Rumor: Mystery XBLA game is Lode Runner

Our man, Godfree, over at Gamertag Radio sent us another tip about our would be mystery XBLA game. Shake the magic 8 ball with us ... "signs point to Lode Runner." Check out this detective work on IloveXBLA.com:

"No joke, I'm fairly certain I figured it out. Let's look at the trail of tips.

• Ross Erickson says that Lode Runner in very good hands, which would dictate hands that want to put it on Xbox Live Arcade (since he wants the game).

• Luke Smith thinks it might be Bomberman

• On this GamerScore blog post they dropped a hint that Peter Moore said "what happens in Shinjuku stays in Shinjuku."

• Later on this GamerTag Radio thread Microsoft's John Porcaro dropped a hint that "what happens in Montana stays in Montana".

Ok, so with the current hints down how did I make the connection. Here's my timeline.

• I originally thought the game must be Bomberman, so I was looking for links between Shinjuku, Montana and Hudson Entertainment the creators of Bomberman. Score! Hudson Soft moved to Shinjuku in 1985 shortly before releasing Bomberman.

• While on the page I noticed Hudson Software also released Lode Runner for NES, and remembered they are currently doing a DS version.

• Lode Runner was originally published by Broderbund, who operate out of MONTANA.

• According to Game Dev Map there are no current game developers operating in Montana.

I don't think it can get any clearer than that. Case closed in my opinion, next week's release is Lode Runner!"

Nice work. We couldn't agree more. Lode Runner is definitely a major franchise worthy of the hype that we've generated seen in the last week. What do you think? Did these guys nail it, or is it something else?

[Thanks, Godfree]