So all the games for this years Summer Of Arcade are out, but if I’m being honest they are all a bit underwhelming apart from Dust An Elysian Tail.
The Metacritic scores range from 66-83 but what order did they come in and how does it compare to previous years?
What is meant to be a showcase of the best arcade titles available seems to have devolved into mediocrity, back in 2008 only one game scored less than 70, this year only 2 games scored more than 70, I used to look forward to The Summer of Arcade, this year is the first time I haven’t bought a title.
2012
Tony Hawks – Pro Skater HD
66
Deadlight
68
Wreckateer
68
Hybrid
75
Dust An Elysian Tail
83
So what was originally developed as an Xbox Live Indie Game is the critics pick and I have to agree, Deadlight showed great promise but unfortunately was style over substance and didn’t quite deliver, but what about previous years?
2011
Fruit Ninja Kinect
71
Insanely Twisted Shadow
Planet
76
From Dust
80
Toy Soldiers:Cold War
81
Bastion
86
2010
Castlevania Harmony of
Despair
67
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
75
Lara Croft and the
Guardian of light
85
Limbo
90
Monday Night Combat
79
2009
Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles
60
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
82
‘Splosion Man
84
Trials HD
86
Shadow Complex
88
2008
Galaga Legions
74
Castle Crashers
82
Bionic Commando
Rearmed
85
Geometry Wars Retro
Evolved 2
90
Braid
93
Category: 
If you haven’t bought them, are you really in a place to say the have “devolved into mediocrity “?
I didn’t buy any this year either
Or last year
Year before, I got Lara croft later on sale
Before that I did buy Trials HD, and Braid
So for me the standard hasnt slipped as I already thought it pretty low.
This is the first Summer of Arcade that hasn’t tempted me into buying a single game. In previous years I bought Braid, Trials HD, Shadow Complex, Limbo and Bastion and enjoyed them all (although I think Braid is a bit overrated), this year the only demo I even tried was Deadlight and it was a bit meh – a bit of Limbo and a lot of Shadow Complex but not a patch on either.
I wonder if part of the problem is that Summer of Arcade used to be the only real XBLA promotion for the year, whereas it seems like MS always running big XBLA promos now. It doesn’t seem like long ago that we had “Arcade Next” which included both Trials Evolution and Minecraft – I think in previous years they would be part of Summer of Arcade.