RoboBlitz launches on XBLA News

As promised, RoboBlitz has popped up on Xbox Live Arcade, offering you 19 levels of physics-based puzzle-solving and a bit of action in the latest Unreal Engine.

It costs 1200 Microsoft points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 13.96), making it the joint most expensive Live Arcade game there is, but there's a demo version at least so you can help make your mind up. It all weighs in at 49.32MB.

A quick first impression? Well, you roll around your factory home trying to set up the local space cannon to wipe out some pesky space pirates, and it looks very much as though you do this by completing three tasks each in six different areas - manufacturing ammunition, sourcing launch codes, etc. - by solving the aforementioned puzzly puzzle puzzles.

First of all, for example, you can go to the ammunition depot and manufacture a slug for the cannon, by beating up little space pirate enemies and dumping them in the smelter. I tried to go "too big" and grab enormous cogs lying around, but presumably they come into play later.

There's a helpful tip system, what looks to be a handsome array of weapons, and the option to play through a "Master Technician" difficulty if you're prepared to start each level again when you die. I wasn't, which is just as well as I also managed to fall into a smelter trying to grab some "upgradium".

What's more, you can also tackle the six areas of the factory in whatever order suits you, although with various upgrades available you'll probably find the game advising you not to be such a rash idiot. I wish more people did that with me.

Anyway, look out for our review of RoboBlitz soon. It's up on Live Arcade now, and also available on PC through Steam.