xbox live arcade

It has been a key part of the success of the Xbox 360. The way that game studios have been able to either create games specifically for the arcade market, or use the arcade market to aid their own bigger releases has been evident over the years but it hasn't spoilt the way that the system has worked.

So now that we find ourselves with such a selection of classics to choose from it's hard for newcomers to look through the vast library that is available to them and think what to spend their Microsoft Points on first.

What are the key ingredients for the Arcade Games? Fun. Playable. Just the right degree of difficulty for everyone to enjoy. Multiplayer. Having that instant "pick up and play" quality.

I can remember searching out a number of games and trying them out, keeping some and dumping others. Maybe just because of not getting the chance to try them properly. But then the old coin-op classics started to join the party and it was time to spend lots of money again on all the games that were owned on the Sega systems of old.

As time progressed a few companies started to make arcade specific games as these turned the market upside down. When games like Castle Crashers and Trials HD first came around they where downloaded instantly. They were (are) games that you had to have.

Suddenly the arcade game was a good thing to create again and with the attention that games like these were receiving it only helped the XBLA market promote itself.

Within the marketplace you'll also find the occasional release of companions for bigger main game releases or general game companions.

Items like Halo Waypoint or Fable Pub Games to name a couple are there to aid you with Halo games or Fable 2 respectively.

These work in different ways with the games in question and might offer support in some way perhaps in the way of armor if we use Halo Waypoint as an example.

The impact that the introduction of Kinect for XBox 360 has had has been phenomenal. So it was only a matter of time before the arcade games started to appear waving the Kinect flag.

Games like Fruit Ninja and the recently released Wreckateer are only a couple of what is available to browse and pick from the library is growing.

So it really doesn't matter what type of game your into, you will find something for you on the marketplace. Ranging in price from 400 to 1600 Microsoft points you can get your hands on something that you can easily pick up and play.

Something that can fill 5 minutes or 5 hours depending on what your trying to achieve.