Best Xbox Live Arcade Games, Ranked

Summary

• Trials Evolution marked the return of RedLynx’s Trials franchise with enhanced content and features.
• Peggle 2’s whimsical puzzle experience gained success through Xbox One timed release and cross-platform launch.
• Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved began as a minigame in a racer before evolving into a chart-topping twin-stick shooter on XBLA.

While the rise of independent developers has only escalated in recent years, there was a time not too long ago when Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade distribution platform was one of the industry’s one-stop-shops for indie experiences. While many of these games have found further audiences with re-releases and sequels on contemporary hardware, some titles have been lost since the Xbox 360 Marketplace’s 2024 shutdown.

From retro-inspired hard-as-nails platformers and unique interpretations of tried-and-true genres to genre-defining indie titles, the Xbox Live Arcade publishing platform has not only jump-started the careers of many notable contemporary developers but entire multimedia franchises.

8

Trials Evolution

An Iterative Exploration Of The 2.5D Motorsport Arcade Original

Considering the humble flash game roots of Ubisoft’s motorsport-focused 2.5D platformer series Trials, the property’s reach has gone on to be felt across multiple software ecosystems and entire hardware generations.

The 2012 primarily digital-exclusive sequel Trials Evolution not only iterated on the enticing moment-to-moment momentum-based mechanics of its inaugural entry but also expanded on the game’s core systems to present a unique experience on Xbox 360 and PC hardware through Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade publishing system. With a renowned original soundtrack penned by God of War composer Mike Reagan, alongside an enticingly consistent performance on Microsoft’s seventh-generation console, Trials Evolution remains an acclaimed arcade-tinged title that would go on to influence the series’ more than ten years’ worth of sequels and spin-offs.

7

Peggle 2

A Timed Exclusive Puzzle Title On Microsoft’s Eighth-Generation Hardware

Although Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade platform has become renowned for a swathe of influential experimental action and platforming titles, it remains that arguably one of the service’s most well-known properties prides itself on the iterative nature of its unique puzzle gameplay. Peggle 2‘s 2013 timed exclusivity on Xbox One consoles, before its 2014 cross-platform release, encapsulates the PopCap Games-developed casual title’s relationship with the Microsoft video game ecosystem while providing players with an expanded version of its time-tested color-based mechanics.

Its E3 2013 announcement gained much notoriety, not only for presenting the sequel that remains “just as addictive, just as simple, and wholly familiar” for those who enjoyed the 2007 original, but for bolstering the presentation with a consistently meme-focused explosion of sound courtesy of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. However, with its own original award-winning orchestrated soundtrack gaining much reverence in the years following its release, while the core gameplay of Peggle 2 remains arguably one of the best examples of the puzzle genre in recent memory, everything surrounding its release has garnered seemingly more fame than its critically praised content.

6

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

A Fully Realized Response To The Success Of A Racing Title Minigame

With its far-reaching influence over Microsoft’s seventh-generation console, the Xbox Live Arcade system is home to many acclaimed titles that saw it fit to focus on releasing on the publishing platform first and foremost. However, while Geometry Wars‘ eventual chart-topping success has become seemingly well-known in recent years, the series’ beginnings were much more mundane and mysterious.

As the series’ inaugural experience was initially posited as a simple minigame in Bizarre Creations’ Xbox-exclusive racer Project Gotham Racing 2, the fact that “some players began playing Project Gotham Racing 2 just to play Geometry Wars” culminated in the eventual 2005 release of the expanded and fully realized Geometry Wars experience — Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. With the twin-stick arcade shooter’s neon-infused aesthetic having since gone on to be iterated on with multiple sequels, the chart-topping heights of Retro Evolved remains arguably the property’s highest point.

5

Spelunky

A Genre-Defining Enhanced Port Of The Roguelike Flash Title

Considering the continued industry-defining success of the iterative gameplay and old-school difficulty of the now-prominent roguelike genre, the fact that Mossmouth Ltd.’s 2008 Flash release of Spelunky and its various ports are often touted as a highlight of the genre is astounding.

Finding a solid foothold within the Xbox Live Arcade ecosystem in 2012, and being recognized as “one of the very first games to ever experiment with gameplay elements that would be incorporated into the roguelike genre,” Spelunky‘s Microsoft-published dungeon-crawling exploratory title has arguably earned its place as one of the greatest video games of all time. With one of its core creators — Derek Yu — finding repeated success with titles such as 2024’s award-winning UFO 50 and the property being heartily represented in the 2024 video game anthology series Secret Level, the Spelunky franchise has definitively solidified its place in the annals of video game history.

4

Fez

An Industry-Defining Indie Triumph With Clear Nintendo Reverence

Finding overwhelming individual success after its 2012 Xbox Live Arcade release, while being bolstered with a cross-platform debut past its timed one-year exclusivity on Microsoft’s seventh-generation console, Polytron’s 2.5 metanarrative platformer Fez has gone on to define not only the indie video game landscape but multiple other highly successful titles across the industry.

Being highlighted in the 2012 documentary motion picture Indie Game: The Movie, alongside notable mentions from the developers of Tunic and Animal Well (alongside others), Fez remains not only an industry-defining experience but a landmark title in the continuous ‘games as art’ debate. With a critically lauded original soundtrack by Richard Vreeland — who would go on to find much success in composing music for It Follows and Hyper Light Drifter — and tightly wound movement and mechanics, Fez is a true highlight of the experimental experiences placed at the forefront of the Xbox Live Arcade program.

3

Plants Vs. Zombies

A Classic Tower Defense Experience That Has Grown To Multimedia Heights

Although much of its success can be placed at the foot of its many console ports and sequels, the fact that the cartoonishly quirky tower-defense game Plants Vs. Zombies “introduced many mobile gamers to tower defense titles” cannot be ignored. However, while the PopCap Games-developed title initially found its home on touch-screen devices, its 2010 Xbox Live Arcade release arguably opened the floodgates for the EA property to blossom into the multi-genre juggernaut of today.

In defending a suburban household from the encroaching undead with the various abilities of the family’s houseplants, PopCap Games’ inaugural title in the series not only found itself being a Game of the Year award-winning experience but a property that has duly influenced a dynamic range of other artistic projects across mediums. From acting as a clear influence for a similarly framed minigame in Blizzard’s uber-successful MMORPG World of Warcraft to having Laura Shigihara’s original soundtrack for Plants Vs. Zombies act as a key inspiration for many aspects of Billie Eilish’s award-winning single Bad Guy, PopCap’s zombie-tinged tower defense title has had a wide impact across the artistic institution.

2

Braid

A Hallmark Time-Twisting Platforming Experience On Xbox 360

From its humble beginnings, as seen in Indie Game: The Movie, to its industry-defining success, Johnathan Blow’s metanarrative time-winding 2D puzzle-platformer Braid is arguably emblematic of the “breath of fresh air” that many Xbox Live Arcade titles represented for the video game industry during the seventh console generation.

While its status as a pivotal title that “helped put indie games on the map” is consistently revisited, and Blow’s continued success with titles such as The Witness is emblematic of Braid‘s continued influence, the original title’s acclaim seemingly cannot be overstated. With the property finding a supreme reach given its multiple multi-platform releases since its 2008 debut, and an Anniversary Edition enhancing its presentation and gameplay offering, Braid‘s position as an industry-defining indie title has remained solid.

1

Super Meat Boy

A Hard-As-Nails Platformer That Has Transcended Its Xbox Live Arcade Roots

Considering its continued reverence and a legacy that spans multiple console generations, Super Meat Boy‘s 2010 release is emblematic of the early indie success that many small-scale developers found on the Xbox Live Arcade platform. Although its tight 2D platforming “requires pixel-perfect movement and throws players right into the proverbial platforming grinder,” Super Meat Boy‘s cultural significance reaches far beyond its Flash title roots.

Having found its eponymous bloody protagonist’s likeness incorporated into plushes, comic book series, and a sequel, Super Meat Boy‘s influence as a multimedia property cannot be overstated. Bolstered by Super Meat Boy‘s inspiration of titles such Spelunky, River City Rampage, and Ori and the Blind Forest — alongside the continued reverence of Danny Baranowsky’s original soundtrack, which has been continued by his involvement with The Binding of Isaac and Crypt of the Necrodancer — Super Meat Boy has not only defined the Xbox Live Arcade platform but seemingly transcended it.