Downloadable Titles/ Remakes and Re-releases
Xbox 360
It’s been a good year for Xbox 360 when it comes to downloadable games. There have been plenty of critically successful arcade titles that have hit the system, which are not only innovative but a lot of fun to play as well. This section also contains the remakes, and considering the fact that this is usually where the PS3 had a lot of games, due to Sony’s push, Xbox 360 did get a good share of them this year.
The most notable one was Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which was a full blown remake. The effort put behind the title puts most other games to shame. The system also got third-party games like Resident Evil 4 HD and Code Veronica X. Another feather in its cap was the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, which includes three marvelous games- Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and the awesome PSP version, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It doesn’t release this year in the Europe, but Xbox 360 owners in NA and Japan can enjoy these games right now.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary- Gameplay Video
Xbox Live Arcade’s Summer 2011 was quite meek this year, compared to the previous year, which contained Limbo and some good games. This year it was Bastion that took the lead, along with some other good games like Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Orcs Must Die and The Adventures of Shuggy. There were also other games, such as Trine 2, Outland and From Dust, that were all very enjoyable. All these games are well received and most wanted games of 2011. Overall, it was a good year for the 360, and XBLA redeemed it for the system as usual.
GRADE: B+
Wii
The Wii isn’t renown for downloadable games or HD remakes, and for a good reason. This year has been pretty barren for the Wii; however, it did get some big exclusives like Xenoblade and the like.
The strengths of the Wii lie somewhere else; mainly the Nintendo first-party exclusives- talking about the third-party offerings on the console is pointless.
Grade: C
PlayStation 3
Sony is pushing the HD remakes hard, and this year the PS3 has gotten plenty of exclusives due to that initiative. There have been plenty of them this year, like the ICO and SOTC Collection, which received amazing reviews everywhere. Then we had the Prince of Persia Collection, which was exclusive to the console for some reason. Sony announced its PSP remaster initiative. Then it also got the Silent Hill HD Collection and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, which were available on the Xbox 360 as well. It was a good year for the PS3 when it comes to HD remakes.
Now, it is a known fact that PSN has always played catch up to Live in terms of pure exclusive arcade titles available on the platform. This year was no different, but Sony has tried to rectify that problem with a $20 million pub fund for exclusive PSN games. The result was games like Okabu, and as you can see from our review here, it didn’t quite work out the way Sony would have expected. They had some good exclusives though, like the ever reliable Pixeljunk Games and Rochard. There were awesome multiplats like Outland and Trine 2 as well.
Xbox Live’s 2010 legends like Limbo and Castle Crashers also headed to PSN, which bolstered its lineup quite a bit. Overall there weren’t many critical hits, but there were a lot of games on the PS3, remakes and downloadable games included.
GRADE: B+
CONCLUSION
It was a tough decision to choose the victorious platform in this category, but we have to give it to the 360 just because of the superior Xbox Live Arcade offerings. There were a lot of innovative games for the Xbox 360 due to the Microsoft’s competitive online platform, and while the PSN is catching up to it, it still has a long way to go. When it comes to remakes, the PS3 had a lot of games, but these are ultimately old games which have already been played before by most gamers. Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid HD Collection could be considered as a victory for the Xbox 360, due to being primarily known as PlayStation exclusives.
