XBLA - highs and lows

[Pegasus]

Yes, there are a lot of duds on XBLA, but there are also some very fun ones to be had. I've tried a slew of them a few weeks back and only a select few stuck...

Right now my top three favorites are:
Pinball FX - Obvious choice for a pinball nut like me. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming Rocky and Bullwinkle table.

Prince of Persia - Old-school fun with a new look. I'm glad they went with the Sands of Time design since that is still my favorite of all the new PoP games.

Pac-Man C.E. - I love how the stage constantly evolves.


Possible future purchases:
Outpost Kaloki - An enjoyable sim. Still makes me wonder if the semi-sequel Space Station Tycoon will ever show on Wii...

Commanders: Attack of the Genos & Band of Bugs - I have a definite soft-spot for turn-based strategy games

Ikaruga - I never got around to play this one on the Cube so I might look into it once it is released


Disappointments:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Frankly, I was quite underwhelmed by this title. This is supposed to be the best there ever was? Okay. I don't see it. The VO is pretty damn bad, too. I'll just stick to my DS titles.

Sensible World of Soccer - While I do have fond memories of playing SWOS with my brother a lot on our Amiga, somehow I just don't find the game very appealing, nowadays.

[RMA]

Highs? Boogie Bunnies, Rez HD, Track & Field and especially Worms & Bomberman Live for online play.

Lows? So far only GripShift...a game I just cannot get into. Maybe says more about my abilities than anything else though!

[Spore]

When Castle Crashers comes out it will be instawin.

[coire]

Trigger Heart Excellica: I downloaded the Demo. I like this game.

Radiant Silvergun: Rumoured. Yay!

I want to play Rez, But I don't want to get it on the 360. It's been said that it might hit other platforms.

[Nevsky]

Sorry Pegasus, I have to disagree with you about Symphony of the Night.

The V/Os are atrocious, surely. But every other aspect of the game is tight and damn near-perfect. It's a wonderfully deep game.

Sadly it's my dad that has the 360, whereas I have the Wii. I only get to play on it when I'm back at my parents for festivals and holidays, so over Easter I was catching up. I was hoping to complete Mass Effect but ended up falling short of that goal because I was on SOTN far too much (which can only speak volumes of how much it had me gripped).

However, the small glimpses I got of N+, Puzzle Quest, Alien Hominid and Super Puzzle Fighter HD Remix definitely got me interested.

I think the addition of Ikaruga and the tantalising possibility of Radiant Silvergun should also be added to the list of XBLA plus points (even though I'm currently playing through the latter on GCN)

I think XBLA is a good service, but has a small selection of really great games. Virtual Console (and hopefully WiiWare) win out.

[sco0504]

Good Points
- Contra's on it
- Super Contra's on it
- Online co-op on Contra and Super Contra
- Pac-man CE edition pwns
- Ikaruga pwns
- Better pricing than the VC
Bad Points
- Online lags like hell in most games
- Some game are broken and never get fixed (MR DRILLER!!!)
- Some bad ports are released on it (Discs Of Tron)
- No-one plays the game after thay've out for over a week
- Wasted points on broken games. (MR DRILLER!!!)
- Some games are 1200 points!!!

[LoneCynic]

Highs:
-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade (4-player online co-op, need I say more?)
-Contra (Online 2-player co-op)
-Puzzle Quest
-Pac-Man Championship Edition (Unbelievably fun)
-Uno (Casual fun with Camera support)
-Ikaruga (Online 2-player co-op)
-Triggerheart Excellica
-Sonic the Hedgehog (HD graphics smoothing and Widescreen support)

-Better pricing than VC/Wiiware
-Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is on the way
-Possible releases of Radiant Silvergun and MegaMan 9 in the works
-Decent freebies like Aegis Wing
-Achievements/Leaderboards on all XBLA titles
-Online play for many titles
-Demoing games before deciding to purchase or not

Lows:
-Waiting for the decent releases amid a tidal wave of sub-par games (A problem VC/Wiiware has as of late too)
-Utter garbage freebies like Yaris that make you feel tainted even having it on your Hard Drive because it is so bad
-Trying to find other retro fans among the flood of FPS and sports game players who think XBLA is a waste of their time

[Refa]

Originally Posted by Pegasus

Yes, there are a lot of duds on XBLA, but there are also some very fun ones to be had. I've tried a slew of them a few weeks back and only a select few stuck...

Right now my top three favorites are:
Pinball FX - Obvious choice for a pinball nut like me. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming Rocky and Bullwinkle table.

Prince of Persia - Old-school fun with a new look. I'm glad they went with the Sands of Time design since that is still my favorite of all the new PoP games.

Pac-Man C.E. - I love how the stage constantly evolves.


Possible future purchases:
Outpost Kaloki - An enjoyable sim. Still makes me wonder if the semi-sequel Space Station Tycoon will ever show on Wii...

Commanders: Attack of the Genos & Band of Bugs - I have a definite soft-spot for turn-based strategy games

Ikaruga - I never got around to play this one on the Cube so I might look into it once it is released


Disappointments:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Frankly, I was quite underwhelmed by this title. This is supposed to be the best there ever was? Okay. I don't see it. The VO is pretty damn bad, too. I'll just stick to my DS titles.

Sensible World of Soccer - While I do have fond memories of playing SWOS with my brother a lot on our Amiga, somehow I just don't find the game very appealing, nowadays.

Crucify him, he who insults Symphony and says the DS ones are better.