The hack and slash action of SouthPeak's X-Blades hits PAL territories tomorrow, so they've hired young model Jodie Dart, dressed her up in a reasonable approximation of main character Ayumi's outfit, Photoshopped her into a couple of game scenes, and distributed her shapely bottom about the internet in hopes of generating articles such as this one you are reading right now.

A lovely try, but the game remains rather mediocre, scantily clad model or no. Plus, anyone who has actually played X-Blades will tell you that without a liberal coating of orange paint, poor Jodie has no hope of accurately matching Ayumi's horrible skin tone. She's just too good to be true to character. See for yourself in the full images below.

The Topware developed game is being put out by different publishers abroad, and each publisher reacts to the needs of its respective market. In Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment requested a more tasteful image of heroine Ayumi.

"The Xbox 360 cover was the original image, and we altered it by adding silver swimsuit-stle bottoms to the image for PAX back in August at their request," says Topware's Jake DiGennaro. "Sony simply preferred the latter version of the image, so we were happy to obilge."

Compare the above Japanese boxart with the North American boxart (below).

No cheeks but plenty of navel on North American X-Blades box art [Dtoid]

SouthPeak is showing off a wide variety of titles at the NYCC this year, from the cute and cuddly Roogoo Twisted Towers! for the Wii and Roogoo Attack! for the DS, to more serious fare like the anime-inspired action adventure X-Blades and the futuristic military first-person shooter Section 8. There'll be public demos, a signing with Ninjatown creator Shawn Smith, and an X-Blades tournament where players can win a rare figurine of the game's main character, Ayumi.

While all of that is nice, the most popular attraction SouthPeak is bringing is most likely going to be Melinda Cohen, the model and in-game voice talent for their upcoming Nazi-shooter Velvet Assassin. You can keep your scantily-clad anime girls. A tough-as-nails special agent in bloody lingerie wins every time.

Please, please help us get to the bottom of this. We'd like to crack this case. Cheeky of us to ask, I know.

X-Blades PS3 and X-Blades Xbox 360 [Ubisoft via はちま起稿]

But it turns out that this blatantly sexist, shallow anime rip-off game does a few things so well that I can almost overlook the sexism, the shallowness and even the plot.

Economy of motion – X-Blades is one of the smoothest gameplay experiences I’ve had all year (granted 2009 is only one week long). Never during combat did I find myself fiddling with controls, wondering which buttons to push or scrambling through a level at a loss for what to do. The controls – which carry over almost identical to the 360 version – are intuitive with L stick mapped for motion, R stick mapped for the camera and the face and shoulder controlling all the hacking, slashing and spell-casting. So a button-masher like me was completely able to pull off wild combos of airborne sword attacks and fireballs, racking up 150-some odd kills in one wave of enemies.

Easy leveling – All the upgrades and spell advances in X-Blades have to be bought. I’m totally down with this because it means I can pour efforts into one category without the game deciding what levels when based on how many things I kill. Sure, I might have to grind once in a while be replaying levels to earn enough cash for a max level gun or skill – but at least I won’t have to calculate XP earned per encounters to know when I’ll get that gun.

Hack-‘n’-slash glory – I don’t want my button-mashers to be complicated. If I’ve had a lousy day or I just want to zone out and watch pretty things happen on screen, I need a game like this to unwind with. Unlike Heavenly Sword – which people seem determined to compare the game to – X-Blades demands very little from gamers in the timing department and even less in terms of strategy. You will never have to guess which spell defeats which enemy, never have to fret about the preferred combo for defeating a boss and never, NEVER perform a quicktime event. For this, I can almost forgive the game for having the main character’s ass hanging out the whole game.

X-Blades has gotten most of its attention based on the main character, the Light and Dark magic paths (which lead to one of two endings), and the art style. But there’s more to this sexist, shallow anime rip-off than what you see in the screens. Come February 10, we’ll see how much more there is to this cross-platform title.

Hit the jump for the full list. And check out the new screens that dropped today.

Easy Walk
 - Complete game on Normal difficulty

Everyday Business - 
Complete game on Hard difficulty

Oops, are you OK? - 
Kill your first monster

Annoying Fly
 - Kill an airborne monster using blades

Take That!
 - Execute your first combo

Being Good is Easy
 - Complete game with the “good” ending on Normal difficulty

Finish Him
 - Defeat The Dark One at The Dark Temple

Dark Side
 - Execute the Dark form for the first time

Light Side
 - Execute the Light form for the first time

Let’s Go Shopping
 - Use every item at least once

Nice Silver Thingie - 
Collect 3 silver artifact parts

Nice Gold Thingie
 - Collect 3 gold artifact parts

Nice Ruby Thingie
 - Collect 3 ruby artifact parts

Shooting Master
 - Upgrade the Shooting ability to the max level

Melee Master
 - Upgrade the Melee ability to the max level

Airstrike Master
 - Upgrade the Airstrike ability to the max level

Unbelievable Metabolism
 - Upgrade the health regeneration ability to the max level

I’m So Special
 - Learn all Special Form upgrades

Monster Hunter - 
Kill 100 monsters

Monster Killer - 
Kill 1000 monsters

Soul Collector
 - Collect 5 000 souls

Great Soul Collector - 
Collect 50 000 souls

Tough Fight
 - Complete game on Pro difficulty

Can’t Touch Me
 - Complete a level without losing health

Magic Woman - 
Complete a level using only magic

Good Girl
 - Complete game with the “good” ending on Hard difficulty

Servant of the Dark - 
Learn all Dark spells

Light Adept
 - Learn all Light spells

Counter Impossible - 
Get IMPOSSIBLE hit counter

Lock and Load - 
Learn all Shooting improvements

Master of All Skills
 - Get maximum Shooting, Melee and Airstrike upgrade levels

Famous Monster Eliminator - 
Kill 10 000 monsters

Epic Soul Collector - 
Collect 5 000 000 souls

Can you EVER touch me?
 - Complete 6 levels without losing health

Flawless Victory - Beat a boss fight without losing health

It’s Hard to Be a Good Girl
 - Complete game with the “good” ending on Pro difficulty

The Best Soul Collector
 - Collect 50 000 000 souls

Platinum
 - Awarded for successfully collecting all trophies from X-Blades

Hit the jump and ogle away.

X-Blades is scheduled for a Feb. 10 release on PS3.

Along with the barely dressed statue, the "Royal Bundle" for TopWare's action adventure title includes a soundtrack CD, a double-theme poster, and a strategy guide, along with a mousepad for the PC version and what they are calling a "top-class" artbook. As we can see, X-Blades is all about staying classy.

Sad to say, the bundle has actually piqued my interest. It's not so much the topless statue as it is simple the sheer amount of included stuff. I like stuff. I'd like stuff better if I had a price for said stuff, but I suppose we'll find out soon enough, as the game is due in Europe on January 14th.

Ayumi dresses in style!

Valuable "X-Blades" Collector's Bundle with Statue and Artbook

Karlsruhe, 17th December 2008 – TopWare Entertainment continues its tradition of high-class collector editions with its current title, “X-Blades”. The “Collector's Bundles” for all platforms will be on the market at the same time as the standard versions - on the 14th of January 2009. Highlights in the boxes are a 22 cm. hand-painted statue of the heroine Ayumi and a top-class artbook depicting the game.

There's also a soundtrack CD, a double-theme poster and a strategy guide. If you purchase the PC version, you'll even get an extra bonus - a mousepad. Language-wise, TopWare has also done the game proud - it's been fully localized in English, French, Italian, German and Russian - and there are sub-titles in Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Spanish which can be combined in any way with the speech recordings.

ZUXXEZ CEO Alexandra Constandache: “We've already had excellent fan reaction to our high-quality collector's editions for games like “Earth 2160” and “Two Worlds” - and the most important thing for us is to ensure that our customers continue to get real value for their money. Giving away a cheap map with a game and then calling it a “Special Edition” is not the way we do things here at Zuxxez. That's why we're relying on really special extras once again - with “X-Blades”.

Something has been bothering me about X-Blades for awhile, and it wasn't until SouthPeak released this latest batch of screens for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC title that I finally realized what it was. The environments in the game feature realistic textures and architecture, while the main character looks like she's been pulled straight out of a Japanese cartoon. It gives me the same sort of creepy vibe I get when seeing animegao - doll face cosplay. I have nightmares about this sort of thing on a regular basis.

Now that I've ruined the game for everyone, hit the jump for the latest screenshots. Sorry about that!

MARVEL at the luminous 'magic is happening' lightshow! THRILL to the giant spiders! SWOON at the one where it is all dark apart from the glowy red bits!

And GAWP at the really quite improbable physique of the protagonist Ayumi. That's quite a big sword for a lass with arms like two Men's Pocky.

Before I got my turn playing the game, the TopWare Interactive rep manning the booth explained to me that X-Blades had added story and RPG elements to the original game, but the hands on time I spent was all about the action. After waiting what seemed like an eternity the guy before me finished playing, cleaned up his area, and left me to my own devices.

My device of choice was the Xbox 360 controller, hooked up to the PC version of the game. I started off in a rather nondescript rocky corridor without any sort of explanation, so I went with instinct and began killing everything in sight.

The game essentially plays like a poor man's Devil May Cry. You've got your blades for close combat, your gun for taking out those annoying bastards who materialize in the air 10 feet above you, and a few spells at your disposal to keep things interesting.

I was a bit disappointed, really. Though Ayumi is animated quite well the action fell a bit flat, with no real sense of impact. Rather than feeling like I was taking down hordes of enemies, I felt as if I was swinging my weapons and there just happened to be relatively insubstantial monsters nearby. What's worse, the game follows the old formula of running into a room, room seals, kill monsters, room unseals. Seems a bit primitive in this day and age. Block the path with debris that the last dying monster smashes free, or go the Gauntlet route and make the enemies the wall...just don't fall back on the old mystical forces path-blocking mechanic.

Ayumi still looks lovely, as do the environments she is running through and the foes she disperses (to a lesser degree), but I just didn't quite get the feeling she was actually there, carving her way through the armies of darkness. The style is definitely there, but the substance is a bit lacking. Damn anime women, always messing with my emotions.

Look for X-Blades this fall on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Enjoy the new screens!

X-BLADES TO SLASH ITS WAY ONTO MULTIPLE VIDEO GAME PLATFORMS THIS AUTUMN

Fearless Treasure Hunting Beauty To Fight Darkness On PLAYSTATION®3 Computer Entertainment System, Xbox 360 and Windows-Based PC

London, UK – August 14, 2008 – SouthPeak Games today announced that X-Blades will be available on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and Windows-based PC when it releases later this year. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment in conjunction with TopWare Interactive, the anime-inspired X-Blades follows Ayumi, a brave and beautiful thrill seeker, whose obsession with hunting lost treasures lands her in a fight for her life.

"One of the greatest challenges we face with multi-platform games is how to deliver an equally fantastic experience across each platform," said John F. Kaiser, III, Producer at SouthPeak Games. "With X-Blades, we've taken time to ensure the same intense hack-and-slash gameplay is delivered seamlessly on all platforms."

Ayumi, a stunningly seductive yet tenacious heroine, travels the world hunting highly coveted artifacts. After finding an ancient treasure map she sets off on the most dangerous adventure she's ever faced and quickly finds herself outmanned and outgunned. Armed with only her fighting skill, magic spells, guns and blades, Ayumi must fend off rival treasure seekers, hordes of evil creatures and powerful dark forces in order to survive.

For more information on X-Blades check out www.x-blades.com.

SouthPeak's apparently betting big on Ninjatown, X-Blades, Edge of Twilight and the rest of its lineup, which will include follow-ups to Two Worlds, hoping for big hits. According to Takahashi, SouthPeak is hoping to ride Two Worlds, which it considers its biggest to-date success, to fiscal year revenues of $30 million.

The publisher just went public in April, through a semi-complicated "reverse merger" situation it recently went through in April with Global Services Acquisition Corp - the quick story on that deal is the merger let SouthPeak go public without an IPO.

SouthPeak Interactive raises $12.9 million for indie games [VentureBeat]

I saw a couple of Southpeak's upcoming titles today, including one that I didn't even know existed, to be perfectly honest. A development team of Russian Japanophiles - get this, their name is Gaijin - set out to create the most anime-styled action title they could, and came up with X-Blades, headed for PC and next-gen consoles in the Fall.

Like anime style? Like cel-shaded 3D cutscenes? Like crazy outfits? This one could be for you, maybe.

The lead character is a relic hunter named Ayumi, and the character design is distinctly RPG-inspired, right down to the fact she has three blond ponytails, robot shoes, and ass-less pants with just about nothing covering her butt except a piece of strategically placed floss.

The basic idea is, against better advisement Ayumi tracks down a dark artifact of great power, determined to win it for herself, and must wrest it away from some hordes of monsters both great and small. I didn't see more than the intro sequence and the first stage of gameplay, but the cutscenes are, in a word, absolutely beautiful, and so are the action animations. The art just looks great, and the character moves feel especially fluid and responsive. I loved the way Ayumi's hair and blades moved around - think Nariko a little bit, but in cute 3D cel-shaded art.

In addition to the blades, Ayumi has a gun and can also learn various spells that can be manually assigned to any button on the controller - I tried a fire spell against an ice elemental, and an earthquake spell in a craggy area full of little beasties.

The build I played was quite early, and the rep told me the team's still working out game balance and some control issues. That sort of work still obviously needs to continue, as it got a little hard to tell what was going on with some of the enemy swarms, and the gun, using the trigger buttons, doesn't feel nearly as spot-on or satisfying as the hack-and-slash X button moves.

So it's hard to tell whether this title will be a big win, but considering I hadn't heard of it until today, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with some key aspects of the look and feel. We'll see if the rest of the gameplay comes up to snuff.

SOUTHPEAK'S CUTTING EDGE REDEFINES THE GENRE

Blade-Swinging Blonde Bombshell Battles Evil In X-Blades

Friday 29th February/...SouthPeak Games has announced X-Blades, a dynamic third-person hack-and-slash action title for next-gen consoles and PC, due for release in late 2008. X-Blades sees players controlling an enchanting anime-style heroine who must battle through a host of locations using guns, blades, magic and a healthy dose of cinematic flair.

"The unique anime-style backdrop combined with high-octane, multi-discipline combat gameplay really pushes X-Blades into brand new territory," said Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak Games. "The 3rd-person 'hack-em-up' genre needs a fresh perspective and X-Blades is poised to deliver it."

X-Blades features a special combination of cinematic style, beautiful animation and relentless high-speed gameplay. Players assume the role of Ayumi, a stunningly seductive yet tenacious heroine who battles enemies with her pistol blades, acrobatic ability and magic spells. With full anime-style cut scenes, the story unfolds revealing demonic hordes and spectacular landscapes, all ripe for exploration and frenetic supernatural battling.

"We are big fans of anime and that was really our inspiration for X-Blades," said James Seaman, Managing Director at Topware Interactive. "Our goal was to create stylistic characters and artwork and to mix that bombastic visual style with lightning fast action. The result is a killer title that gamers and animation fans won't be able to put down."

X-Blades will be released for next generation consoles and PC in late 2008.