Alan Wake’s American Nightmare’s arcade mode, Q1 ’12 date

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare sounds like a good time, and this newly announced arcade mode sounds like an even better time.

The “Fight till Dawn” mode of AWAN has Wake stuck in a battle where he has to survive a full night of enemy attacks, working toward a high score as you do your best to survive until dawn. Remedy promises new enemies, so it’s good that you’ll be able to pick up and use old and new weapons along the way. Armed with unlockable weapons, I’m sure you’ll put up a good fight, but you’ll have to catch a breather or two, so the mode’s safe havens will come in handy. And online leaderboards will show all of XBLA how bad you were about watching your ass out in the dark forest. Sounds like a blast.

In related news, we have something closer to a solid release date. Remedy says that the game will be released in middle of the first quarter of 2012.