I’m a bit surprised that they’re coming so soon (one would have expected this release to be tied to their upcoming CG movie), but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are officially coming to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday for a measly 400 points.

A port of the 1989 arcade classic, you’ll be able to jump into the shells of the famous foursome; Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael to tackle the original’s seven levels of foot-bashing mayhem. Sporting enhanced graphics and online cooperative play for up to four players, TMNT should be one of the better legacy ports Xbox Live Arcade has seen in recent months. We’ll be checking it out in two days, what about you?

Nintendo has released three new games for its Wii Virtual Console today, including NES classic Tecmo Bowl, as well as Sonic Spinball for the Genesis and Double Dungeons for the TurboGrafx-16.

Tecmo Bowl is of course one of the most famous third party NES titles ever released. Offering one or two player gridiron action for 500 Wii Points ($5). The game pits the player versus the computer in 11-game, single-elimination playoff action. Players also can select from 12 teams, and go head-to-head with a human opponent in action or coach mode. On offense there are usually two run and two pass plays to choose from. The player takes control of the quarterback before the snap and then either hands off to the running back or works through his receiver progression from the top to the bottom of the screen. Defense consists of trying to guess which offensive play the opponent will select and then taking control of one of the defensive players before the snap. Tecmo Bowl also features a simple power-meter system for kicking field goals, extra points and punts.

Today’s second Virtual Console release is Sonic Spinball, a pinball game originally released for the Sega Genesis in 1993. Supporting up to four players and costing 800 Wii Points ($8), the game offers four different pinball stages, wherein Sonic must collect rings and Chaos Emeralds, score points, and defeat each level’s boss.

Finally, Double Dungeons, is a rather simplified dungeon crawling RPG first released for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990. In the game, up to two players can play simultaneously as they explore the dungeons six different levels across 22 scenarios. Because each level is independent, players can choose to start the game from any scenario other than the final one, which can only be selected once the previous five have been completed, as the passwords from those levels must be used to unlock level six. Double Dungeons costs 600 Wii Points ($6).

And also from the world of the episodic narrative, Microsoft has let slip a few telling details regarding their plans to collaborate with Peter Jackson on episodic content set in the Halo universe. Actually they’ve got two series in the works, and only one is confirmed to be Haloish in form.

It will be interesting to see what Jacksons’ background in film brings to the project. Remember that pre-Lord of the Rings, Jacksons’ curriculum vitae was quite different that most multiple-Oscar winning directors. Can we hold out hope for an episodic Meet the Feebles platformer? We should be so fortunate.

Is your deep itch to eradicate Combine getting you down what with the delays on Half-Life 2: Episode 2? Well, here is something to lift your spirits – sort of: Doug Lombari of Valve is reporting that Episode 2 will be noticeably longer than Episode 1.

Of course, Episode 2 couldn’t really be shorter than Episode 1 without being categorized as a tech demo or interactive screen saver. The really good news is that Episode 2 took quite a bit less time to produce than Episode 1. This brings hope to those of us who love the idea of episodic content, but don’t think that Valve’s year-plus dev cycle counts as episodic.