'Retro' Matt Hazard game for XBLA and PSN this summer

D3Publisher is working on a retro-style side-scrolling XBLA and PSN action game intended to fill in the backstory of Matt Hazard, the lead character of Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. It's planned for release sometime this summer. (Eat Lead launches against Halo Wars on March 3.)

If you're not hip to Eat Lead's "hook," it's supposed to be the latest game in a long-running series, and Matt Hazard is supposed to be a "video game icon." Only it isn't and he's not. The downloadable game is ostensibly one of his past titles being made available for the first time in years. Only it's not. Get it?

We'd hazard a guess that this game could do well -- if the synthetic nostalgia and in-jokes of Eat Lead aren't lost on the larger gaming audience.