A few months ago we reported on the parody-rich continuation of Matt Hazard's first adventure, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. This entry in the series, the downloadable Blood, Bath, and Beyond, is billed as a classic side-scroller to confront the evil General Neutronov, who has traveled back in time to capture 8-bit version of our hero.

The strategy? Kill the original so that the current version of Matt will not exist to stop him. A fine strategy indeed. And a strategy that is probably going to have at least one Back to the Future joke.

As Eric Peterson, President and CEO of Vicious Cycle Software, said over at the Playstation Blog, "This tongue-in-cheek journey through Matt’s history takes the player on a tour of the “classic” titles released by Marathon Software, the company that put Matt Hazard on the map. Matt takes on a wide range of enemies—from pirates to penguins; lighthouses to laser-wielding astronauts; Mounties to mechanical rhinos—as he peruses the parody-laden landscapes of games that never were."

Something interesting was the announcement that two-player co-op gameplay would be present. I'm wondering if the second player, named Dexter Dare, will be a palette switch and that will play into the humor.

The Hazard begins anew on the Jan. 6th for XLA and on the 7th for PSN. It's also going to be pricing for about $14.99 or 1200 MS Points, for their respective platforms. Let's pray that the writing brings some of the same laughs that the previous title did. Previously I said that, "Matt Hazard gaining a power like Mega Man in a throwback 8-bit sequence and then returning to the normal graphical style could be good for a laugh or two."

I'm still expecting that sequence in the game. Don't dissapoint me Vicious Cycle.