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Is Xbox Live Arcade really almost four years old? Like any tyke, it's full of promise, but it has some growing up to do, too. Join us as we explore XBLA's successes...and the changes it needs to keep growing strong.

Remember the early days of Live Arcade, when it hosted a couple dozen coin-op ports, a few puzzle games...and little else? We can barely remember that time either. And there’s a reason for that. Since its Xbox 360 relaunch on November 22, 2005, Xbox Live Arcade has slowly evolved into a little giant, amassing a 200-game lineup that spans all sorts of genres, studios, and audiences.

It’s come a long way in a few years, to be sure. But even with a big catalog and some serious blockbusters — Uno, Geometry Wars, Castle Crashers — XBLA has plenty of room for improvement. With some small but fundamental tweaks, we think it could go from really-cool extra to big-time system-seller. And we’ll tell you how.

Read on for a list of Live Arcade’s success stories — followed by our to-do list for rejuvenating XBLA. Hopefully, the lords at Microsoft are listening.

Sleeper Sells: The XBLA Games You Should Be Playing

Peggle, Portal — everyone knows they’re great. But Arcade has a bunch of golden oldies and lesser-known games that are just as essential. Try these. Now!

Aces of the Galaxy

When we’re in a big, bad spaceship, we don’t want to explore nebulae; we want to kick some intergalactic ass. And Aces lets us, from the cockpit of a fast-action fighter that darts swiftly across the screen, spewing an endless stream of ammo. With asteroids to dodge and waves of enemies to annihilate, you’ll almost forget you’re on rails. Smack-talking aliens (“Human worm!”) and a sort of cosmic bullet-time help keep the action fresh, fun, and non-stop.

Astropop

Astropop is an “homage” to (read: stone-cold ripoff of) the forgotten Neo- Geo title Magical Drop. Instead of dropping blocks, you pull them from the ceiling and throw them back in groups to match and remove them. Think Tetris mixed with Bust-A-Move, plus a super-attack that nukes the screen and gets you out of tough scrapes. Four characters with “supa weapons” are yours to unlock, and now that we have nice arcade sticks from Hori and Mad Catz, you can get that old Neo-Geo feel.

Catan

Yes, there is a steep learning curve to this deep, masterful board game. But there’s also a great tutorial and rich rewards for developing even basic competence. Essentially, you’re battling opponents for resources to build up cities, but the level of trickery, deviousness, and canny strategy that you can deploy kept us up until many a wee hour achieving world domination! If you’re the type of gamer where the tagline “mindless” is a turn-off, you gotta try Catan.

Commanders: Attack of the Genos

Advance Wars was a huge hit on Game Boy Advance — yet this cheeky clone on XBLA sank like a stone. Why? It has a cute tongue-in-cheek style, some bouncy ’40s jazz, and retro sci-fi Art Deco tanks and spider-walkers. The production values are humble but clean, and the turn-based gameplay is a pretty good way to mellow out while still blowing stuff up. With a campaign, skirmishes, and both online and four-player couch play, there’s a lot to like.

Feeding Frenzy 2

Sequels are a risky business on XBLA: Geometry Wars 2 sold like gangbusters, but games like Mutant Storm Empire and Assault Heroes 2 seem to have been ignored. In the case of Feeding Frenzy 2, the sleeper is a whale of a catch — this 2D eat-’em-up looks loads better than its predecessor and adds co-op and party modes (which, sadly, aren’t playable over Live). More importantly, it sports the same addictive, fluid, fish-chomping fun.

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