The 5 Best "Summer of Arcade" Games Of All Time

Summer is here, and you know what that means... Sun, fun, and Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade! Yes, smack dab in the middle of the games industry's traditional dry season, Xbox gamers are getting a five-week excuse to stay inside.

Since it began in 2008, Summer of Arcade has risen to become the biggest event in console gaming's downloadable games space, and not just because of the sales: More than a few fantastic downloadable games that have come out of the series, giving us good reason to get excited for it to come back year after year.

Summer of Arcade is going into its fifth year in 2012. It's been awhile; long enough that maybe you've forgotten some of truly amazing games that were released in past years. We've put together an Summer of Arcade all-star lineup: They're the créme de la créme - the five best games from the entire Summer of Arcade back-catalog.

If you haven't picked these games up, then I seriously recommend picking them up and starting the downloadable game-fest early...

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Braid is the perfect example of the type of game that couldn't exist without XBLA and Summer of Arcade. It's a smart, bold game with interesting storytelling, mechanics, art, build around one of gaming's quintessential genres, the 2D platformer.

You'll probably notice parallels to a particular classic franchise: The goal of Braid is to... well, it's to save the princess. Hero Tim is looking for his princess, a woman who we lost a long time ago. At the of beginning the game, the story is told in broad strokes, but as players solve puzzles to collect puzzle pieces, Tim's memory becomes more detailed, revealing that the situation is more complex than a simple rescue mission.

Braid's use of recognizable tropes that gamers will recognize, both mechanical and aesthetic, is no accident. Aside from platforming, hero Tim has the ability to go back and forward in time. The mechanic, which literally allows you to undo most movements going all the way back to when you first began a given puzzle, allows players to adjust the position of elements aligning things perfectly for Tim to reach puzzle pieces.

The deep connection of the game's design and story make it a unique experience not to be missed.

Castle Crashers is at the top of the heap. It came out as part of the first Summer of Arcade, and it's been the best-selling XBLA game ever since. Remember how we said SoA was console gaming's biggest downloadable game promotion? Even if every other game it pushed was terrible, it would still be true because of this one game.

On paper, Castle Crashers doesn't seem all that special, especially in 2012. It's a beat-em-up with four-player online or couch co-op, featuring an RPG-style leveling system. That leveling system, persistent through multiple playthroughs, encourages you to play over and over by adding new characters with unique abilities.

Like every game on this list, personality is what sets Castle Crashers apart. In addition to coming up with a number of variations on the game's basic gameplay, CC is chock-full of large, crazy-looking enemies that you might almost feel bad about whacking them into oblivion.

Shadow Complex is a 3D side-scrolling shooter. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but it'll make more sense once you see it.

Technically defined as "2.5D", the player moves on a 2D plane, but enemies can appear in the foreground and background, so the shooting component is in three dimensions. The gameplay, a "MetroidVania"-style a mix of shooting and exploration, is reminiscent of classic shooters, but avoids feeling "retro" by adding RPG elements and requiring tactics that neither Contra or Metroid fans have needed to master.

Together with Braid, Limbo's original art style and tense, nuanced gameplay experience helped solidify the idea that high-concept games with an artistic streak can be popular on XBLA.

Players step into the shadowy shoes of a boy looking his little sister in a mysterious forest. As he makes his way, he has to solve puzzles and avoid being killed by monsters, including the game's iconic giant spider.

Limbo's distinctive art style is its defining characteristic. Everything in the world - every enemy, every trap, every tree -is a silhouette. The game is defined by varying shades of black and grey immediately eliciting a disturbing sensation from players whose caution is often rewarded with a sudden, startling death.

You will die in Limbo. You will die a lot. Many of the game's pitfall are hidden by the darkened environment, so you'll only know to dodge them once you've been caught. Dying in Limbo is half the fun, though. Every type of trap or creature kills you in a different way. If you have to a die a lot, there be something keeping the experience fresh.

That giant spider still creeps me out, though.

Dungeon crawlers and storytelling rarely mix, but Bastion creates a mysterious and captivating world by putting the events of the game in context through by a narrator describing your action.

Being a story-intensive action game, Bastion tweaks and trims some of the standard dungeon-crawler elements to let the story and the combat take center stage. You get new weapons over the course of the game, but there is no loot. Your character levels up, but your stats are hidden. The game isn't going to give you a reason to break up its flow.

For example, as you progress through from area to area in a given level, the game world - the ground, the enemies, the items - all rises up out of nothing. Watching the world build in front of you looks amazing, but it also serves a functional purpose: You'll never need a mini-map because the game lets you know when you're moving forward.

All that aside, no amount of description can really encapsulate the experience Bastion provides. The game is truly more than the sum of its parts.