Alien Hominid HD has always been my favorite side-scroller on the XBL market. I feel this'll all be one-sided again, anyways.

Hominid. No contest.

No SoR2? Perfect addition to the XBLA library. :(

Undertow. Game over.

oooh come .. on ...kotaku , it's like you're trying to verify what you chose as GOTY with these lame selections in each category LOL

Puzzle Quest!

Space Giraffe, fuckally'all.

I guess Hominid...

I didn't care for E4, and Undertow didn't do it for me either.

Ironic how there is no Puzzle Quest there, but ended up on both hand-helds ... personally think it is better on the 360 than E4 or Undertow.

Also thought Worms or Pac Man CE should have been there! Even Boom Boom Rocket was more fun to me than E4. Carcassonne is also held in high regard as well.

But that is the beauty of Opinions!

Man the 360 even has a load on the Live games as well ... and that isnt counting remakes. No-one can argue the awesome year, when it is really put into perspective, wow!

Played all three demos, only one I did not delete immediately was E4. No plans to buy it, but might replay the demo someday.

What the hell is this? There were a lot better XBLA games that came out this year......

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords? Bomberman Live? Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix? Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?!

Pinball FX.

sigh, if only castle crashers had come out this year...

Castlevania.

O wait...

Puzzle Quest or Pinball FX or 3D Minigolf Adventures

PAC-MAN CE

Not even voting... Kitsune said it best

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords? Bomberman Live? Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix? Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?!

missing:
Puzzle Quest
Pac Man CE
SPFT HD II

I like E4 better back when it was called Jacks.

bomberman>the list

Definately Bomberman Live. Such a simple game to make, yet it's only been done justice on XBLA.

Only one of those that didn't suck was Hominid, and Puzzle Fighter and Puzzle Quest, and Space Giraffe are easily some other options you could've come up with. Uber lametits choices IMO.

Alien Hominid was the only demo I didn't immediately delete after trying it. I waited a few weeks, and played it at least 3 times before deleting. Does that mean I should vote for it?

sorry for double post but damn enter button ><

pacman ce should be on the list too

WHAT!!?!?!?

This is a travesty! I don't rate any of those three games! EEE may be good but it did nothing for me!

Where the hell is Sensible World of Soccer! It's only one of the most influential games of all time and the best soccer game ever made!

And the legitimate competition to SWOS was Castlevania, Super Puzzle Fighter, Bomberman, Worms and Puzzle Quest! Not one of them on the list?

Kotaku FAILS!

Where's TMNT arcade?

Ah well E4 was a close second for me so it gets my vote.

Where is Pacman c.e.

thats my vote so i just wont wote out of the three listed

Presuming the purpose of this poll is to determine the best game to get if you have access to XBLA:

Puzzle Quest. Easily.

Runners Up:

Settlers of Catan
Castlevania: SOTN
Switchball
Bomberman

These "options" are awful. No Catan? No Pacman: CE? No Bomberman?

No Puzzle Quest?

Boo, Kotaku. Boo.

3 lame picks for XBLA that has over 100 games to choose from. Once again, this is not PSN that we're voting on...

Yeah, like others have said, this list is very incomplete.

Pac Man: CE
Bomberman Live
Catan
Puzzle Quest
Eets
Mutant Storm Empire

All of those games were arguably at least on par with Alien Hominid, E4, and Undertow.

This hasn't been a stellar week for Kotaku's awards, to say the least.

Wtf, where's Bomberman? Your GOTY selections for most systems have been pretty bad. Should have at least 5 games to choose from.

I haven't played one of those games, so I don't feel right to vote.

That said, I voted for Alien Hominid HD. I loved the flash version.

Catan.

Undertow did not impress me. Perhaps I should have given it more time? I have it on the Cube, but I'm sure it's better in HD - Alien Hominid gets my vote.

Again, who is choosing the nominated games here and why are ther only 3 bad choices ?

I can't be arsed to vote.

MASSIVE FAIL!

PUZZLE QUEST !

can we get a ron paul write in here?

ooops wrong pole.

Yeah, seriously, not an impressive list. Bomberman, Worms, puzzle quest.

E4 imho, was horrible. and i can't stress that enough.

I refuse to vote if Pac-Man CE is not there! It's a masterpiece.

Carcassonne
Catan
Puzzle Fighter HD
Boom Boom Rocket

All better than the 3 selected for the poll.

And SWoS? please, that game is trash.

I still haven't beat the game yet. I figured out how to beat the buzzards and forgot. >.<

Well sucks that Live is having issues right now!

Where is Worms?

@EnigmaNemesis:

Since I am itchin' to play some of the awesome ones not listed!

And now feel urged to purchase Puzzle Quest (havnt yet, have the DS version).

Sorry, but it's Pac-Man CE. Why is that not one of the choices?

Hmm I had to give it to undertow. Since AH is like Metal Slug to me.

Marathon. Hello???

Awe shit ... may not be Live, think my 360 went again CRAP!!!

How is this really "Reader's Choice" when we can't choose the game that we think is worthy (besides the three arbitrary options in the poll)? If anything, you should let us respond with our nominations and then take the three that got the most nominations for us to vote on.

These are the options? No Pac Man CE? No Carcassone? No Puzzle Quest or Castlevania SOTN? Can't vote for any of the 3 choices, sorry. Maybe I was the only person on earth underwhelmed by Undertow (ha ha)

I vote for Pac-Man CE with Castlevania: SotN in a very close second. None of the games in the poll are even worth owning IMHO so I didn't bother voting.

Pac-Man CE would be my choice. It was the only XBLA game that I was semi-addicted to. The rest of my XBLA purchases, I played through to try to max out the achievements but then never went back to (such as SOTN). I also was over PQ after the many hours spent on the DS version, didn't feel like picking it up on XBLA.

None of the games on the poll are any good.

Pac-Man CE was the best thing on XBLA this year.

No errors codes, working fine, can anyone else confirm it working (Live)? Try and view a purchase of something?

:-/

*crosses fingers it is Live shittin'*

@kiigan: Agreed 100%.

But hey, on Kotaku, "Reader's Choice" means "which one of the 3 games WE say are the best this year do you think is the best?"

Natually, in a few days, they'll claim that "the readers have spoken." Thankfully this site carries so little clout that it simply doesn't matter.

1. pacman CE
2. puzzle quest
3. carcassonne

i refuse to vote for any of the games in the poll. alien hominid's controls never really felt right, E4 was hardly a game, and undertow was way overhyped.

@EnigmaNemesis: I got PuzzQuest on XBLA a month ago, having beating the game with a wizard on my DS last spring. I started a new game with a Knight, and got her to lvl 50 just yesterday, and I haven't even beaten the game yet. Ever since I got Death Gaze, I haven't lost an online match yet.

Is the game worth playing a second time? Meh. Depends on how much free time you have. When you start skipping through the story dialogue because you've read it all before, the game starts feeling a lot more like a huge grind / time-sink. It's still a quality game though, and it was nice to play with a different character class and play a few online matches.

The creator said in an interview that he "always wanted to play a rogue," insinuating that DLC was a possibility, but at this point, I don't think I could stomach a third play-through. I look forward to new puzzle/RPG hybrids in the future.

Not voting. Poor choices to choose among, I played the demos for all three and they had a half-life of about five minutes.

I've bought 20+ XBLA games this year that are better than any of this three.

As for addictiveness I'd go with PuzzleQuest. For pure fun, probably Pac-Man CE (and who'd a thunk that, when the initial reaction was "Another Pac-Man?!"). For filling a much needed niche, and doing it fairly nicely, I'd vote for Arkadian Warriors. Not to mention the VERY welcome arrival of two board games in Catan and Carcasonne.