on here.

Weakest Summer of Arcade yet. Shadow Planet is the only one I am interested in. 

Good to see that Bastion made the cut. This should assure some extra attention and potentially sales.

fudge - that means From Dust won't come out day and date on PS3. Thanks Microsoft.

@Vegsen said:

Hurray for Bastion!

Can I just get Bastion now, please?

FRUIT NINJA? you've got to be fucking kidding me

I hope From Dust is good and we get to see more of it at Ubisofts conference.

Fruit Ninja... So, wait, Fruit Dealer made a video game?

Everyone wondering about Trenched its out in 2 weeks on the 22nd.

Not really that great this year, I am getting bastion. Considering from dust and insanely twisted shadow planet. Possibly get toy soldiers on a price drop but I skipped the original.

Pretty blah list

Where the fuck is Trenched? I sure hope it gets out before the summer of arcade starts. holding it until after would be Balls!

WHERES MY SF:3S ALREADY!

The pricing on fruit ninja is gonna be critical. I can't believe so many of you are against this being in here; it's visceral and satisfying and at low price point I think it'd be a fun diversion. If it's 10 bucks, well, no one's going to buy it.

I like Fruit Ninja... I wouldn't pay $10 for it, but it's fun.

Wow, love for Bastion in the official release. Good luck guys!

Great lineup, sans Fruit Ninja. I've really been looking forward to all the other games in the lineup, though.

@porr said:

WHERES MY SF:3S ALREADY!

You've picked a very odd place to voice this grievance...

@Genjai said:

Fruit Ninja... So, wait, Fruit Dealer made a video game?

Actually, Fruit Dealer is the villain. He's the one throwing all the fruit and the ninja.

Well chuffed for SuperGiant games, debut release and its featured in the Summer of Arcade!

Wait, does this mean Bastion won't come out on PS3 till after summer? Because that would suck on so many levels.

@RYNO9881 said:

Wait, does this mean Bastion won't come out on PS3 till after summer? Because that would suck on so many levels.

I haven't seen all the episodes and haven't been following the development, but didn't they explicitly say that there wouldn't be a PSN version of that? I seem to recall them saying something along the lines that there's a planned PC version, but no PS3 version?

Edit: If you look at the Bastion page, only XBLA and PC are mentioned as platforms.

DUDE! I couldn't be happier for Supergiant Games! Not only did they get their game made and in partnered up with a big time partner, they also got into the huge promotional summer of arcade too!

Congrats to the SuperGiant Games guys, you rule!

Give me Bastion on PSN, please!

...or at least PC! I really want to play it =)

Fruit Ninja will outsell everything else, just you watch.

YES! Great to see Bastion getting the attention it deserves through Summer of Arcade! I'm sure that Supergiant is stoked to hear that, although part of me thinks they might've already known it was going to happen.

Regardless, congratulations to the Supergiant crew!

This just goes to prove how awesome Bastion is going to be. Can't wait to play it. Congrats!!!

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet! And Bastion.. Hell yes.