Simpsons Arcade

Now that the year 2012 has been set firmly in the books, the boys back at the lab have poured over the raw data to bring you the top arcade titles of the year. The figures, based on full versions sold, were tallied from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012, and made public thanks to Xbox Live’s Larry Hyrb.

No surprise to anyone was Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition topping the list this year. Having launched in May, the massive Minecraft community helped propel the title to well over 5 million downloads by year’s end. More impressively, the arcade adaptation outsold its robust PC cousin by nearly a million copies, securing Xbox Live Arcade as the fastest (legally) growing Minecraft community of 2012.

Trials Evolution rode into the second spot of the year’s most-purchased title on XBLA, and despite the staggering difference between first and second place, did very well for itself. Our Game of the Year, The Walking Dead wrapped up the third spot thanks to critical acclaim and its infectious word-of-mouth campaign. Pinball FX2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rounded out the top five, in that order.

Amazingly, the never-say-die mantra of Castle Crashers has proven itself again; moving the sixth most number of copies nearly half a decade after its initial release. Filling out the top 10, in order, are: Gotham City Impostors, I Am Alive, Fruit Ninja Kinect, and finally, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD.

You can check out these titles in list form, along with the rest of the top 20, after the jump.

Read More

Microsoft’s annual Countdown Sale kicks off today (FYI – it’s Modern Warfare 3 today) and in addition to the 24-hour daily deals on offer, a whole host of XBLA …
Read More

We totally missed January, but the Monthly Recap is back for February! Yaaay. There’s an immense amount of news this month because for some reason February is XBLA month. There’s roughly a million game announcements and DLC as well. I suggest hitting CTRL + F and searching for the copious news about your favorite game. Or games. Or just read all the news, because that’s a good idea.

Beyond the “things that happened”, there’s also several Friday Top Fives and Most Wanted’s this month as we continue to beef up our feature repertoire. Our chief feature, A Year In Review (2011) is definitely worth checking out for some insight into the fluctuations in XBLA cost versus review scores. Lastly, amongst the five podcasts is our Music Special which showcases some of the best XBLA soundtrack tunes since its inception.

Without further ado, welcome to February all over again! Read More

Just yesterday we had a rumor about the Simpsons Arcade game possibly releasing next week. Well good news to fans, Konami has officially announced it will be coming to Xbox Live …
Read More

Ever since the beginning of Xbox Live Arcade, game companies have been using it as a way to breathe new life into their once classic powerhouses. We have seen many classic arcade games from the past like Pac-Man and Rush ‘N Attack, as well as not-so-old but just-as-great ones like Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Alien Hominid. Yet still to this day there are some classic titles that have not received their day in a new light. We know some of it has to do with legal issues, but some of it is also due to neglect, which is why we will be covering our top ten picks that we wish were on XBLA, and why they deserve some new found love. Read More