Two XBLA treats tomorrow

Microsoft will be treating us all to two new Live Arcade titles tomorrow.

The first is Word Puzzle, which you may remember as Word Search, the game you played at school when you had a substitute teacher step in. The general idea is to scour a grid of letters for words based around a theme, all of which can be arranged horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Word Puzzle will offer 3D boards to spice things up, some word bombs for a spot of literature terrorism, and some special effects to dazzle you when you get things right.

There are five game modes in total and you can switch your Live Vision camera on and use it while playing online against up-to four of your spelling chums. Word Puzzle will set you back 800 points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30).

Next on the list is Switchball, which squashes you into a ball and challenges you to get around various tricksy mazes. To help, you will be able to alter the physical properties of your sphere to overcome obstacles; you can morph into a Metalball to smash things to pieces, charge up as Powerball to make jumps or climb steep inclines, float over obstacles as Airball or pick up speed by zipping around as Marbleball.

It looks very pretty and has five levels to roll around in total, either on your own or in two-player co-operative mode. Tire of that and you can always head online and get competitive with up to seven of your friends. Switchball will also cost you 800 points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30).

Look out for our thoughts on both very soon.