From July 30 to August 27 of this year, Microsoft released one ridiculously high quality XBLA game a week, building a foundation for its revered and dramatic Summer of Arcade. And when I say "ridiculously high quality" I am not using a classic Chad hyperbole. Between Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Braid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Galaga Legions, and Castle Crashers, there really wasn’t a mediocre game in the bunch.
Just this morning the first official results from the Summer of Arcade came in and the news is pretty encouraging. According to Major Nelson:
Over the course of the five-week Summer of Arcade program there was a 58 percent increase in unique members purchasing titles, and August broke the monthly revenue high by 67 percent. August was also the first time that an Xbox LIVE Arcade game landed in the top 3 most-viewed pages on Xbox.com.
Pretty awesome, huh? It’s comforting to know that games this good sold through the roof and helped XBLA add to its snowballing critical success. Hopefully more independent designers will look at this positive news and release more creative, unique games on the download service. I think we can all agree we have hit our limit on subpar XBLA games.
Would you be excited for a Fall, Winter, and Spring of Arcade or could your wallet not take it? What would be your dream five-week lineup (I vote for a new high-def Battletoads game)?
Chad Concelmo is Destructoid's features editor. He loves hanging out with awesome people. That's why Destructoid makes him so happy, since it is full of THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLE OF ALL TIME! Also, dolphins.
Likes
Chad enjoys punching old ladies in the face, Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES (best system ever!), Final Fantasy VI, Day of the Tentacle, Shadow of the Colossus, Mother 3, Beyond Good & Evil, Contra III, Valkyria Chronicles, Punch-Out!!, Half-Life 2, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
13 comments | showing # 1 to 13
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
3:02 PM on 09.26.2008
| 
I own hardly own any hard disk 360 games, most of them don't interest me. I mostly play the XBLA gems.
My family's two cats do that sometimes, but they're both neutered, and male. Cats are so weird sometimes...
Give me more braid and castle crashers, and less galaga and old atari/nes/sega games, please.
Anyway, this is the first time I actually went and got Microsoft points, this summer was crazy. Geo Wars 2, Castle Crashers, BC:Rearmed...I still need to get Braid too. And now I got Duke Nukem 3d and Mega Man 9 taking my money. Damn, XBLA is beasting my wallet ;_;
If Bionic Commando wanted to impress me, it would add a jump button and fix the swing mechanics. Its not bad, they just didnt fix anything.
One great game a month, through the holidays, would have been nice.