A Look Back not focused on the Genesis? Shock and awe, people! Intrigued? More after the jump.

Despite the multitude of complaints of Microsoft’s handling of quality control (Spring Update errors, the ring of death’s frequency, etc.), they’ve come a long way when it comes to updating the roster of the Xbox Live Arcade games. Last February-ish, a lot of people were complaining about the lack of updates and downloadable classics coming, with Peter Moore and “Major Nelson” quipping about the XBLA’s delay more about a “quality than quantity” issue.

Thank god for that. I love having Virtual Console games popping up like gophers in a cabbage plantation and made available for purchase on my Nintendo Wii, but the majority of them range between stinkers and “been-there-done-that” games middling on average. Legend of Kage and Ikki, anyone? As much as Blazing Lazers and Gradius 3 was the “shiz-nit” as you youngsters like to say it, there are too many “me-too” schmups popping up. This post, dear readers, is just a checklist of what’s worth the points on the XBLA side of things. I’ll just spare Geometry Wars and Uno from the list, since they’re already in everyone’s system since the dawn of the 360 and Allard’s bald head.

Assault Heroes

This 5-minutes-or-more diversion is basically Ikari Warriors on a buggy with Geometry Wars controls. Spending said 5 minutes will reveal to players a diverse amount of explosions, hollering kamikaze warriors, and big bosses that screams “Contra rip-off”. Two players online & offline also seals the deal, since co-op is a big thing nowadays. Good stuff, although the flamethrower could look so much better.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

For 400 points, you get to experience yet another co-op game, only with Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Don. Choose from four of New York’s finest and put the beatdown on the numerous hordes of Footmen and classic enemies fresh from the 90s cartoon, and bicker among yourselves over who gets to take the pizza lying in the middle of the alleyway. This experience is further enhanced with four controllers, a big couch, and a really large wide-screen TV. Now all that’s left to complete this joyous rapture is the Simpsons arcade game. Since the movie is coming out next month, that could be a foreseeable possibility.

Pac-Man: Championship Edition

It’s friggin’ Pac-Man. Anyone who has touched a game controller would know who the yellow gluttonous ghost-eating dot is. It is essentially the same game everyone loves, only nicer looking and with a spin on gameplay. Instead of pre-laid out dots, the dots appear in a certain section of the stage. Once you eat up the dots, more dots appear on different parts of the stage. Fruits and Power Pellets now have multiplier effects built to it, so you can chain up whatever’s in your path for way more points than ever. Niceness ensues. Something to bring gamers, old and new, together in harmony.

Castlevania: Symphony of The Night

I’ll just be frank (as in the verb, not Mr. Black). If you have an Xbox 360 and if you do not have this game on your hard-drive, either you still keep your PS1 copy somewhere in your shelf or you are an idiot who should not deserve to play/design video games, plain and simple. With a magnificent art-style (re-used sprites from Rondo of Blood non-withstanding), a soundtrack soothing to even the most savage of beasts, and gameplay so good it reinvented a franchise, it would be a sin most cardinal for anyone not to own and play through this masterpiece.

Prince of Persia Classic

Released a few days ago, this download proves men such as I being out of touch with the challenges old games used to dish out. It’s not easy, but it probably shows how bad I really was in the old version. The layout so far is pretty much like the first one, from that small scene with mirror creating your evil duplicate, to the god-forsaken pressure plates and loose platforms. Only this time, the controls and extra 3D animations make things feel a lot smoother to handle, so you only have yourself to blame if you missed that jump over that flimsy pit.

When Jordan Mechner is done hibernating, he would hopefully approve of a Prince of Persia: The Shadow & The Flame remake.

Space Giraffe

Hey, this article isn’t just limited to stuff already out. The name and the video, apparently resembling a Tempest-clone with techno, are worth the Live points alone. Trance-sastic Hippo and Jive-Jump-Wailin’ Odyssey Rhino are expected for release in Q1 2008.

Puzzle Fighter HD/ Super Street Fighter Turbo HD

The latter is sure to turn a lot of heads, since Udon will be re-doing the artwork and one of EVO’s former finest is supervising the project at Backbone, so you can rest assured that hitzones and invincibility frames will not be messed around with too much to break the core game. Either way, expect to see some jewel-breaking and quarter-circle motioning going on online this coming fall. Personally, Akuma seems a bit too beefy, but I wouldn’t say that to his face.

Bomberman Live

Due the end of summer, the fine folks at Backbone Entertainment, who brought PSP owners such “hits” as Sonic Rivals and Brooktown High, have their hands on Hudson’s official bomb-laying mascot. Mass conflagrations and oodles of big round bombs will be expected and ignited, both on offline and online play via Live, and up to 8 people can contribute to the massacre. The fact that it took this long before the higher-ups at Hudson thought “Bomberman + Xbox Live = fun & money!” would be a good idea is beyond my understanding.

Castle Crashers

You know you want it. Real bad.

The game which made yours truly get a 360, this homage to Final Fight and Double Dragon is due next year. Causes of delay was the sudden increase of disk space for Xbox Live Arcade games (C:SOTN was more than 50 megs), which made Behemoth Games want to put in more content for CC. Good for them, more for us old-school beat-em-up fans to tinker around with in the near future.

Raise your glasses, ladies and gentlemen. Here’s to a crop of surprise goodies from Xbox Live Arcade. Any other recommended arcade titles you readers would like to suggest, past, present and future? Me, I’d love to see Twinkle Star Sprites in HD and with online multiplayer support.

C’mon, is it too much for Microsoft to put this on XBLA? Anybody? Hello?

*Bonus: Click here for a teaser of Bandai Namco’s fourth iteration of the popular button masher that’s not called Tekken. O Ivy, where art thou thine clothes?

Next Week:- A tale of adventure and blossoming young love.

Technorati : XBLA, a look back, old games, xbox live arcade