XBox Live Arcade

I thought it was about time to share my thoughts on the XBox Live Arcade (XBLA). For anyone who doesn’t know, the Live Arcade is an area within the XBox 360 blades (the menu system if you like) which allows you to download arcadey type games. I guess the nearest thing to this would be the RealArcade system that is available alongside RealPlayer on the PC.

The games cost a lot less than a full price game (typically 400 or 800 Microsoft points which works at around £3-£6) and tend to be far simpler. There are some classics on there (Smash TV and Gauntlet being 2 of the biggest names from days gone by) as well as new takes on old games (Bejeweled 2 Deluxe) and brand new games (like the recently released Feeding Frenzy). Once you’ve downloaded the games as a Live Gold member (only gold members can download from XBLA) anyone who has an account on your 360 can play them, and anyone else who has at least a silver account on your 360 can gain achievements and upload high scores.

Without going into the details of the games it’s very difficult to give a feel for what XBLA adds to the system. I’ve always felt that XBox 1 and XBox 360 was aimed purely at the more hardcore of gamers (whereas PS2 catered more for the needs of casual gamers as well) but I really think Microsoft have got it right with the arcade. I no longer feel the need to own a Playstation as well as whenever I need a fix of a casual game (a puzzler or something similar) then I now have the XBLA. It’s a stroke of genius to my mind, and the pricing model is right. It’s also quite telling that XBLA games are starting to appear in the top 10 games played on XBox Live at the moment, mixed in with the likes of Perfect Dark Zero and Need For Speed:Most Wanted.

So in summary, long live the arcade game, long live XBLA, and if anyone fancies a game of Marble Blast Ultra on line then give me a yell!!