Topic: Favorite XBLA Game & Why?

There's a plethora of excellent downloadable games available on Microsoft's XBLA service, especially after this year's "Summer of Arcade" promotion. With that in mind, what game have you enjoyed the most on Live, and why? What made it fun and/or rewarding to play? For this thread, I suggest everyone pick no more than two of your favorite arcade titles to discuss at a time. Do not list your "top 5" or "top 10". That just makes everything confusing, nor is it engaging. Most importantly, no one cares how you'd order your faves in a list- right?

I'll start off with my current favorite- Trials HD. It's a one player, 2.5D physics-based motorcycle racing game, where the player attempts to speed though increasingly difficult obstacle courses for the best time. Just watching a video will tell you, this is Excitebike on steroids. There are mountains to climb, medals to win, and an editor for creating custom courses (to share with friends). The game is fairly easy to pick up, even for the casual crowd. The controls are simple- left/right on the analog leans your man forward or back. Right trigger is the gas, left trigger hits the brakes. Simple, no? And that's what makes the game for me: a simple control scheme, matched with a campaign so devilishly difficult that you'll likely find yourself on your knees crying to the heavens and shaking your fists (while it's storming). For me, this is perfect. I love the challenge Trials puts forth; I cannot convey how awesome it is to beat a friend's time on a difficult course, only to have them beat it again, and back and forth. Simply put, Trials HD is a perfect pick-up-and-play title for a hardcore gamer like me. Has anyone else had an opportunity to play this game? What did you think?

Currently, what's your XBLA game of choice? Elaborate.

Castle Crashers and Braid

Banjo Kazooie and Braid. Banjo because it's my all-time favorite 3D platformer and Braid because it's so much fun to play.

Pac-Man Champioship Edition. Wonderful update to the old Pac-Man formula and and it's addicting as crack! That one kinda takes the top spot by default though, since I haven't gotten my 360 online yet, so I can't really access any others.

CASTLE CRASHERS!!!

Good music, great story, great gameplay, awesome everything else!!!

My favorite game ever made. I have a level 99blue knight and a level 76 saw knight and have beaten the game on easy with 12 characters and on insane with 1 character

Castle Crashers. Great single player, excellent muliplayer, very addicting, imo,

Shadow complex, just like super metroid except more fun.

Yeah, I don't have my own Xbox yet, so I can't play it at all...but that's the FIRST game I am buying once I get my Xbox. I'm really good at it, but I never get to play it. I got to Level 33 though with Blue Kinght while we were playing co-op....

Hmmmm...That's a tough one. I'd go for Pac-Man Championship Edition (awesome way to reimagine a classic)
That, or I'd have to go for a geek choice and say Magic: the Gathering Battlegrounds. I played the real world game in junior high and then totally stopped for a number of reasons (cost, mostly). It lets me relive a bit of my nerdy childhood online.

Shadow Complex all the way.

Out of all the games I own (No Pac-man, Banjo re-releases or Braid and Castle Crashers), it would have to be Bionic Commando Rearmed, which is just such an enjoyable game and Ikaruga. I don't have too many XBLA games though.

I only have Pacman CE and Splosion Man so far.

The latter is a lot of fun, but I haven't invested much time in it yet. (And killing the scientists for no clear reason is kind of morally grey, at best...) The Pacman game is phenomenal, though. Typically Pacman updates tend to rob the formula of its timelessness, but here they obviously put a lot of effort into maintaining a classic feel within the revamp. I love it.

I'm definitely picking up Braid soonish, and I forgot about Trials, which sounded awesome when I read about it ages ago, so I'll grab that, too. Thanks OP! Keep the responses coming; this is a very helpful thread for me.

I really wish I had downloaded Pacman CE- Instead I decided on Ms. Pacman. It was the price difference that made up my mind, but now I'm regretting it. :/

Shadow Complex because it's the 2D style Metroid we've been waiting for ages to arrive... after that... well it's a hard choice between Pacman CE, Outrun, Castle Crashers and Braid for me.

Sounds like you should've gotten Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade. It's got both those games, along with 20 or so others, for only $20.

LOL, yeah right. I tryed it, its a good game but not Super Metroid material.

As for XBLA, (not including re-releases) Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid get my vote.

I just looked into it and you're right- the 360 Namco Museum comes with several good Arcade games, including Pacman CE. I'll probably snag it next time I see it. Thanks

for me castlevania symphony of the night, ultimate mortal kombat 3, marvel vs capcom 2, king of fighter 98, Braid, Banjo both games, soul calibur 1 dreamcast version.

I killed this thread by expressing interest in it.