The news of a high def remake of Serious Sam, to be released on PC and Xbox Live Arcade, had me giddy as a headless, shirtless, bomb wielding dude who could somehow still scream.  Unfortunately, PS3 users are left out of all the fun.  Or are they?

Croteam CEO Roman Ribaric said financing was unavailable for a PSN version of Serious Sam HD to begin, but it's too early to say never just yet.  If there is enough demand, your PS3 may be spouting one liners and cannonballs after all.  Why not email Croteam and tell them you want to buy Serious Sam HD for the PSN?

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My, how things have changed since the original Space Invaders debuted more than thirty years ago!  Looking back, the game seems so simple, it's hard to believe it was a national obsession.  Move your ship beneath aliens, push the fire button, repeat, that's all there is to it.  When Space Invaders Extreme was released on Xbox Live Arcade, I knew I had to get it for nothing more than nostalgic purposes.  I was curious, too, at how my kids would react to it.  In this era of open world gameplay, realistic 3D graphics, and cinematic storytelling, would young gamers get bored too quickly?

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Over 1 Million Served!

One of our favorite old school cool co-op titles is Castle Crashers.  Apparently, we aren't the only ones who enjoy the game, either, according to the Behemoth development blog.  Just two days ago, on June 22, the one millionth player was listed on the Castle Crashers leaderboard.  This achievement makes Castle Crashers the fastest growing title ever released on Xbox Live Arcade.  It's good to see that such an honor belongs to a very strong co-op title!
 

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Yeah, it's tasteless, but at least on topic!

Achievements are one of the most innovative features of games for this generation of consoles.  Hearkening back to the old arcade days when you had to play just one more time to see your name on the high score list, achievements add play value to games.  Maybe you're gamerscore isn't up to snuff, though, and you are looking for some co-op games to keep the achievement points rolling in?

Testfreaks has you covered, with a list of the best and worst games for getting achievements without much trouble.  Wondering where your favorite co-op titles stack up?

Best:

Any LEGO Game, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Any Viva Pinata Game, Mercenaries 2, Halo 3, Crackdown, Left 4 Dead, Saints Row 1 & 2, Duke Nukem 3D, DOOM, Aegis Wing,

Worst:

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, C&C Red Alert 3, Army of Two, Gears of War, TMNT 1989 Arcade.

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This just in from the "no duh" department: Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, Episode One was overpriced.  Most gamers seemed to feel this way, but even director, Søren Lund of Deadline Games, agrees.

"I think it's a shame that Warner priced it at $20.  It should've been max $15; ideally $10."

Considering that Episode One was fairly short, even for an episodic game, we tend to agree.  The End Is Nigh Part Two is coming next month, and as of now, no pricing has been announced.  Lund speculates that it will be released at $10, as it is about half the length of the first release.  Half of an already short length?  Sounds like Episode Two will be shorter than the film itself!

You'll recall our previous news about a retail disc with both Episodes being released for PS3 and Xbox 360.  Pricing at Amazon suggests $30 for the 360 version, and $50 for the PS3 version, which includes the movie itself on Blu-ray.  That bundle sounds like a good deal, until you consider that the Director's Cut Blu-ray, which includes another disc of special features, and a digital copy, costs $22.  $30 for 6 hours of gaming?  That puts Watchmen: The End Is Nigh at near-Terminator: Salvation levels of "value".

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The recent news of a remake of TMNT: Turtles in Time has us all shell-shocked here at Co-Optimus.  Turtles in Time may be the greatest Turtles game, but it wasn't the first co-op TMNT title.  That honor belongs to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game.  It was first released in arcades in 1989, and ported to the NES a year later as TMNT II: The Arcade Game.  Back in 2007, the game hit Xbox Live Arcade, this time called TMNT 1989 Classic Arcade.  For Co-Op Classics this week, we'll kick some shell and take a look at this version of the game.

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That's what we call co-op!

Overlord was a quirky game, mixing humor with fantasy elements, and all from the perspective of the bad guys.  The sequel, Overlord II, is coming later this month.  The demo is up on Xbox Live now, and you can queue it up here.  No word yet on PC or PSN demos, but we expect them soon.

I know Kat is looking forward to this one, and we're all interested to see how the co-op is handled.  Hopefully, after playing the demo, all will be made clear!

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Star trek D-A-C hit XBLA, PSN, and PC this week, featuring cool co-op outer space battles.  I've not had time to sit down with it yet, but I have to say the graphics, at least, look spectacular. 

Fans of Star Trek are likely familiar with the Kobayashi Maru, an unwinnable test that Kirk passed only by cheating.  It is featured in both 'Star Trek II: Wrath of Ricardo Montalban's Pects', and also the new 2009 'Star Trek' film.  It appears that there will be a Kobayashi Maru achievement in Star Trek D-A-C!

Apparently, the only way to get the achievement is to enter a cheat code.  No one knows the code as of yet.  Props to the developers for this cool Easter Egg!

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Castle Crashers is one of the greatest co-op titles on Xbox Live Arcade.  Old School beat em up gameplay, charming, hilarious style, and 4 player co-op are a recipe for a good time.  Apparently there are many others who share our high opinion of the game.  In fact, that number is quite large: the Castle Crashers leaderboards include over 900,000 players!

To celebrate, Behemoth is running a contest.  All you have to do is guess the date and time that the leaderboard reads 1,000,000 players.  The prize is unknown at this time, but is promised to be "awesome, nay, SPECTACULAR!"  I'm sure it will be quite amazing.

Speaking of amazing, have you checked out the adorable Castle Crashers figurines?  I know at least one staff member has a set, and I think they'd look great next to my Transformers Mighty Muggs...

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Image courtesy IGN
 

Several weeks ago, Bubble Bobble was the topic of our Co-Op Classics column.  We waxed nostalgic at the cute widdle dinosaurs and co-op action.  A remake of Bubble Bobble, called Bubble Bobble Plus!, is available Nintendo's WiiWare service in Japan and Europe.  No North American release has been announced yet, but it seems the bubbles will soon be bobbled on Xbox Live Arcade, as well!

The German version of the ESRB has rated a game called Bubble Bobble Neo.  Unless this is a Bubble Bobble/Matrix crossover (which would be pretty cool, now that I think about it), it's a safe bet that Xbox 360 owners will be able to capture wacky enemies in colorful spit spheres sometime in the near future.  As you can see in the image above, Neo will support 4 player co-op  I call dibs on the pink one!  There are a few more screens at the link below.
 

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