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With less than a week until the launch of the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft decided not to release a new arcade title for the first time in months. Instead, they have lowered the price of three previously released arcade games. Feeding Frenzy, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Worms to only 400 Points ($5).

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If you enjoyed Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, you will love Episode Two. The story continues where Episode One left off with the similar enjoyable gameplay, plus some minor improvements. This edition features several new additions including extra difficulty modes and the ability to transfer over characters from Episode One.

For those who missed out on the original, the story takes place in a 1920s universe, in which Penny Arcade creators Gabe and Tyco are mystery solvers alongside your created character. You can head right into this edition, though, as the storyline does not continue from the original. Gameplay is a combination of a comic book woven together with aspects of a traditional Japanese role playing game.

Combat remains similar to the first game, with each character possessing his own special attack.

Since Command and Conquer 3 came to the XBOX 360 in March 2007, developers have been looking to perfect the transition of RTS games from the PC to the console. Age of Booty, a new downloadable title on the XBOX Live Arcade, goes back to the basics with its controls. The simple controls consist of directing your ship with the left analog stick and pressing the A button to move.

Age of Booty does not really have a story but delivers the pirate theme down to a tee. The single player mode consists of 21 challenges, in which the main objective remains the same, to capture more towns than your opponents. Simple upgrades become available by destroying ships on the map not involved in the conflict at hand.

Action never becomes overly chaotic but for hardcore RTS fans, Age of Booty will likely become boring because of the lack of options in its gameplay compared to a traditional RTS like StarCraft. Also, your AI teammates often do not perform the actions that they should and there is no way to tell them where to go, which becomes frustrating in the challenges.

War World has the worst demo in the history of Xbox Live Arcade. The demo lasts for only 50 seconds, which makes this review all the more important.

War World, an arcade style mech shooter, first made an appearance on the PC in 2005, but this version has even fewer customization options than the original release. A number of predetermined characters are available for your choosing instead. Each mech has different strengths, like stealth, hovering or penetrating lasers.

Unlike many of the newer games available, War World does not have any destructible environments. This omission makes the environments seem more like a background with no interaction. Giant mechs are no match for objects on the map.

There are two other minor problems worth mentioning. There is no way to check the leaderboard during the game and there is no countdown to signal the end of the round.

Feeding Frenzy is not one of the first games that come to mind on XBLA that you would think desperately needs a sequel. Even with a skeptical mind going in, Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown reminds players of how much fun it is to swallow underwater creatures over and over again.

Gameplay is extremely simple and will appeal to hardcore and casual gamers alike. The objective is to eat fish bigger than your fish. As you eat more fish, your character grows and can eat the next size. Controls are somewhat loose and take time getting used to. Your fish floats through the water and sometimes you have to steer it away from the larger fish more often than you should have to. There is no rumble feedback, which is always disappointing.

The interface on top of the screen gets in the way of the fish's action at the top of the ocean. Some new variations on the original gameplay include jumping out of the water and gulping down insects in the air. Also, by pressing the B-button, swallowing a school of fish is strangely satisfying. Graphics are simple, yet stylish and work well for an underwater XBLA game. FF2's sound effects are a little too simple, yet somewhat soothing (minus the announcer's Feeding Frenzy! call during every stage).

The story behind the developers of Shred Nebula should make gamers fall in love with this title. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

CrutchTime Games is the definition of a small game developer. Working out of a converted garage, two first time game developers and a few former Street Fighter designers pitched an idea to Microsoft and this week saw their title released to the public on XBLA.

Shred Nebula is a top down Sci-Fi space shooter in which the player can only shoot in the direction the ship is facing. The objective of each level is to locate and scan a beacon. However, it is not always clear what the objective is and you will spend time flying around the level waiting for the next text box to pop up.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Reviewer Tae K. Kim played both the Xbox Live and PSN versions of the game and found no discernible differences in the core gameplay. The PSN version does have remote play enabled so you can play it on your PSP, which is pretty sweet. But regardless of which platform you play it on, it's awesome.

The original Bionic Commando on the NES remains one of my favorite games of all time, so I was pretty geeked for Rearmed. After playing it, I'm happy to report that Capcom did me proud by delivering an awesome update to the classic game that's worth every penny of the purchase price.

I really hope other publishers who own classic franchises are paying attention: this is how you revitalize classic games to meet today's standards. Capcom basically went in and gave Bionic Commando the "Six Million Dollar Man" treatment: they rebuilt it with bigger and better technology. The graphics got a very noticeable facelift and the gameplay received all sorts of amazing tweaks. You still have to use your grappling hook to get places--I guess asking Capcom to incorporate a jump button and redesign all of the environmental puzzles was too much to ask for--but you now have access to a whole bunch of new tricks like being able to toss grenades and pick up objects with your claw to hurl them around.

The levels were also redesigned to include secret areas; if you played the original, you'll feel right at home but do a little exploring and you'll definitely be rewarded. The addition of timed challenges was also a nice touch and I can't wait to see the user videos showcasing expert claw techniques that are sure to crop up after the game's launch. Oh, and that's not even mentioning the cool 2-player co-op version, which I hope more classic games incorporate: co-op Mega Man, maybe?

Capcom really did a great job of walking the fine line between paying homage to the classic and moving in a new direction. Of course, Rearmed isn't perfect: the controls take some getting used to, the hacking mini-game's sort of lame, and the game is still brutally tough--curse you spiked floors!--but it's a great update that I heartily recommend to old school NES fans and new gamers alike.

Fun Factor: 4.00

PROS: An excellent update to a classic game. New graphics and gameplay tweaks are spot on.
CONS: The controls take some getting used to; difficulty is still fairly high.

With a dearth of retail releases this week, the arcade comes to the forefront with the anticipated release of platformer, Braid on XBLA this Wednesday. This week's WiiWare title is Wild West Guns, a Gameloft game which features on rails shooting and duckhunt-esque moments. Also, available now on the Virtual Console are Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega Master System) and Splatterhouse 2 (Sega Genesis).

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With an overall weak retail launch lineup, the XBOX 360 found its first must buy game in a new medium, a downloadable title. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was a smash hit and was the most talked about game in the first few months of the system's release. Since that time in late 2005, we have seen the downloadable game industry flourish, but finally, the much anticipated sequel his virtual store shelves as the first title in XBOX 360's Summer of Arcade series.

Major League Eating: The Game is exactly what you would expect it to be, including all of the burping and farting that you can handle. This barf-fest uses the same mechanic for each stage and there is no sense of any progression through the single player mode.