While I'm still wasting my time on some games that have been out for a while now (like Halo 3, Rock Band - just completed the drums on expert, baby! - and Guitar Hero 3) I decided to take the time to search Xbox Live and the Virtual Console on the Wii to play some downloadable content. Here's a little taste of what I've been up to:

N+
For the Xbox 360

This game (although I've just played around with the demo) is fantastic. It is simplistic, but hard. Although graphically inferior to most games, this game still has a charm of its own. It's also highly addictive. When I pick up some Xbox points this week (to grab the NIN song pack for Rock Band), I'll be picking this one up. The premise of the game is simple: make it to the end of the obstacle course without running out of time or being blown up by the little “bombs.” To can wall bounce and take huge jumps like in the recent Mario games in order to find the quickest route. This 2-D side-scroller shows how Xbox Live is the place to get original and cool titles.

Ninja Gaiden 3
Wii Virtual Console (originally for the NES)

What can I say? I LOVES me some Ninja Gaiden and this incredible hard series that started on the NES wrapped up with this installment which, I can say ashamed, I never got to play. I think by the time this one came out, I had sold my NES for a Super NES and never looked back. This installment brings new magic powers for Ryu to use as well as a limit on the number of continue you can use. I find most of the new powers not as useful as the ones in previous installments and the limit on continuing is going to put off casual gamers. While this one is not the best in the series (I still find the first one to be the best), I encourage people to get all three to see what a CLASSIC series really is.

The Adventures of Lolo
Wii Virtual Console (originally for the NES)

I tinkered around with the second installment of this game back in the day, but I never really committed to this one. I felt like a challenge in the form of a puzzle game so I decided that the first Lolo would be the thing to hit the spot. If you like challenges and puzzles, this game is $5 well spent. You have about 40 or so levels where you have to figure out the patterns of the characters and the proper order to push blocks in order to continue. Frustration will overcome you, but you will be able to eventually make your way through most of the levels (and for those who just can't figure out levels, there's always heading over to www.gamefaqs.com, right?)