Remedy Entertainment has announced that Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the “stand-alone digital spin-off for Xbox LIVE Arcade,” will be available in the first quarter of 2012. Mid Q1 2012 to be exact!

We also learned that Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, which will be published by Microsoft Studios, will feature a new “relentlessly intense” arcade mode called ‘Fight till Dawn.’

This ‘Fight till Dawn’ mode places Wake in the battle of his life. According to the press release from Remedy, “players must survive a full night of enemy onslaughts while racking up their score. With loads of new enemies to battle, players will require a deep arsenal of weapons; from old stalwarts like the flare gun to wild new favorites like the nail gun and old school Remedy favorites like the Uzi.”

Luckily you’ll have safe havens and unlockable weapons, which will be dotted around the landscape, to help you along the way. Online leaderboards will also keep track of who the “real champion of light is” as you face off against your friends head to head.

Watch the trailer below to see the arcade mode in action:

Remedy also revealed some new information about the main story mode in the game. Apparently it’s part of the ‘Night Springs’ TV show fiction and offers “an exaggerated pulp action adventure where the horrors of reality have the all too easy habit of coming true.”

“Alan Wake finds himself stuck in an altered reality filled with dangerous shadows; he must leap into action and pursue his evil doppelganger, Mr. Scratch, across the Arizona mesa towards the town of Night Springs. Scratch, a supernatural serial killer, has his evil plans set on Wake’s wife, Alice. Wake must learn to control reality itself and unravel the secret to Mr. Scratch’s demise while using the power of light to put an end to the darkness.”

In case you missed the debut trailer, which was unveiled at the Spike VGA’s a little while ago, check out our previous coverage to bring you up to speed.