Today we can officially announce the release of the first downloadable content for our XBLA game Raskulls! Featuring a new Grand Prix and four extra characters, you can download it today for just 160 Microsoft Points – which also adds three new Achievements for 50 extra Gamerscore!

The extra Grand Prix, known as the Shiny Stone Cup, features four race levels and includes the new “Castle” environment! You can play these level both online and offline, using any of the previous characters or one of the new four:

KITTEN – A descendant from the legendary half-cat, half-skull and half-awesome Raskulls of the Faraway Mountains, Kitten is a cute yet deadly addition to the cast. Why deadly? Ask Little Billy Bobskull, the crippled boy in the Extensive Bite n’ Scratch ward at Raskulls General.

VIKING – One of King’s past rivals, Viking likes to pillage, loot and drink with the best of them. On the other hand, he’s big into haberdashery. Fine men’s suit craftsmanship does not a nice Raskull make.

SPACEMAN – Spaceman, I always wanted you to go | into space, man.

BARNEY – A Pirat minion of Captain J. Turncoat, Barney has the tendency to lose his pants and ice-cream money. As a mindless thug, he’s sub-par. As a potential hat rack or paperweight, he’s not bad at all.

Download Raskulls Reinforcements!

Today Halfbrick can officially announce the full worldwide release of Raskulls on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points! Announced in 2009, Raskulls has been in the works receiving extra doses of polish, humor and fun – and today everyone can get in on the action!

Raskulls combines platforming, action and racing all wrapped up in a fantastic art style featuring the Raskulls themselves – adorable yet very cheeky little guys! With the epic single player Mega Quest, unlockable characters for Grand Prix and both local and online multiplayer, Raskulls is a massive package full of awesome content.

Mega Quest stars King, Dragon and Ninja as they travel across the world to thwart the evil Pirats in their attempts to steal the legendary Shiny Stone. Including racing, puzzle, action and even boss levels, players can unlock Medallions and new playable characters, along with official Xbox Live Achievements!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX4mYh1BaI8

Multiplayer features 16 levels in which players race their way to the finish line in both online and split-screen games. Use items like Flame Charge, Thunder Staff and even the awesome Mega Zap to decimate your fellow Raskulls and take the crown.

As part of the Game for the Holidays promotion on Xbox Live, Raskulls can be used to get access to ilomilo before release next week, and players can also unlock awesome new playable characters by downloading and unlocking an Achievement in World of Keflings and ilomilo.

It has been a long time coming, but everyone at Halfbrick couldn’t be more proud to finally release our very first XBLA and major console game!

Official Media Pack

Xbox.com Raskulls Page

After many months of anticipation, Halfbrick and Microsoft can officially announce the release date for Raskulls, the much-loved but extremely elusive XBLA title! As part of the Games for the Holidays promotion, Raskulls will officially launch on December 29th, 2010

Games for the Holidays is an extremely exciting, entirely original promotion over the coming season. World of Keflings, Raskulls and ilomilo are the stars of the show, and participation in GFTH means some awesome exclusive content for XBLA players!

If you purchase all three GFTH titles, extra characters will unlock within the games. For example, you can unlock ilo and Doug as playable characters in Raskulls, and also unlock Raskulls characters within ilomilo and World of Keflings by purchasing the other games.

In addition to this, players can also gain early access to Raskulls by downloading World of Keflings on December 22nd and accessing it via the in-game purchase menu.

Raskulls is an amazingly fun action-platformer that has been tearing up major conventions such as PAX for months. A well-known upcoming XBLA game, it combines platforming, action and racing all wrapped up in a fantastic art style featuring the Raskulls themselves – adorable yet very cheeky little guys! With the epic single player Mega Quest, unlockable characters for Grand Prix and both local and online multiplayer, Raskulls is a massive package – for just 800 Microsoft Points!

We couldn’t be happier to finally be bringing this news to you! Please post your comments below and feel free to ask any questions you may have in the leadup to release.

Hey everyone, today I’d like to check in and get everyone up to speed with what’s been happening with Raskulls and Halfbrick. I know there are many fans out there anxious to get their hands on the game, and even becoming frustrated with the time the game has taken. Rest assured that we understand your woes, and now that lots of things are back in order here at Halfbrick I can tell you that we will be making a very exciting announcement – VERY soon!

With Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash and Age of Zombies really taking off in a big way this year, we’ve found huge success and naturally meant we needed to keep the momentum going. Raskulls has been in a near-completed state for some time, but due to logistical issues and trying to ensure the best possible release, it has been delayed. Until now.

There isn’t much I can say right this second, but all will be revealed very shortly. Raskulls is still coming, it is 100% complete, 100% awesome and we are finalizing the last details for launch. Thanks to all for your patience and support, and you can expect Raskulls on XBLA in 2010!

Raskulls hit the Mana Bar again on Friday night, with a massive turnout of fans to play the game and chat with the development team. With attendees lining up before the bar opened, we knew something big was about to go down!

Halfbrick staff on hand were myself, Ben Vale, Sean Druitt, Luke Muscat and Jason Harwood to chat about Raskulls and our recent iPhone title, Fruit Ninja. With community member Nick generously creating a range of skull masks for people to wear (and subsequently remove so they could see where they were going) we got off to a great start!

Over the course of the night, more alcohol was consumed and more games played. Raskulls was running non-stop on three HD screens, and during the night two official tournaments were played to determine the first ever Raskulls Champions. Expert player Sean took down the first playing as Mr. Destructoid, where Fruit Ninja champion Elliott won the second. They picked up plenty of Halfbrick merchandise for their well-deserved victories!

Packed to capacity for over 5 hours, the Mana Bar were excellent hosts and I was very proud to see everyone in top form! Events like this and the recent showing at PAX East have proven that Raskulls multiplayer is a huge hit. For more photos of the night, check out the official Mana Bar Facebook page!

We look forward to bringing you tournaments online around the world very soon!

Yes, this is a thing that is happening.

Come along to the Mana Bar to celebrate an event showcasing Raskulls, and you can also chat to our team and win some rad prizes by playing! So far Raskulls has been a huge success at the Mana Bar and I really look forward to posting pictures of the night. See you there!

With such an amazing showing of Raskulls at PAX East recently, it was only fitting to put together a montage video showing off everyone having a great time and demonstrating how Raskulls can draw a crowd. Over the three days we had hundreds of players come through the XBLA section and the Raskulls booth was by far the loudest.

Check out the video above and gear up for your own Raskulls party upon launch. We are inching ever closer to announcing the release date, so the time to get amongst the action is now.

And a quick announcement – the winners of the Raskulls Box Art competition are are Dao Jones, Todd, Wayner Roper, Scott Nichols and megadude! Congrats guys and thanks for your awesome contribution to the blog – your rad King figurine and Raskulls gear is on the way!

OK guys, we got some great news today. The official Raskulls Xbox page is now live, along with the Xbox.com forum! This is a big step towards seeing the game on Xbox Live, and over the next two weeks we will be determining a release date and hopefully announcing it shortly.

The game is so close to completion and we really are on the final stretch now. For all you awesome Xbox Live users, it would be a great if you could jump on there with your Gamertag and begin posting to kick the Xbox presence into gear!

Xbox.com Page

Xbox Raskulls Forum

I’m back in sunny Australia and ready for the home stretch of Raskulls development. After visiting Boston for a week and getting Raskulls into the hands of some amazing fans, I simply can’t wait to get the game out there and give everyone a chance to play.

The first day of PAX East was a short five-hour stretch, but certainly worthwhile as thousands of attendees lining up outside the Hynes Convention Center. I was able to circumvent the line thanks to my Executive VIP Exhibitor God Pass, and had a quick five-minute tour of the expo to get my bearings. Then proceeded post-haste to the Xbox area where Raskulls was ready to jump into action.

I manned the booth alongside XBLA producer Kevin Hathaway, and took players through some pretty intense two-player matches. These could be customised with or without two AI opponents, but there were only two controllers available so the usual four-player splitscreen had to step back for the show. Still, not a problem as we had many guys come up itching to lay the smackdown on their buddies!

And smackdown there was. Over the three days not a single person left the game without a smile, and the constant shouts and cheers from the Raskulls area led to many passers-by coming over to check out where the action was. The characters were a huge hit, and the favorites of the show included Pompous because of his top-hat badassery, and Duck for being just a completely stupid yet awesome dude. We also had many repeat customers coming back to the booth, and by the end of the show I am confident there are a few elite players out there. Watch out for those bad boys online!

All in all, it was an amazing experience and Raskulls was a huge success. With hundreds, if not thousands of eyes and hands on, Raskulls did steal the show for many gamers looking for something a little different. I’ve attached some photos of the action for you to check out, and will also be posting previews along with a montage video of some of the best games and Raskulls action!