The Xbox 360 was slightly light on big budget Xbox 360 exclusive titles this year. But this year was about the strong summer XBLA line-up which was easily the one of the main highlights for the platform. Through its exclusives Microsoft sold many of us in the future of excellent small sized games.

10. Splosion Man: 

One of the successful XBLA titles was ‘Splosion Man. This game is easily one of the best platformers I have played in a long time. Based on the simple premise of simply exploding, through clever design, the game offered smart and highly challenging set pieces towards the end.

This was well complemented by a humorous setting where exploding on scientists would turn them into pieces of steak and fat scientists were literally used as meat shields against lasers. The game even has a challenging co-op mode where players must use each other explosions to get around. Best of all, the game comes at a great price of only 800 MS points (or $10)

Full review here.

9. Dragon Age: Origins: 

If you have a lot of free time and not a lot of cash to spend, then Dragon Age: Origins might be the game for you. A single play through alone can easily take from 50 to 70 hours. Dragon Age is a return to classical RPGs and proof that BioWare is the king of the genre.

In addition to an expectedly great and thorough story line and characters, the game evolves the good and bad deeds system from black and white to a whole lot of grey. Getting the best results sometime require using intimidation or even double crossing. Regardless of your choices, there would be some members in your party that would voice their discomfort with the decisions you make. These at times can even lead to them turning against you.

8. DJ Hero:

Before I had played DJ Hero, I saw the rhythm genre nothing more than a gimmick with expensive plastic controllers. However DJ Hero with its mixture of button pressing, scratching and fading just feels perfect for a DJ game. Activision has done an extraordinary job of bringing a DJ game to life. The great gameplay mechanics are backed up by some truly outstanding tracks. Mixing two songs together with the right gameplay mechanics make for a truly rewarding and satisfying experience.

Full review here. 

7. Prototype:

Contrary to other super heroes, Alex Mercer does not bother himself about being self righteous. His objectives are his only concern and he will reach them even if it means leaving waves of chaos. And boy, chaos is fun. Heck, he’ll even consume an innocent bystander simply to recover his health.

From elbow dropping tanks to performing flying kicks on helicopters, the game oozes of ‘cool’. Even traversing through the streets of New York by means of running really fast, taking humongous jumps and gliding around is a thrill in itself. This is one of the rare action games where it feels the game slows down when you take control of a tank.

Full review here. 

6. Street Fighter 4:

2009 was easily one of the best years for fighting games. The year saw the release of quality new IPs and sequels from some of the most established series. However Street Fighter 4 easily takes the crown for being the best fighting game this year.

Keeping with the tradition of the franchise, through its limited special moves the game is easy to play but offers many combos and tricks that make it hard to master. The new characters offer refreshing new fighting styles. The game also introduces additional fighting mechanics that offer a great amount of depth and evolve the series to new heights.

Full review here.