Today, Major Nelson’s Blog confirmed that Radiant Silvergun will be coming to XBLA in North America on September 14th for 1200 Microsoft points. Previously, Treasure had slated this as a release date in Japan, but whether or not this tied to a worldwide release was unclear.
According to Andriasang, the XBLA version will retain the ability to choose between Arcade and Saturn modes and include many new features including:
*Online Two-Player Coop
*Online Leaderboards
*The ability to upload/download replays
*Improved Graphics (this includes an option to play with the original graphics)
*An Ikaruga-style shooting mode
Eurogamer provided a trailer with some gameplay footage, and Andriasang provided a number of screenshots.
Analysis: This is exciting for fans of the shmup genre or those who played Ikaruga. Even more exciting is that this is roughly $15 for a remastered classic that would cost between $150 and $300 on eBay depending on the condition—a fantastic deal from all perspectives!
Unfortunately, this will likely not be coming to PSN for long while since Treasure is really only set up to work with XBLA. In addition, it took four years after an interview 1UP had with Maegawa for Radiant Silvergun on XBLA to become a reality. As a non-360 owner, this is disappointing.
