We’re beyond the point of no return.  It is now impossible to imagine a gaming console, present or future, being released without a download service.  Xbox Live Arcade was unprecedented, and at the time of launch, not a feature many had even given thought to.  Little did we know how necessary it would become and how many great games we’d been playing through it.  XBLA has introduced us a variety of modern classics, from original IPs that are now legendary to updated remakes of our old favorites.  With all great platforms however, it sometimes becomes a little murky and gets hard to see the good through the bad.  Knowing what you’re in for is a huge part of XBLA, as you’ve no chance to return, trade, or sell.  So before you purchase your next batch of Microsoft Points take a look at our picks for our 10 favorite Xbox Live Arcade titles.

10. Ikaruga

Best shoot-em-up ever?  Very possibly.  And now on XBLA, Ikaruga has online scoreboards and uploadable replays, which sweeten the deal even more.  Like Rez, this Treasure shooter saw a quiet release in the US, yet was able to captivate many niche gamers.  Ikaruga demands nothing less than perfection to survive, and even more in order to get the highest scores possible.  Rather than shooting everything in sight, the player must manage the ship's two polarities, which can instantly be toggled.  Enemy bullets of the same color charge the ships bomb, while ships of the opposite color destory the ship in one hit.  Also, destroying an enemy of the same color as your ship gives you far more points than destroying an enemy of the opposite color.  Add to that the fact that it takes twice as many shots to kill an enemy of the same color, and the fact that you must kill three enemy ships of the same color in a row to keep your chain going, and you've got yourself one complex, but totally friggin' awesome shmup.

9. Peggle

Peggle is the game no one knew they wanted.  Led by a unicorn into magical world of blue and orange pegs, Peggle taught us all not to judge a book by it's cover, or a game by it's rainbows.  Equal parts luck, skill, and The Price is Right's Plink-O, it's a game that is universally appealing, conquering all sexes, ages, and experience levels.  It's not only fun, it's downright painfully addicting.  The "just one more level..." effect is pulled off in perfection, leaving us all staying up far later than expected every time we start the game before bed.  With the XBLA version, we were given the gifts of Achievements and online party play.  Is there anything better than trash talking over an exploding rainbow and pharaoh cat?  Nope

8. N+

There have been only a handful of games I’ve bought on XBLA just by word of mouth.  All but one of them I have regretted, and that one is N+.  Hearing through the grapevine that the game was a true gem, I bought N+ on a whim and couldn’t have been happier.  The wall-jumping never ends.  You can jump for what seems like miles.  The rockets and mines are some of the most nerve-wrecking, edge of your seat obstacles I’ve ever been up against.  It’s everything a great platformer should be.  Tiny bursts of fast paced, high energy gameplay, with a retro, simplistic ninja aesthetic.  Throw in plenty of collectibles, time trials, and online co-op or versus, and you have the game that keeps on giving.

7. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

SSF2THDR, better known as "The game with the acronym that just won’t quit," Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is everything that’s right with remakes.  As we mentioned in our nomination of SFIV in The Halfies, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  To this day, Street Fighter II is far from broke.  I’m pretty sure Capcom can just keep reskinning it and I’ll keep buying and loving it.  As a kid I was never that into SFII.  My SNES fighters went to the extent of Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct.  So about a year and a half ago, when I really started digging into SFII at my Wii meetup group on the Virtual Console, I understood what I’d been missing.  Perfect timing on my part, because soon thereafter, HD Remix was announced and released and all is right in the world.  It was a chance for true old schoolers to relive the glory days, and introduce a whole new generation of gamers to the fighting game of all fighting games.  Throw in the fact that the founder of Overclocked ReMix, who produced all the music for the game, turned out to be my long lost first cousin, and without the news of this release, we may have never gotten in touch again, you can see just how important this game is for me.

6. Pac-Man Championship Edition

Never in a million years did I think I'd be saying this, but someone found out a way to update and enhance the Pac-Man formula, releasing a game that was better than the original. Pac-Man Championship Edition is an interesting beast. It has all the original elements of the old-school game (ghosts, powerpellets, etc..) but basically threw them all into a blender on high. What you end up with is a fast paced frantic version of Pac-Man that keeps you on the edge of your seat since the game is on a constant timer. Games are either 5 or 10 minutes long, with the ultimate objective being a high score. This always helps replayability, since in theory you can always get a better score. Truly an evolution of the old formula.

5. TMNT 1989 Arcade

Considering how much of our allowance we fed into the coin slot of the original arcade machine in 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade for $5 (400 points) on XBLA is pretty much the best deal in the entire world. This port of the original game features 2-4 player co-op both online and offline, recreating the great arcade experience of beating up foot soldiers with friends and randoms. You can play through the seven original levels as any of the four heroes in a half-shell (dibs on Mike), all of whom have different styles and abilities. The only thing that could top this is the upcoming XBLA port of Turtles in Time.Big Apple, 3AM. Don't tell us that didn't just give you the chills.

4. Braid

Ryan Davis of giantbomb.com probably said it best at the end of his video review: Braid isn’t just a great game, but probably an important one.  The key word here is important.  I’ve never come across a game that handled maturity so deftly within its context, and did so without the typical use of blood and guts and swearing “mature”, turning the industry on its head ever so slightly.  Some may call it emo, I call it thoughtful and unique.  Most of all, it blends a hardcore and casual gaming philosophy to near perfection: one could hop and skip through its beautiful levels beginning to end without impediment, but the hardcore will engage in the often tough puzzles that make use of brilliant time-reversing/warping gameplay mechanics.  Moreover, the gameplay mechanics of time manipulation, if you’re really paying attention, actually speak to the story itself.  Poetic and brilliantly constructed, Braid is one of the greatest pieces of gaming I've ever experienced.

3. Rez HD

Due to a somewhat limited release in America, not many people were able to experience the synesthesia of Rez.  Sega's trippy rail shooter was envisioned by autor, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and developed by many members of the talented Panzer Dragoon team.  The backstory is vague, but intriguing: A hacker must virtually enter a vast AI and destroy any viruses that pollute its code in order to avert a Y2K-like catastrophe.  A strange mix between a shooter, a music game, and Neuromancer, Rez is definitely a weird game that must be experienced in order to really "get it."  And thanks to XBLA, now you can - and in HD, no less.

2. Geometry Wars 2

Frantic, addictive and brilliant are several words I'd use to describe last year's fantastic shoot 'em up game, Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2.  What helped this game stand apart from the myriad of dual joystick shooters were its unique visuals and endless replayablity.  The original helped build an audience, and the addition of five new modes made this irresistible to both fans and newcomers.  This is the type of game whose fun just doesn't age.

1. Castle Crashers

2D beat 'em up games have been around since 1976.  Seriously, I'm not kidding; the genre started in 1976 with Sega's arcade game, Heavyweight Champ.   But it wasn't until Double Dragon that gamers were given the chance to fight alongside a friend.  This is the basic feature found in the extraordinarily fun XBLA title, Castle Crashers, which is a hilarious take on the classic 2D beat 'em up genre. Chock full of references to older games, an excellent sense of humor, plenty of upgrade options, and with near-perfect coop play, not only does is this a game every gamer should play, it's also number one on our list of our favorite XBLA games.

Honorable Mention: Catan

Catan is the XBLA version of the popular board game The Settlers of Catan and was the first "german" style board game to hit XBL.  It'd be rather boring to go through the game mechanics here, but in a nutshell the game revolves around supply and demand and leveraging the resources you have to build roads and settlements. The interesting aspect is that you need to trade resources with other players to move ahead, so there's a balance of helping youself without helping the other layers too much. The digital version is actually superior to the board game when it comes to component (cards, game pieces, etc) management. It's fantastic to have that stuff automated and not have to deal with 5 or 6 decks of cards constantly. Buying this game re-introduced me to board games, and led me to buy not only all the board games on Live Arcade but the actual board games as well. More board games on XBL please.

Comments (5)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment