Lode Runner

Monday, September 14th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TO ALL MEDIA

Bellevue, Washington--Tozai Games is pleased to announce the Deal of the Week promotion on Xbox LIVE for its highly-praised Xbox LIVE Arcade title, Lode Runner™. The Deal of the Week promotion for Gold members highlights one exceptional title in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and is given a reduced price point for an entire week. From September 14th through September 20th, Xbox LIVE Gold members will be able to find Deal of the Week notices for Lode Runner on the Xbox 360's dashboard, in the Xbox.com newsletter and in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace at Xbox.com.

"Lode Runner for Xbox LIVE Arcade is our premier product " says Sheila Boughten, President of Tozai Games. “We acquired the Lode Runner property a few years ago, and we feel honored to carry its wonderful legacy forward to the franchise's many fans as well as to a whole new generation of gamers. Everyone at Tozai Games was a huge fan of the original, so to us Lode Runner for Xbox LIVE truly represents a labor of love. We are thrilled to have Lode Runner featured as Deal of the Week and believe the opportunity to own this title for only 800 Microsoft Points is a huge value for Xbox LIVE Gold members."

Tozai Games and developer SouthEnd Interactive collaborated on the creation of Lode Runner just as in the case of Tozai's first Xbox LIVE Arcade title, R-Type Dimensions. The game's design and its huge collection of 272 levels were created by Tozai's Brett Ballow, while the SouthEnd team rebuilt the game's infrastructure from the ground up.

"This isn't just a port of the original Lode Runner that so many people remember," says Scott Tsumura, Tozai's co-founder, referring to the franchise's storied 26-year history, which dates back to Douglas E. Smith's ground-breaking game design for early computer systems such as the Commodore 64 and Apple II. "We focused on maintaining the integrity of the incredibly fun 2D game play, but added all-new levels, hi-res graphics, multiplayer online options, puzzles, co-op modes and much more."

When Lode Runner for Xbox LIVE Arcade originally released near the end of April, TeamXbox's Andy Eddy gave the game an Editor's Choice Award, saying: "I think the old-school game play shines through in its new packaging." In all, 19 of 29 reviewers noted by Metacritic gave Lode Runner scores of 80 or above.

"The game features exceptional breadth," Brett Ballow explains. "The six modes include a single-player adventure, which we call Journey mode, a two-player co-op Journey that adds an entirely new level of strategy, single-player puzzles and two-player co-op puzzles, single-player Hang On mode (a survival challenge) and two-to-four player Last Man mode, in which up to four players compete to be the last Runner standing. And if you die in Last Man, you'll immediately return as one of the enemies so you can avenge yourself."

Lode Runner is also known as one of the very first game franchises to include a Level Editor so players could create their own challenges. Tozai Games not only created an easy-to-use Level Editor, they pioneered Community sharing of user generated content for Xbox LIVE Arcade.

"Microsoft really wanted us to build in a Lode Runner Community, where players and level designers can swap and play their own custom creations," says Ballow. "It took us months of extra work, but in the end it was definitely worth the effort. We've seen some really amazing level designs from the game's early purchasers.”

Further information and a collection of review links can be found online at http://www.tozaigames.com/ under the Lode Runner tab. Members of the media wanting to inquire about interview opportunities or other materials from Tozai Games may do so by e-mailing their requests to:

media@tozaigames.com or scott@scottpelland.com

or by Phone (425) 748-5164 or Fax (425) 644-2185