In case you’ve missed it we have, right now, a huge selection of our Xbox Live Arcade titles on sale — 19 in all, as well as all avatar items discounted until April 25th. The full list of discounted titles with old and new prices is below, so let’s get to that:

And, as I said, all of the avatar items are discounted as well. There is what I would call a plethora — a wealth — of titles here; a wide variety. Something for everyone!

Many of these — particularly those involving rapid hedgehogs — you are all quite familiar with. They need no introduction. Some of these I feel compelled to call out: I had almost forgotten some existed on XBLA until now, and others are simply games I love to talk about at every opportunity.

For the record, many Sonic games are on sale. By which I mean, all of them. Sonic and the 2nd one and the one with Knuckles and the other one with Knuckles; Sonic 4 and the one with Knuckles and Big the Cat.

After Burner Climax

There is never a wrong time for After Burner Climax — it represents both SEGA’s arcade lineage and some of the most mind-bending arcade technology ever delivered. For me, it reaches back to one of my favorite 80s games, the 8-bit version of the original arcade title. A challenging game that invites you to blaze through it over and over, in glorious HD.

Phantasy Star II

Honor bound to mention this title, as I continue to represent the series to this day and the originals are some of the finest examples of the genre. A step up from the insidious grinding of the Master System original, Phantasy Star 2 has excellent heroes and villains to spend your time with.

Cyber Troopers Virtual On Oratorio Tangram

One of the first titles I ever wrote about as a Community Manager here, this is one I’d nearly forgotten about. Seeing it on sale a) warms my heart and b) makes me want to turn into a giant robot and blow other robots up. This game boasts one of the most awesome titles on XBLA and is, in fact, one of the coolest games in the genre. That genre is “robots who fight each other”; with multiplayer and a pedigree from the finest in Japanese robot battlin’ entertainment, what are you waiting for?

Streets of Rage 2

Because it’s Streets of Rage 2, for goodness sakes. The best side-scrolling brawler of the 90s, and therefore, of all-time. The music was excellent, and it was incredibly realistic, in that you could heal yourself by turkey legs concealed under breakable objects while fighting off swarms of thugs with co-ordinated names and jean jackets. I’ve heard Tokyo is actually a lot like this.

Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure

The advanced guard of the Dreamcast’s digital return — Sonic and friends adventure across the expanse of the Dreamcast platform in Sonic Adventure, in a unique combination of high speed action, epic story, and puzzle-based adventure. Meanwhile, Crazy Taxi turns you loose on streets that unmistakably pay homage to my own city of San Francisco, featuring an incredibly realistic driving sim of what it is actually like to drive in this city arcade-fueled driving mayhem. For the screenshot here, I picked my favorite one — the one where the car is driving fast and all crazy, and in which you are making crazy money.

Ecco the Dolphin

The most eerie, haunting, difficult, and enchanting game you could possibly have devised of an adorable dolphin searching for his lost pod. Rumors of a next gen sequel are unconfirmed as of press time.

Shinobi

The original, the arcade version, the quarter taking, green ninja wasting, shuriken flinging, advancing wall of spinning-head boss-round having, Joe Musashi-introducing master of side-scrolling 2D old-school excellence. I remember playing this one in the local Safeway back in nineteen eighty-something, thinking I could master it because I had the Master System version at home. I was wrong. This one is hard. Ninjitsu!