The arcade store on Xbox Live has really gone from strength to strength over the years and it is great to see budding developers and indie studios having a platform to nurture and unleash their talents on. This platform has presented me with my best gaming experiences this year, as I constantly become excited for the next big release through XBLA than a disc based game in the stores.
I have compiled a list of what I think are the top 5 games that were released on XBLA in 2012 that give you more gameplay and originality than their £10 and below price points would suggest. This is where gaming is being kept alive in my opinion, and is a corner of the Xbox dashboard I hope more people discover in the future. Now on with the list…
5. Dust: An Elysian Tail
It’s a rare occurrence in gaming these days that a single title is made alone by one person. Dust: An Elysian Tail is one of those rare instances and what a gem it has turned out to be. The game took a grueling four years of development, which has paid off enormously thanks to the popularity of the title and critical acclaim it has garnered. Dean Dodrill, the games creator won the Microsoft Dream. Build. Play competition and passionately brought his vision to life, and I’m sure he is overjoyed with the response. Blending stat building RPG elements with hack and slash gameplay, Dust is a joy to behold and control from start to finish.
The characters look like they have been ripped from an unknown merged Disney anime creation, while the old school gameplay somehow feels fresh despite the simplicity. The combat is fast and the combos are fierce, if only they could be unleashed onto Fidget, your slightly annoying companion who is not too dissimilar to Tails in appearance. The story is aped in fantasy, with some chuckle-some moments referencing other games, or how games are played in general, there is plenty to keep you entertained along the way. Secret areas are ripe within the world coupled with quite a few side quests meaning the replay-ability factor is high, and easily pushes the game time to over 20 hours for those of you wanting to explore every nook and cranny.
Dust is a steal at 1200 Microsoft Points, bringing more to the table with a longer campaign than most studio based creations.
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4 Comments
Good stuff. Haven’t played any of them yet but I keep hearing a lot about them. I suppose part of it is my reluctance of buy games on XBLA rather than PSN.
Yeah you should try and pick some of them up, more fun that what people realise. If you’re not keen on buying XBLA games, keep an eye out for half price sales every Wednesday as some of the titles might slip into that
Granted that I only played the trails/demos of most of these games so I could be off, but I wasn’t hooked like everyone else seemed to be on these games. Dust is a good looking game and I’m amazed to find out that it was made by a single person, but that wasn’t the first hack & slash RPG mash-up I’ve played so that charm has already worn off on me. Trials Evolution is definitely one of those “just one more time…” type games but I also find that once I’m able turn games like that off I could go for a month or even longer before I feel the urge to play it again. My first impression of Mark of the Ninja was really nothing special and just made me miss Tench, but I think I might go back and give that another shot. Still haven’t checked out Fez but I plan to and I’ve never been a big fan of first person games like Portal so I doubt I will ever play Quantum Conundrum.
I felt the same way about about everyone becoming hooked on The Walking Dead and MineCraft, they don’t seem to do it for me at all. Mark of the Ninja really grows into something special the more you progress into the game, I’m sure you will enjoy it. Fez has also been announced to be coming to other consoles and devices this year, if you have a different system you would prefer to play it on.