Dust: An Elysian Tail

Like a veritable toy box, Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found is a roguelike, Metroidvania style, action-platformer with some tower defense and RPG elements thrown in for good measure. We …
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For the month of May, Games with Gold will feature Dust: An Elysian Tail and Saints Row: The Third. Dust: An Elysian Tail will become free tomorrow, May 1st, and will …
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Did you know that video game music helps the brain by providing a stimulating background that doesn’t interfere with concentration? OK, I can’t prove that. I have no scientific evidence to back it up, but for some games, it seems like it just has to be true.

Xbox Live Arcade is home to some amazing games with some equally amazing music. Composers often sink days, months or even years into crafting the best musical experience for players – dedication that likely goes unnoticed, which sometimes is the whole point.

Sometimes, the best game music can serve as a stimulating background while studying, writing, reading or just doing some housework. Sometimes, you don’t want to notice the music or have it break your concentration. With that in mind, here are the top 10 XBLA soundtracks that serve as the best music to read, study, write or work to.

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Dust: An Elysian Tail, which came in at number 14 on XBLA Fans’ list ofbest arcade games of all time, has passed an incredible milestone with creator Dean Dodrill …
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We know you’ve been waiting for them, and here they are! Black Friday sales for Xbox Live Arcade start now, and, assuming you don’t already own them, you will definitely want to take advantage of this opportunity to pick up some of the best games of the outgoing console generation on the cheap. Notable XBLA games include Mark of the Ninja, Bit.trip Runner 2, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Battleblock Theater, most of which are at least 66 percent off! Some of these games will only be on sale for 24 hours, so check and double-check the tables below to plan your purchases. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Xbox Live Arcade began its life on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 simply enough. When eager gamers bought up Xbox 360s on launch day (November 22, 2005), they found a free copy of Hexic HD pre-loaded on their hard drives. Of course, it was another launch title that secured the platform’s success. Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved both gave birth to the twin-stick shooter craze and demanded gamers take Xbox Live Arcade, which started in disc form back on the original Xbox, seriously as a digital games platform. Bizarre’s side project paved the way for the enormous variety of retro revivals, HD remakes, original indie projects, major studio releases, free-to-play games and more that have come to call XBLA home in the years since.

Today, we’re approximately one month away from the launch of the Xbox One, which will signal the end of XBLA as we have come to know it these past eight years. While Microsoft’s Xbox line will continue to be home to myriad low-cost downloadable video games, the XBLA moniker will not make the transition to Xbox One. It’s going down with the figurative (and literal) Xbox 360 boat. So what better time than now to count down the best XBLA games to ever grace the Xbox 360?

It wasn’t easy, but our staff has sorted through all of the best XBLA releases over the years and picked the ones that we feel are the true standout stars of the platform. Check back with us throughout the week as we run down five of Xbox Live Arcade’s top games every night. And don’t forget to head to the comments to let us know how much you love (or hate) our picks.

(Editor’s Note: Voting was conducted in early September. No games released post-Summer of Arcade 2013 were considered eligible.)

15.) Trials Evolution

Shawn Saris, Contributor — Trials HD is a simple game. You have a bike, and you are tasked with getting from one end of the screen to the other. How hard could that possibly be? In some cases, a good argument could be made for it being impossible, and, as such, the first Trials went on to be known as one of the hardest games to grace XBLA. Years later, Trials Evolution stepped up to the plate with bigger, better levels, more bikes and an amazing track editor, allowing the community to make its own courses for years to come. Trials Evolution is a perfect example of the old mantra “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Instead of changing everything for the sequel, developer RedLynx left the core game the same and instead just added dozens of hours worth of content to challenge players.

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Microsoft will announce the game lineup for this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion, Phil Spencer has confirmed via Twitter. “SoA announce is a highlight for me at E3,” the …
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Yesterday XBLAFans reported that developer Humble Hearts has some “exciting news” related to its debut effort, Dust: An Elysian Tail, in the pipeline. Humble Hearts hasn’t announced what …
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One-man development studio Humble Hearts will soon be announcing some news about last August’s Summer of Arcade title, Dust: An Elysian Tail. A Humble Hearts Facebook post states that studio head Dean Dodrill has “some exciting news to share over the coming month. The dust hasn’t settled yet!”

Dodrill has made no mention on Facebook, Twitter or the game’s official website as to what the news will be, leaving gamers and XBLAFans alike to speculate as to what it could be. Our best guess is that Dust is going to be getting some downloadable content, but a sequel or a PSN and/or Steam port are also possibilities at this time, as is just about anything else anyone can imagine.

A port seems unlikely given that Dodrill took the opportunity to also mention that yesterday marked the 6-month anniversary of his game’s release on XBLA and that he wanted “to thank everyone who has followed me and helped make the game a great success.” Certainly those statements don’t entirely rule out a port, but the XBLA callout would seem to imply that the news is XBLA-related.

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What we are playing is a weekly column published on Sunday. Select members of the team talk about the games they’ve been playing over the past week and which they’re …
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