Summer of Arcade

August 12th, 2010

For the last three years or so, Microsoft has had a short-standing tradition of releasing five Xbox Live Arcade titles, one each week, in the middle of summer. It’s a good plan as summer is traditionally bereft of big game releases, since they seem to all either release right before Christmas or, if they missed their ship dates, soon after the New Year. This “Summer of Arcade” usually has games that either spotlight the best independent game developers or capitalize on nostalgia. And there is no nostalgia like gamer nostalgia. The gems this year:

Limbo – Spooky, startling, sparse, superb. Worth the price of admission.

Hydro! Thunder! – It’s Hydro Thunder, what more do you need to know?

There’s a Castlevania game that looks good in theory and I guess it’s fun, but the old sprites hurt my eyes. So I’m taking a pass on that one. But next week, the final game comes out that I’m really looking forward to out of all of these. I’ve never been a huge fan of Tomb Raider games in practice– I usually end up drowning or getting gutted by bears or something– but “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light ” plays a bit differently. The world can always use more co-op dungeon-crawling puzzle-solving goodness:

Entry Filed under: Video Crack