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Bomberman, Yie Ar XBLA

Two games out on Wednesday.

Bomberman Live and Yie Ar Kung Fu will be this Wednesday, 18th July's Xbox Live Arcade releases, Microsoft said late on Friday while we were busy sneezing somewhere over the Atlantic, wondering how exactly we'd managed to catch a cold in Los sodding Angeles.

Oh well, at least we saw Rutger Hauer. And if Rutger asked us how much this week's XBLA releases costs, we'd be able to tell him that Bomberman is 800 points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30) and Yie Ar is 400 (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.65).

Bomberman is Hudson's baby, of course (in fact, Hudson is to Bomberman as Joe is to Jessica Simpson), where players navigate a maze trying to trap and kill each other with bombs, taking advantage of various power-ups (16 in this version) on the way. The Xbox Live version offers four-player offline and eight-player online modes, with eight arenas total, and customisable Bomberman costumes.

Yie Ar Kung Fu, meanwhile, sees Oolong questing to win a Martial Arts Championship by defeating masters of shuriken, nunchaku, bo and chain. It's a graduate of old-days formats like the NES, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, and dates back to 1985.

Each offers a demo version to help make your mind up, along with 12 unlockable Achievements for a total of 200 gamerpoints.

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