Aug 4 , 2007. We look at Xbox Live Arcade and see if it's any better than before.

When Xbox Live Arcade was first announced, we were real excited at the possibility of having access to great arcade games that we could play in our living room instead of at the arcade. Although there's just something about walking into an arcade on a Friday night as a young teen that leaves a smile on our face. Anyway, let's look at the selection of games we like so far.

The first is 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures. You say mini-golf? That's not very hardcore? But this game reminds us of a old game called Zany Golf. And since this is an arcade, it should have games that bring back our early arcade memories, except with updated graphics and gameplay. Minigolf is a perfect example of that.

This is Assault Heroes, a throwback to the 1980 games such as Jackal and Ikari Warriors. It's a pure delight to play and really brings back the memories. But this game is even more fun than the old games we remembered and features great coop.

Another game with new ideas, new levels, new graphics that is based off of a classic. It's Marble Blast Ultra where you have to navigate a maze as a marble. Same concept as its forefather, Marble Madness. And even more fun to play.

We won't lie to you. We don't consider this as a Wing Commander game. It's in 2D! But it's the only one that has the Wing Commander name and ships since the last game a decade ago. But everytime we play this game, we keep asking "why isn't it in 3D?".

Based on the games we liked, it's no wonder that the last game we're going to talk about is Mad Tracks, which is very similar to Micromachines, a game we loved on the old NES. Mad Tracks is a classic and just fun.

Xbox Arcade Live has improved greatly from our first impression. Developers are really stepping up and putting the type of games we would play in a real arcade that still has a connection to the old school gameplay we remembered as a kid. And yes, we know we can just get Gauntlet or Paperboy or some of the real old school games off Xbox Arcade. We'll talk about those games next week.