25 Best XBLA Games #15 – #6

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was another great beat em’ up for the XBLA. It had a solid gameplay system with RPG elements, and a story that mirrored the events of the comics and movies. However, the biggest draws to this game were its graphics and music. The sprites were drawn by renowned sprite artist Paul Robertson and the music was done by well-known chiptunes band Anamanaguchi. That, combined with Scott Pilgrims many gaming and sub-culture references, made this game a must play for anyone who grew up in the '80s and '90s.

Somehow, Namco Bandai figured out how to make Pac-Man better. With ever changing levels, huge ghost trains to be devoured, missions and achievements to unlock, and leaderboards kept you playing for ungodly long times, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is, perhaps, the pinnacle Pac-Man experience of our time.

Shoot 1Up Is an Xbox indie shmup that takes a different approach to the idea of extra lives. Instead of simply having a reserve of planes that come out one after another when you die, all of your lives are on screen at once. By spreading out your planes you can combine their powers to create gigantic laser beams, though they will become harder to control in the process. Keeping your planes close together reduces your power but makes it easier to dodge bullets. It’s a simple formula that is lots of fun to play. If that doesn’t convince you of this game’s quality I have six words for you -- Giant Cyborg Women With Missile Breasts.

Plants vs Zombies may be the best game that Pop Cap ever made and as such, it certainly deserves a slot on the 25 Best XBLA Games of all time. Whether you simply tried to defeat the story, did your best to outlast endless mode, or built coin farming machines out of your backyard swimming pool, it’s hard to deny the allure of this simple tower defense game.

Trials Evolution is a bit like Excitebike taken up to the extreme. When you strip away the bikes and ramps, what you really have is a puzzle platformer based around speed and tilt. However, when you give this simple gameplay an extreme sports coat of paint, suddenly it has enough staying power to make anyone strive to get the top slot on the leaderboards.

Sometimes you don’t need awesome graphics to make a great game. Sometimes, all you need is phenomenal gameplay. That’s exactly what Geometry Wars is all about. On first glance, this is just shapes shooting other shapes, but on deeper inspection it’s an incredibly deep free roaming shmup that would make Asteroids jealous. It also may have been the one game that started the trend of XBLA indie game leaderboard addiction. Geometry Wars started as a minigame in Project Gotham Racing, but is now more well known than it's game of origin.

In the days of the Dreamcast, an awesome shmup called Ikaruga was released which allowed you to change your color in order to become invulnerable to certain colors of bullets. Outland is that very same formula packaged in an action platformer instead. By switching from blue to red you will be able to interact with different platforms, damage different enemies, and make yourself invulnerable to certain traps. Making your way through the game required you to frequently switch back and forth while navigating a bullet laden battlefield that would kill you if you didn’t have this unique ability.

‘Splosion man is the story of one little mutant and his propensity to EXPLODE! The trick was ‘sploding in the right way to make it through the game’s many traps and puzzles. ‘Splode to break your way through barriers, or ‘splode to act as a makeshift jump. Just don’t ‘splode too much or Big Science will catch you without any ‘splosions left in you.

You may have noticed that many games on this list are puzzle platformers. Well, puzzle platforming can arguably be said to have started the indie revolution, and Super Meat Boy was at the forefront of it all. This game got its start as a humble little flash title and grew to become one of the most notoriously hard platformers of this generation. Super Meat Boy proudly paraded around its old school difficulty asking you to spend hundreds of hours trying to beat only a few levels, and that’s what’s so much fun about the game. Nothing gives you a better sense of reward that burning an entire afternoon trying to make one jump.

Beat 'em ups are another game genre that has found success on the XBLA, and Castle Crashers is the daddy of them all. Once again, this game started as a simple flash title yet grew up in popularity incredibly quickly. Castle Crashers was straight forward on the surface, but as you unlocked more characters, increased your stats, and changed your weapons, you slowly realized that there was a ton of flexibility to this simple beat 'em up. It also wasn’t afraid to make poo jokes, which surely appealed to the more immature portions of the gaming fandom.