Oct 14, 2011
Maybe its because I’m now an adult gamer and grew up in the golden age of Nintendo, or maybe its because I just need a break from constant barrage of FPS games, but the XBOX Live arcade has become one of my favorite ways to spend a rainy afternoon. Sure the latest Call of Honor, Duty’s Battlefield will always have it’s draw, but every now and then, the simplicity and nostalgia the arcade provides is a great escape from the norm. To indie game developers however, the XBOX Live arcade is a bold new frontier where games don’t need multimillion dollar budgets and banners in Times Square to be a hit. A small team of dedicated developers (without a publisher like Activision or EA constantly looming over them,) can make some great games that didn’t have a profitable outlet only several years ago. Games like:
#10 – Bastion
A recent addition to the arcade library, Bastion is an old school style 2D adventure game. You play as The Kid, an anonymous protagonist who is the last survivor of a great cataclysm. All is not lost, as you find another survivor in a safe haven called Bastion, which is immune to the dangers in the new and untamed land. It is your job to scour the land and find the right elements to rebuild Bastion. There are a great variety of weapons to aid you, and each one is customizable, changing the way the weapon behaves a great deal. There are ranged weapons and closes quarters weapons, each with their own special attacks and challenges. As the game progresses, your rebuild more of the bastion to get new unlocks, upgrades, challenges, and more. Along with a colorful and uniquely realized world, the game only features the voice of one person, the narrator. He is constantly speaking of you in the past tense, hailing your achievements as though you are actively living out a childhood fairy tale, without his voice ever being too intrusive or unwelcome. By the games end, you have made decisions that will shape The Kid’s world while learning the truth about the apocalypse that almost ended all life. This game is the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.
#9 – Battlefield 1943
Battlefield 1943 is a simplified port of the PC classic, Battlefield 1942. The game is stripped to its bare essentials for XBOX, with the original 8 classes compressed into 3 and only 3 of the original maps in the game. The 3 maps they included are great with one of them being Wake Island, the greatest battlefield map ever released. Looking back at the origins of the franchise through this port, it is easy to see why it has gathered a loyal following. The classes, maps and vehicles are all balanced with the planes needing an especially skilled pilot to be effective. Don’t let me give off the impression that the game is a FPS with training wheels though just because it looks simple. There’s a great amount of strategy and teamwork involved which lead to great debates between my friends and I over the best positions, class, and vehicle. We were discovering new advanced tactics months into its release and had a blast trying everything out, not bad for a 15 dollar game.
#8 – Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 was one of the first XBOX Live arcade hits and helped establish the legitimacy and reputation for downloadable games. The game is as simple as a FLASH game in design. The player controls a ship which must fly around and shoot its enemies for as long as possible, with the goal being to get as high of a score as possible. It’s fast paced nature and simplicity leads to the game having an ease of accessibility that rivals Pac Man and Galaga, easily providing a quick couple of rounds here at your leasure. This sequel allows for up to 4 players to play simultaneously in competitive or cooperative mode, and the demo is worth a chance to anyone who has an itch for old-school arcade-style gaming.
#7 – Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers is a game that brings back the glory days of arcade and couch 4 player co-op. The game is a 2D side scroller akin to the X-Men and TMNT hack-n-slash games of yesteryear. You and your friends fight your way through a magical land to find and save four princesses from the evil that kidnapped them. There’s also RPG elements, as you can make your character have more heath and increase their proficiency with weapons and magic through gaining levels. Players eventually get a variety of weapons with different reaches, speeds, and damages. On top of these customizations, the one that really shines is little pets that follow each player around once they are found. They do a wide variety of things, from attacking your enemies, to giving you a bonus amount of XP. There is one for every type of player. On top of all this, the game has a memorable art style and unique sense of humor. The game reaches its zenith when you save a princess. When the always memorable boss protecting her is finally down, you and your friends all turn on each other, fighting for the right to be her knight in shining armor. At its core, this game is just a great time with for you and your friends.
#6 – Shadow Complex
Shadow complex is a game best described as a love child between Contra and Metroid, with a dash of Bionic Commando thrown in. A 2D side-scroller, Shadow Complex immerses the player in a world of exploration and game changing power-ups. The difficulty level ramps up right along with the power-ups the player unlocks, changing a once simple room into a mind bending puzzle requiring timing with thinking outside of the box. This game pushes the versatility of each room, with seemingly each one having at least one secret to uncover with the right gear. What separates this game from so many others, is the game design of constantly revisiting already explored rooms and how they do it. In many other games, it is a game-length padding, bullshit idea that recycles old environments and experiences with no added value; leading to monotony. This game however, changes and adapts with new enemies and obstacles in old places. A once unreachable platform might now be reachable for a item, or there could be a sniper perched up there, forcing you to adapt and overcome. Don’t let me lead you to believe that the map is small though. It is a sprawling labrynth with a steady flow of new areas to explore and shortcuts to take. Shadow Complex pushes the limits of what players think a 2D side-scroller is capable of.
#5 – Peggle
By far the most casual game on this list, it is the perfect game to play with a loved one whose love for video games might not be as strong as yours. Peggle at first seems to be just a mini game compared to any other game with the same price tag, but once you sit down to play a few rounds you realize the mix of strategy, skill, experience and luck required makes for one hell of a great time. It’s simple enough, the player has a certain amount of balls to shoot down the field, and once gravity takes the ball over, all the player can do is watch and hope; sort of like pinball but without the paddles. You have that fixed number of balls to hit all the pegs and move on to the next level. The game stands out with a variety of one-use abilities players can choose from to spice things up. This, along with great level design, presentation, and sound combines to make a game that is fun, approachable, and deserving of your time.
#4 – Limbo
This 2010 arcade smash hit has a look and feel to it that is all its own. The entire game is in a muted black and white with gray filling the rest. Instead of hindering the visuals, it adds a great deal; allowing the shadows and simple graphics to play on your imagination. This isn’t to say the game doesn’t look great, it does. The visuals are enhanced by the fantastic audio which creates a sense of loneliness and grandeur through ambient noise. The game is a simplistic 2D side-scroller which rewards persistence through trial and error. Its puzzles provide a unique and memorable challenge even for platformer veterans. Even though it only takes about 6 hours to play through, it’s still worth the price tag.
#3 – Trials HD
An extremely challenging game, Trials HD is the Excite Bike for the new generation. There is only the race against the clock as you take your rider through some of the most difficult courses ever conceived in a 2D BMX game. What keeps you playing is a merciful checkpoint system after most, if not all tricky maneuvers. It can be very satisfying to finally nail a jump or back-flip after dozens (in some cases hundreds) of unsuccessful tries. A variety of bikes for each course let’s you take on challenges in different ways. The controls are as good as they get, with the philosophy of “simpler is better” at heart. You only have control of gas, brake, and your rider leaning forward or backward. Your rider travels along a fixed path, keeping your attention on what matters. There is a surprising amount of depth to the game which has kept me challenged for years now.
#2 – Super Meat Boy
This is one of the greatest platformers ever made, if not the best of this generation. The controls are nice and responsive with wall jumping as the games forte. You have the ability to restart a level with the push of a button, which you will be doing… a lot. The difficulty becomes so unmerciful towards the end, that less than two percent of the people who have purchased it have ever finished it. In addition, each level has a “dark world” version of it, which ramps the difficulty up even more for those brave enough. There are hidden collectables, different characters, and a charming art style that makes this game one of the best values on XBOX. What started out as a free flash game has become a cult classic among many gamers. Team Meat hit the nail on the head with this one, and it wouldn’t surprise me if gaming history remembers it with the same reverence as Super Mario Bros. 3 or Sonic.
#1 – Braid
Every so often, maybe once a year if we’re lucky, a game comes along that steals the hearts and minds of everyone who plays it. It is so ingenious in its’ simplicity and originality, that it is hard to imagine how no one had done it before. These games are often overnight smash hits, with word of mouth spreading like wildfire. Minecraft, GoldenEye 007, Doom, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time, have all become synonymous with groundbreaking game design and excellent quality. Braid is one of these games.
Braid is a 2D side scroller of classic design. Your character can move left or right, jump, and that’s it… depending on which world you are in. This last detail is the one that separates it from the rest of the pack, and is the secret to it’s genius. Almost every other game out there conditions the player to a given set of infallible rules, i.e. Mario will always be able to jump X high, Link will solve every dungeon with the combination of a map, boss key, and new weapon/gadget he found in said dungeon, etc. Where Braid differs is each of it’s worlds plays by their own set of rules, tweaking an element of the game play that is not only original, but throws the player out of their comfort zone. This forces creativity and experimentation on the player several times a level, which is necessary to solve it’s increasingly complex puzzles. This is a game that will withstand the test of time.
