It's not the next creation of the team which brought us Pac-man Championship Edition and Galaga Legions (those were from Namco), but Taito's Arkanoid Live! looks like another interesting revival of oldschool. It's not due until next year, but should be worth checking out just the same.

Here's the full press release:

ARKANOID Live!

Fact Sheet

(October 2008)

Title: ARKANOID™ Live!

Publisher: Taito

Developer: Taito

Platform: Xbox LIVE® Arcade

Rating: RP

Availability: 2009

Price: TBD

# of Players: 1 ~ 2

Product Overview:

Arkanoid, the block-breaking masterpiece now for Xbox LIVE Arcade!

First appearing in the 1980's as a new style block-breaking game, ARKANOID, appears on Xbox LIVE Arcade having accomplished even further evolution. Enjoy Arkanoid in high-definition with beautifully choreographed background movies and background music. Loaded with 120 stages in all and colorful cooperative and versus modes.

Game Features:

As part of "TAITO's Collection Series", in which Taito's masterpiece games are remade, ARKANOID is remade with even cooler background movies and sound and loaded with colorful game modes. Within the simplistic block-breaking game element, and beyond effects incurred by items and the appearance of enemies, several kinds of new bosses appear in the final stage.

New Visuals and Music: Block-breaking is rendered cooler than ever with ARKANOID's inorganic interpretation of our world through cool background graphics and new background music.

120 Stages of Block-Breaking: Even including stages from the past ARKANOID series, compete for the high-score and/or record clear time in all 120 stages with leaderboards score.

Abundant Game Customization: Barrier Type or Player Stock Type game play? A Player 1 and Player 2 collaboration? Customize your game play for variety enjoyment.

VS Mode Play: Heat up your CPU or Local 2Player and Live Play VS play with two rules.
- Bust All Battle Mode – The player who breaks all the blocks first wins
- Bust Color Battle Mode – The player who breaks all the color blocks designated to them wins.

The information contained in this fact sheet relates to a pre-release product that may be modified before its commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the product when it is commercially released. The fact sheet is provided for informational purposes only, and the publisher and developer make no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the fact sheet or the information contained in it.