For over 25 years, Matt Hazard has been a staple of fake gaming culture, beginning with 1983's The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land up until the final blow to the dying franchise with the 2002 stinker Choking Hazard: Candy Gram. After the poor reception of his last few titles, I was certain Matt Hazard was gone forever, but D3 Publisher has just given me new hope with the announcement of Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, due out at the beginning of next year for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

?Eat Lead parodies some of our fondest memories in classic gaming and pop culture, so gamers will have a laugh out loud experience everytime they pick-up the controller,? said Pete Andrew, vice president, product development, North America, D3P. ?With an original storyline, Eat Lead perfectly blends action and humor with rock solid gameplay for an experience like no other.?

The game features Matt Hazard finally making his big comeback, only to discover that the new game might just be a plot to kill him once and for all. Judging by the hilarious and rather elaborate viral marketing that's cropped up for the title, we could be in for something special. Welcome back for the first time, Matt Hazard!

Eat It! D3Publisher to Deliver a Tasty Bullet Sandwich with New Videogame for the Xbox 360® and PLAYSTATION®3 System Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard?

LOS ANGELES—(BUSINESS WIRE)—An action hero emerges from the pixels as D3Publisher (D3P), a publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, today announced plans for Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard?, a third-person shooter with a sense of humor for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Offering an original storyline and an off-the-wall cast of characters, Eat Lead is written by 2008 Writer?s Guild Award winning writer Dave Ellis and features the return of classic 80?s videogame action hero, Matt Hazard, and parodies some of the most beloved genres of games and pop culture. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is anticipated for release in Q1 2009.

In Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, videogame action hero Matt Hazard gets his chance to prove once and for all that he is the king of shooters when the new owner of mega game publisher, Marathon Megasoft, gives Matt his comeback role starring in a new title for next-gen consoles that pits him against all of his memorable foes from videogames past. In the world of Eat Lead, however, everything stops being a game and becomes reality when it is clear that someone is using the new game to bring about Matt?s death once and for all. With only the mysterious ?QA? to help him, Matt must fight against a legion of Marathon Megasoft catalogue of videogame characters to keep it from being ?Game Over? forever.

?Eat Lead parodies some of our fondest memories in classic gaming and pop culture, so gamers will have a laugh out loud experience everytime they pick-up the controller,? said Pete Andrew, vice president, product development, North America, D3P. ?With an original storyline, Eat Lead perfectly blends action and humor with rock solid gameplay for an experience like no other.?

Eat Lead pays homage to the games of yesteryear with a menagerie of classic enemies such as zombies, space marines, cowboys, genetically mutated super snipers, and more and an expansive level environment design that reflects videogame history in a next-gen package. The game fires on all cylinders with explosive artillery and combat moves to help gamers escape from a variety of predicaments including radically-changing environments during gameplay via ?hack effects? Hazard?s nemesis uses by altering the game?s code on the fly. Throughout the adventure, players will utilize a strategic cover system dubbed ?point and cover,? upgradeable weapons and different interactive melee moves to attack and outsmart foes.

Developed by Vicious Cycle Software, Inc., Eat Lead will feature its new game development engine, Vicious Engine 2 (Ve2) and is currently rated ?RP? (Rating Pending) by the ESRB. For more information on Eat Lead, please visit www.EatLeadVideoGame.com.

The teaser trailer for Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard will premiere, Saturday, October 4th at 1:00 a.m. EDT/PDT exclusively on Spike TV?s ?GameTrailers TV.? Players can catch the full HD Episodes at GameTrailers.com and on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360!