alt="Galaga Legions"/>

Galaga Legions

Developer: Namco Bandai Games Inc.

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games Inc.

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Buy It

A little over a year ago, Namco Bandai released Pac-Man: Championship Edition on Xbox Live Arcade. With its neon makeover and emphasis on high score competitions, the game gave us a great reason to once again lead our little yellow friend through his maze-filled world. When it was announced that the Pac-Man: CE team would also be updating Namco's classic arcade game, Galaga, there was good reason to be excited. Galaga is, after all, one of the rare arcade classics that's as much fun to play today as it was back when it was first released.

Galaga Legions isn't quite as good as Pac-Man: CE, but it's still pretty darn great. Unlike in the original Galaga, your ship can now move freely all over the screen, instead of being limited to moving left and right along the bottom. Although you can still only shoot straight up, you can deploy and assign two satellites to fire up, down, left or right. The key to earning high scores is to strategically place your satellites so that they blast the invading aliens as they swarm onto the screen. In an evolution of the original game's mechanics, you'll occasionally have the opportunity to capture enemy fighters and add their firepower to your own.

With no multiplayer mode, you competitive types will have to rely on your leaderboard ranking to keep coming back for more. Luckily, Galaga Legions is pretty challenging despite its short length. Even though Legions tends to stray from the rules of its inspiration more than Pac-Man: CE did, it's still a fantastic shooter and yet another high point in Namco's retro revival.

alt="Castle Crashers"/>

Castle Crashers

Developer: The Behemoth

Publisher: The Behemoth

Price: 1,200 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Buy It

Alien Hominid, The Behemoth's previous title, looked fantastic but didn't play nearly as well as the games it tried to emulate (Metal Slug, Contra). As such, it wasn't unreasonable to be skeptical of the follow-up, Castle Crashers. After all, the inspiration behind this title (old-school beat-'em-ups like Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game) aren't even terribly fun to play anymore. How good could a great-looking but uninspired clone be?

As it turns out, we didn't have to worry at all. Not only does Castle Crashers play great, it also adds a bit more depth to its tired genre. You and up to three friends climb into the multicolored armor of the lead characters and battle through levels filled with hordes of humorously animated enemies. As you fight, the game's experience system levels up your character, granting new combos and points that can be distributed to improve different attributes. Stat-enhancing weapons can be found or purchased with gold collected from fallen foes. These light role-playing game elements allow for a bit of customization and keep things interesting.

Castle Crashers is chock full of personality and provides a good challenge for those looking for a fight. The online multiplayer is a bit spotty at the moment, with ample connection issues, but The Behemoth is promising a patch. We hope it comes soon, because this is a great game that's clearly meant to be played with friends.

alt="Gin Rummy"/>

Gin Rummy

Developer: Sierra Online

Publisher: Sierra Online

Price: 400 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Try It

Card and board games are a nice, easy choice for the casual gamer looking to have a bit of fun on XBLA, which has a decent selection ranging from chess and solitaire games to licensed fare like UNO and those crazy German board games. The self-explanatory Gin Rummy provides exactly what the title says. You get the classic card game along with a few variants to help mix things up. Online play allows you to challenge others when you're tired of going up against the computer.

Gin Rummy's biggest problem is that it's extremely bare-bones. Even with the different gameplay modes, the whole package feels quite bland. Perhaps that's a side effect of the low, 400 MSP price tag, but at the same price, UNO is a more robust package.

alt="Pirates vs. Ninjas"/>

Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball

Developer: Blazing Lizard

Publisher: Gamecock Media Group

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Try It

Don't let the title confuse you: Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball isn't really a dodgeball game. If you're expecting something along the lines of the NES cult favorite Super Dodge Ball, you will be sorely disappointed. Instead, this game is more along the lines of an arena fighter, sort of like Capcom's Power Stone if that game allowed you to toss the occasional dodgeball at your opponent.

PvN Dodgeball isn't terrible, but it's certainly not without faults. The three different gameplay modes (Traditional, Enhanced and Combat) aren't very different from each other, and online multiplayer matches can be quite laggy. The biggest problem, however, comes from the game's camera, which is set at an angle that often makes the action difficult to see.

The game does have some cute characters, and some of the dialogue is fairly amusing. This may not be the ideal XBLA dodgeball game, but it's certainly better than Double D Dodgeball.

alt="Shred Nebula"/>

Shred Nebula

Developer: CrunchTime Games

Publisher: Microsoft

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Try It

Thanks to its somewhat complicated control scheme, Shred Nebula feels like an updated take on Atari's arcade hit Asteroids. Moving the left analog stick doesn't move your space fighter around; it merely rotates the craft. In order to go anywhere, you must make proper use of your boosters and retro rockets. Once you've mastered the controls, you'll find yourself tearing around each level's open arenas with tremendous precision. This control scheme is a welcome break from the two-stick Geometry Wars style that is so prevalent on XBLA.

The single-player mode is fairly enjoyable, with an Adventure mode that lasts a few hours and a Score Attack challenge. The wide variety of weapons, enemies and environments keeps things interesting throughout. The online deathmatch allows up to eight ships to fight each other, and a wide variety of available crafts to pilot allows for some fun matchups. Unfortunately, the only cooperative mode is a local Score Attack. Co-op Adventure mode would have been nice to see.

There are a ton of space shooters on XBLA, but Shred Nebula is certainly worth a try. Although it feels redundant at times, it's still an enjoyable experience.

alt="Rocket Bowl"/>

Rocket Bowl

Developer: 21-6 Productions

Publisher: D3 Publisher

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: PC

RECOMMENDATION:
Try It

No matter what system you're playing them on, bowling games are typically pretty fun. The Atari 2600, Super NES, PlayStation and, heck, even the Virtual Boy have all had great bowling titles. Mini-golf games, although rarer, also tend to be quite enjoyable. The creators of Rocket Bowl have realized this and decided to mash the two sports together to create a "two great tastes" situation. Even though Rocket Bowl is no Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, it's still a good way to waste a little time.

Instead of a bowling alley, you roll your ball through a winding, hilly arena that feels like a (somewhat dull) mini-golf course. Often, as the ball rolls towards the pins, you can play off of the courses' many slopes to curve the ball back and knock down pins you missed the first time around. You can even send the ball flying towards other groups of pins that aren't part of your current frame to score bonus points.

The ability to unlock new courses and balls by collecting stars expands the single-player mode, and the multiplayer mode is nice, but thanks to a lack of variety in the courses, Rocket Ball begins to feel repetitive after only a few games.

alt="Samurai Shodown II"/>

Samurai Shodown II

Developer: SNK

Publisher: SNK

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: Neo Geo

RECOMMENDATION:
Buy It

"Long long ago, there were a man who try to make his skill ultimate. Because of his bloody life, it's no accident that he was involved in the troubles." Wow, any game that starts with that much mangled English has got to be good. The hilarious and horrible translation aside, Samurai Shodown II is a classic SNK fighter that is still regarded as one of the best that the company produced.

Now the game is on XBLA, complete with leaderboards and (mostly lag-free) online play. If you're the type who doesn't like their retro games to look so retro, an optional "enhanced" graphics mode smoothes things out. This is an extremely challenging game, so if you're going up against the computer, you're probably going to lose -- a lot. Even so, it's a fantastic fighter that deserves to be played again.

alt="Shotest Shogi "/>

Shotest Shogi

Developer: AI Factory/Rubicon Mobile

Publisher: Microsoft

Price: 800 Microsoft Points

Originally Appeared On: N/A

RECOMMENDATION:
Try It

Has chess grown stale for you? Do you crave new rules to learn and new challenges to overcome? If so, perhaps it's time to give shogi a try. The game is essentially the Japanese version of chess, but it requires an entirely different strategy if you hope to take your opponent's king. Even if you don't know the rules of the game (and if you're not Japanese, we don't blame you), Shotest Shogi has a rather nice tutorial that explains everything.

The game provides computer opponents of varying skill to face off against, and also supports online multiplayer. Although a fairly simple package, the game board and matching Japanese environments look quite nice, and the anime-style avatars of your computer opponents add a geeky touch. Although it probably won't replace chess in the hearts and minds of Western gamers, Shotest Shogi is definitely worth checking out.