Twisted Pixel has done a fantastic job so far on their past two XBLA titles, The Maw and ‘Splosion Man. Now, after keeping quiet since its September announcement, details are finally starting to pour out about their latest title Comic Jumper. With a sneak preview from SXWS this past week and more press coming out of PAX East, Twisted Pixel is ready to show the gaming world what they have in store for us this time in this comic book inspired action adventure.

Taking the role of Captain Smiley and his chest attached sidekick Star, players travel through comic books instead of levels, each with unique art style as they take on Smiley’s arch-nemesis Brad and a slew of other villains. From what we’ve seen so far, the game goes back to a simple 2D side scrolling brawler with added shooter elements. While its very early to tell, it looks like a lot of the game’s charm will rest under the dialog and comedic elements which it already seems to have begun locking down.

Take a peek at the first 10 minutes of actual game-play from Comic Jumper after the jump, as well as a bunch of artwork and character concept sketches which helped wet our appetite even further for this much anticipated downloadable title.

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With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

If you happen to be one of the people still using your original XBox console to connect to XBox Live and play with your friends, your days of enjoying this kind of fun are numbered. Microsoft, in its quest to get people to upgrade to the XBox 360, has already discontinued the original XBox in late 2008 and stopped supporting it in March 2009.

Now, the Redmond Giant will be cutting off original XBox owners from XBox Live starting April 15. Yep, that’s it. So, if you’re one of the people playing Halo 2 online you will still have a couple months to keep the fun going. Then, it might be time to disconnect the old console, join the rest of us in the new century and upgrade to a shiny new XBox 360.

Or, you can just play your multi-player games on your own. Heck, you could even invite some of your friends over for a good, old fashioned, LAN party. That is, if they actually remember what a LAN party is. But really, with prices dropping all the time on new consoles, isn’t it time to make the jump? New toys are fun, I promise.

Announced at E3 2009 by everyone’s favorite geek goddess, Felicia Day, the arrival of popular social networking sites Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter to Xbox Live has been much anticipated by gamers and socialites alike. But these sites, as simple as they are to use, have their own style and reasons for being easy and fun to use. Did that ease of use translate well onto the Xbox? The Flickcast took a look, and here’s what we found.

Facebook

After the recent addition of the News and Live Feeds on the Facebook website, Facebook on the Xbox feels pretty refreshing. It comes with all the standard Facebook staples: your News Feed, your profile, your pictures, your friend’s pictures, etc. Each new update to the News Feed comes up in its own box, and within that box you have the option to like, comment, or read the comments of your friends, just like the website.

You can update your status, but that’s the only change you can make to your profile. Friend’s profiles show up in boxes similar to the news feed, but will just show their status, photos, and information. The only thing this version of Facebook seems to be missing is wall posts and the chat feature, both of which would be complicated on the Xbox and are.

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With the first full downloadable character pack for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 hitting the Xbox Live Arcade later today, the final character has also been announced, which will round out the five-character bundle. That character is none other than the Master of Magnetism, Magneto.

It was rumored that Magneto was going to be added to the game after a tester leaked the info a few weeks back, but this is the first actual confirmation we’ve received from the game developers. The character will have more telekinetic and energy-based powers for you to toy with in the game, which should be a nice addition to your roster.

Magneto tops off the five-character bundle (consisting of Carnage, Psylocke, Cable, and Black Panther), which can be picked up on the Xbox Live Arcade later today for 800 Microsoft Points (or roughly $9.99). There is also the opportunity to purchase Juggernaut as a downloadable character for only $1.99, as well. Both packages will be available on the PlayStation Network on November 12.

Check out the full image of Magneto as well as a few action shots after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for more Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 news as it comes to us.

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After a few weeks of drooling, the developers of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 have finally given us a release date and price of their newest dowloadable character pack, including Psylocke, Carnage, Cable, Black Panther, and Magneto. The good news is that Xbox Live owners will get the pack this Thursday (November 5th), and the bad news is that gamers on the PlayStation Network have to wait until next week.

Though they haven’t announced yet that Magneto has been added to the pack, it was leaked a few weeks back when Psylocke and Carnage were first announced. The announcement for Black Panther came on Tuesday, and the alternate costumes for Cable, Psylocke and Carnage were released earlier this week as well.

Fans who worried about the price have nothing to stress about anymore, as the price has been announced as 800 Microsoft Points ($9.99 normally). This was the same price as the Hero and Villain Pack for the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance game back in 2007.

That price includes all five characters, new boosts, and brand-new simulator missions. Also available on that date, for the first time, is the Juggernaut downloadable character, which has only been available to fans who pre-ordered the game until now. You can also purchase Juggernaut for 160 Microsoft Points, or $1.99.

Like we reported the other day, it looks like XBox Live’s Twitter, Facebook and Zune functionality will be going live soon (Nov. 17th according to the supposed UK slip). Yesterday, on XBox community manager Larry “Major” Nelson’s website, he posted the link for the Preview Program which would allow any Xbox users chosen to take a sneak peek to test this new functionality.

Larry wrote:

“I am happy to announce that we’re doing an Xbox LIVE Update Preview program for upcoming features such as Zune, Facebook and Twitter. Much like we have done in the past , you’ll need to visit the Microsoft Connect site from this link and sign in with your Windows LIVE ID that is connected to your Xbox LIVE Gamertag.”

Once you do that, you need to fill out the “Xbox LIVE Update Preview Sign Up” survey in order to be considered for receiving the Preview System Update. We’re asking a few questions about where you live, your home network, ISP connection and a few other pieces of information. We are looking for a good cross-section of our members in order to get the best feedback we can.

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Anyone who has been a member of XBox Live for the past few years has been aware that they could purchase some classic XBox games via download through XBox Originals. This would lay the groundwork for the recently deployed Games on Demand program that contains XBox 360 gems like Grand Theft Auto 4, Mass Effect and Oblivion. Stored to the player’s hard drive and tied to their XBox Live account, the customer never has to touch a disc to play their favorite games.

Also added to this list has been the XBox exclusive Fable II which came out last year on retail discs. The way Fable II is being sold to customers is an entirely new way to distribute previously released full retail games as it takes an episodic format. Through Games on Demand, players can download the first of five chapters in the game for free.

Instead of giving a traditional demo which would stand apart from a retail copy, players get to experience the full first chapter of the game and save their progress throughout at no cost. Should the player enjoy what they play, they will be able to continue purchasing chapters through the in game menus. The only setback of this first chapter of the game is that it won’t receive full online XBox functionality until players have purchased additional chapters.

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Since its announcement at E3 earlier this year, the social networking elite of XBox Live have anxiously been awaiting the release of Twitter and Facebook for their 360 consoles. As Felicia Day of “The Guild” and “Legend of Neil” fame announced, Twitter, Facebook and LastFM would all be integrated into the XBox 360 Dashboard. There, players would be able to update statuses, check out friends’ profiles and pictures and listen to music all while on their 360 if they have a Gold XBox Live account.

The wait has been long for some as there has, so far, not been a date announced for this service to begin. Plus, it was left out of the recent August Dashboard Update. But apparently we may have an actual date now, thanks to a leak on the UK XBox official website which listed November 17th as the date the service would go live. This was quickly taken down and replaced with the more open ended Autumn 2009 instead.

Of course, this lead to speculation on if Microsoft was waiting to announce the date at a later time to integrate it in to a larger marketing push, if the service was not fully ready to go live at the November date or if the date the service would go live would be the same in both the US, UK and the rest of the world.

So far, there’s no answer to these questions, but we’ll keep you posted on this as well as all other major video game news. And, hit us up on Twitter if you want to find out our XBox Gamertags.

Last night at a special event sponsored by Activision and Infinity Ward, our own Chris Ullrich got a chance to take a look at the new multi-player features of the upcoming game Modern Warfare 2. Check back later for all the scoop on that and on the game itself. In the meantime, another cool piece of news was made public last night that is sure to please hard-core fans of the Call of Duty franchise and those of you who need a cool new console to play your games on.

Microsoft’s own Major Nelson made the announcement last night that there would be an exclusive global XBox 360 console based on Activision and Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 game. Not only that, this console would have unique styling elements and feature a 250 GB hard drive, which is more storage than any other XBox 360. Interested? Of course you are. Here’s all the info from the official press release.

And also, be sure to check out our bigger pics of the new console after the jump.

Microsoft Corp. and Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today brandished the latest weapon to help gamers take to the battlefields for the global launch of the year with the announcement of the Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console. Infinity Ward’s “Modern Warfare 2,” the blockbuster sequel to the best-selling first-person action game in history, “Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare®,” was the inspiration for the console’s high-speed, low-drag, battle-ready design, which is available for pre-order today at U.S. retailers and in other regions later this week.

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