Microsoft Debuts New XBLA, Windows Phone Game Slate At CES

Microsoft has detailed the five downloadable games set to comprise the second annual Xbox LIVE Arcade House Party at this week's 2011 Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas. Konami's Hard Corps Uprising, a 2D side-scroller in the Contra series style kicks off the season. Developed by ARC System Works it debuts on February 16. Subsequent weeks will bring Full House Poker, a card game developed by Krome Studios and Microsoft that features a live poker game show called Texas Heat and companion Windows Phone 7 game and PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz Live, which features a 16-player Party mode. Ubisoft's HD remake of cult classic Beyond Good & Evil will also feature as well as, finally, a port of Runic Games' successful PC title, Torchlight, which features an overhauled combat system and new quests for this version. Microsoft also announced a slew of Xbox LIVE games for Windows Phone 7, a device that will allow Xbox LIVE subscribers to collect Achievements, build Gamerscore and check the status of Xbox LIVE friends on the go. The company revealed six new titles for the device. Fable III: Coin Golf is a puzzle game that allows players to earn gold and unlock new skills and abilities that can be transferred back to Fable III for Xbox 360 and the PC. A phone version of Game Room, Xbox LIVE's virtual arcade featuring many of the medium's formative titles, is also planned, alongside a port of Namco's Pac-Man, a mobile version of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer and ngmoco's Pocket God in which players rule over an island of pygmies.