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Our growing infatuation with Destructoid took another uncomfortable turn into full-on mancrush this week, as they put up a couple of MiBI posts recently.

Ben posted about our potential Webkinz-ish DLC plans (that may still yet come to fruition) here. Yes, it is a pretty complicated and/or convoluted scenario to get things figured out in order to do something like that, but if enough folks buy the game and the interest is there, I’m sure we would figure out a way to make it work. I know I’d like to kill somebody as Repvile.

Then Hamza used his underground sources at Interpol and scooped the field with his announcement that we’re coming out this week on XBLA. I can just envisage the handoff of the manila envelope in a dark parking garage. Though I guess the intrigue factor would be less “Deep Throat”-y, and more “Eddie Murphy in Trading Places”-y.

We are also featured on GameSpot UK’s Start+Select video podcast last week (which was put together just before we got wind we’d be out this week, so that’s why Guy isn’t in the know about release dates and price and such things– clearly, his underground contacts do not have the Spy-Fu that Hamza’s has). But still, you get to see the game in action with Guy’s British accent voiceover which definitely adds class to what at its core is a silly game with balls and guns.

Paul squeezes in some XBLA love on the Major Nelson Podcast in the midst of a bunch of AAA titles. Impossible to try to cram all of our game features and highlights into five minutes of airtime, but he gets most of our awesome in there. Give it a listen (starting at 1:12-ish).

Anyway, we’re gearing up for a big and sleepless week here at Playbrains, and hope y’all are ready to check out the game in…Holy Hell…two days. Two days? Seriously? Two days. Yikes.

[Update: we're now going out at 800 points ($10), so take all the justification of why you should buy this game and amp 'em up by, like, 33%...]

Oh, if only the Game Release Beard were here to see it…*sniffs*

It’s official– we’re going up on XBLA this Wednesday the 15th for 1200 Microsoft points (about $15).

It’s been a mildly long and definitely strange journey to get here, but we’re really proud of the game we’re going to unleash on the world, and we definitely look forward to playing it next week with the humans.

Now if there’s one thing we know, it’s that there will be much rancor and gnashing of teeth that at 1200 points we are an “expensive” game.

Firstly, it’s our publisher (Microsoft Game Studios) that determines pricing. We really don’t have a say in such things.

But that being said, come on now– let’s remember what you’re actually getting for your 1200 points:

• Fully 3D, class-based arena combat
• Several hours of a repeatable adventure campaign played in single-player or 4-player online co-op
• 50 unlockable characters, abilities, weapons and weapon modes and 50 secrets to discover for you explorer types who aren’t all about the killing
• 16-player multiplayer games of Skirmish, Team Skirmish or CTF with 21 arena maps to match all game sizes
• Invasion mode where you create your own maps before entering Domination-style gameplay– you’ll never play the same map twice
• Avatar Attack! bringing your Xbox LIVE avatar into combat
• Deep game features like an accessible damage system, asymmetric classses across factions and dynamic tuning of the game without code updates for proper long-term balancing. All intended to create a game that you will not just play for a week and discard– we want to create a community of people playing this game for a long time (ideally, just like with BV2)

Or, put another way:

Yum.

Anyway, yeah, we’ve spent two years creating a unique, silkysmoove game that has tons of replayability (is too a word). We have created one of the deepest titles you will ever find on XBLA, and that’s gotta be a 1200 point title (instead of, say, an 800 point title).

Besides, what else would you have done with that extra 400 points ($5)?

• Buy a morning matinee ticket to go see “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”? (sure, but can you *play* with Optimus Prime? Okay, bad example, but that would cost you extra)
• Get a typical super-sized fast food meal deal? So instead, you’ll have our game and be saving yourself the calories and cholesterol. See? Our ad campaign should totally be “MiBI Saves Lives”
• Buy a couple of Cokes in a hotel vending machine?
• Buy a pound of lobster in South Boston?
• Buy a gallon-and-a-half of gas in Hawaii?
• Buy a pair of Dr. Scholls Moleskin inserts?

Okay, that last one was pretty awesome, but none of ‘em are worth the extra awesome that we’re bringin’ on Wednesday.

Speaking of, there are a metric pantload of really good, big-name titles going up all around us, but we’re happy knowing that we’ve got the deepest featureset of all of ‘em. Here’s hoping that there’s room out there for the little guy with the big game.

And hey, if you put out a 1200 point game, I’d buy it. You should totally buy ours.

One thing that really grinds my gears is having to go back and forth through a bunch of items in an game menu just to see what the achievements are in most games on XBLA or Steam. Achievements are fun ways to reward folks for playing your game, but it shouldn’t be that much of a chore to know what achievements are available and how you get them.

*Note to self: For our next game, create a “Sneaky Snooper” achievement that you get if you go through each achievement page*. How meta.

Anyway, instead of going to all that trouble, and as a service to the gaming community, here are all 12 achievements totalling 200 points (the most allowed by law) for the upcoming awesome that is Madballs in…Babo:Invasion.

Who loves you? Clearly, we do.

First up, the Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy ones:
	First Unlock (10 pts)	Everybody hates games that make you wait an hour before you get your first achievement, so we’re giving you one that you’ll get after just a few minutes of gameplay. MiBI is loaded with 50 unlocks (characters, weapons, abilities, weapon modes, levels and more) that you get by simply playing the game. We’re giving you an achievement just by getting your very first unlock. See? We’re pretty awesome that way.
	Babo Team Up (10 pts)	To get this achievement, all you have to do is gather three of your bestest friends together and host a 4-player co-op game (either Enduro or Level Attack). It’s okay, you can take turns hosting so you all get the achievement. There is no shame in that.
But achievements can’t always be all ham and plaques. These next few are a bit more difficult…
	Pro Babo (10 pts)	To get this achievement, you’re gonna have to be on a winning team for 5 games of Team Skirmish. Yep, straight up killin’– just be on the winning side five times in your Babo career.
	Babo MVP (10 pts)	Win a Capture the Flag game that has at least 6 players. Hey, that’s easy, right? But oh ho…check the fine print: you have to have the most points on your team to get the achievement. We’re sneaky that way (but still awesome).
	Babo Invader (10 pts)	Win an Invasion Mode game with at least 8 players. Better brush up on your map-making skills, because Invasion Mode isn’t all about the killin’. It’s a game mode custom made for the thoughtful and strategic killing machine.
And then there are the toughies. Some of these are harder than trying to order the right wine to go with hot dogs:
	Super Babo (30 pts)	Finish the campaign in Single Player or Co-Op Enduro mode. Tougher than it sounds– the campaign has 10 levels of increasing nefariousity that culminates in a level that is very much unlike any of the others…
	Wise Babo (15 pts)	Find all 50 secrets in the single-player campaign. This may be the toughest of all of the achievements, if’n you ask me.
	Psycho Babo (30 pts)	Achieve a Fierce Kill using every weapon. What’s a Fierce Kill? Why, it’s just killing an opponent with a weapon mode that s/he is most vulnerable to. Look for stars around the target and a red skull in your reticule when you hit ‘em to know you’re doing maximum damage…
We have a Rank system with 15 ranks (yes, ranks are very handy in a Rank system). You move up in rank for every 10 items you unlock (weapons, characters, abilities, etc.). Once you have earned all of the 50 unlocks (and gone up 5 ranks), you can cash those unlocks in and move up the next Rank ladder. It’s all about the glory…
	Officer Babo (15 pts)	If you achieve all 50 unlocks for the first time, well, you’ll be an Officer, soldier. Cash in them unlocks and start moving up the Officer ranks.
	Babo Hero (20 pts)	If you complete the Officer ranks, you can cash in your unlocks again and become a Babo Hero, my friend. Now you’ll move up the Hero ranks as you unlock stuff.
	King Babo (25 pts)	And once you get all of the unlocks in the Hero ranks, you will get the ultimate Babo status symbol– you will be King freakin’ Babo. *genuflects*
And last but not least (especially in size), the Super-Special ability that no other game will ever have:
	Magmor Crush (15 pts)	Use Magmor’s Colossus superpower and crush 100 hapless opponents like so many ants under your boot. It’s the goo crushing-est achievement ever.

So there you have it– the mysteries of the achievements outlined in an easy-to-follow (and impossible to format) table.

Oh, and the right wine with hot dogs? 1/2 ros

Continuing in the “please don’t sue us” series, we present this gem which needs very little introduction (just the bit about not suing us– that bit’s important)…

Fun Fact: Design of the Babos were not inspired by William Shatner's head

Mad props to Andrea and Logan from the Art team who have been doing these up…