Ender’s Games

The Xbox Live Arcade offers a huge and diverse assortment of arcade games that you can download to your Xbox 360. These games are purchased with Microsoft Points, which is the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, and 1600 points will run you $20. Most of the XBLA games will cost $5-$10, with one in particular costing the full $20.

I’ve purchased and downloaded a fair amount of these games myself, and I thought someone might be interested in knowing what my XBLA collection consists of. So, here we go….

• Aegis Wing - This game is actually free, and so of course I downloaded it. It is a side-scrolling shmup (shoot ‘em up), and it’s decent for a free game. I’ve played it twice, I think.
• Carcassone – My current favorite. This is like a board game, where you place pieces to form roads and cities, and then after all the tiles are placed, the score for each player is tallied. It’s far more fun than my description makes it sound. This is easily the best 800 MS Points I ever spent.

- Carcassone -

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – This is a re-release of the classic Playstation game. It’s fun, and being a big fan of the original, I felt obligated to download this. Oddly enough, I’ve only spent 10 minutes or so with the game, and I don’t see myself playing it anymore. Weird how my tastes can change. It’s worth the MS points, however.
• Contra – This was my favorite game on the NES as a kid, so I was disappointed to find that the translation from NES to XBLA did not go well. The graphical update ruins the game for me, and don’t even think of trying the XBL multiplayer option. Lag abounds, and it just isn’t fun anymore. Not recommended.
• Gauntlet - Another game I loved on NES as a kid. This game just sucks now. Seriously, don’t download it. It isn’t fun.
• Geometry Wars – This is one of the best-selling games on XBLA (maybe the best-selling?), and so of course, I had to give it a try. This was actually my first download from XBLA. The picture below shows you how chaotic this game can be, and personally, I can’t keep up. I can appreciate why the game is popular, but I don’t enjoy it.

- Geometry Wars -

• Hexic HD – I’m not sure, but I want to say that this was a free download to get started with XBL. It’s the same Hexic you’ve played online before, so nothing special here.
• Ikaruga – This is a port of the excellent Gamecube title of the same name. This is a vertically-scrolling shmup, with a twist: your ship has a light and a dark side, and you flip between the two sides to absorb enemy projectiles of the same color. Dark enemies coming? Flip to dark, and their shots won’t hurt you. You get the point. The only problem with this title is the difficulty. Geez, I can’t beat the second stage. It’s a mutha.
• JetPac Refuelled – This is fun little game. You play an astronaut who needs to pick up parts of his ship and reassemble it, while killing/dodging enemies. It’s good for a quick 10-minute game; I recommend it.
• N+ – N+ is one of my favorites. You play a small ninja who has to navigate small levels to find the exit. It sounds simple, but with so many levels and so many obstacles, this game is anything but simple. The real star of the show here is not the ninja, but the game physics. I totally recommend this download.

- N+ -

• Pacman C.E. – This is not your average Pac-Man, my friends. Viewed by most as the best Pac-man title available (is that really saying much?), this is a well-justified purchase. I really liked this game, although Pac-Man is only fun for so long. Still, worth the MS Points.
• Paperboy – You played it on NES, now you can play it on your 360. It’s nothing special.
• Puzzle Fighter HD - Am I retarded, or is this game freakin’ impossible to beat? God. I don’t know why this game is so popular. I hate it. Don’t buy it.
• Rez HD – Rez is one interesting and hard-to-describe game. Essentially, it is an on-rails shooting title that utilizes rhythm in it’s gameplay to……man, I’m not sure how to word it. Well, it’s a fun game and worth the money, so give it a try yourself. It’s certainly cheaper than paying for the quasi-rare PS2 version.
• Root Beer Tapper – Another dumb download. It’s fun and all that, but only for a small while, and then you feel like “Man I want those MS points back”. Ah well.
• Street Fighter II HF – I downloaded this mistakenly thinking it was the upcoming Street Fighter II HD title. This one sucks, don’t buy it.
• Streets of Rage 2 – I loved this game on the Genesis, and I actually still like it on XBLA. Definitely worth the cost. It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up, and it’s just good bloody fun.

- Streets of Rage 2 -

• Super Contra – I adore the original Contra on NES, but this sequel sucked. Hard. I don’t know I even downloaded this; I think I had some extra points one day and just got bored. Stupid choice. Don’t buy this.
• Undertow – This title was a free download as a gift from Microsoft to make up for XBL outages over the 2007 Christmas holidays. XBL was screwed up for everyone, and gamers were up in arms over it, so MS tossed us this crap title as a peace offering. I don’t even like it as a free game, so I certainly can’t recommend paying for it.
• Uno – Now this might actually be the most downloaded game on XBLA. And rightly so; it is a blast! You wouldn’t think that Uno would be fun, especially on a console, but it really is and I completely recommend this game to any and everyone.
• Worms – This game was very hyped when it was released on XBLA, mostly due to previous versions on various platforms that were well-received. I was never a fan of those versions, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I was disappointed. The gameplay seems boring and uneventful to me; I don’t recommend it.
• Yaris – Another free download, and it is still free today. In fact, it always will be, because it is just a marketing tool for Toyota’s low-fuel-consumption vehicles. This game really sucks, but since it’s free, you might as well try it out.

There you have it, my Xbox Live Arcade collection. Just a note to everyone: all XBLA games offer a free demo that you can try before purchasing, so please make use of that option before buying bunch of crap games like I did. You’ll thank me!