I haven’t done much with the 360 lately, but today I took a bit of time to catch up with some of the newer XBLA games, at least.

Splosion Man: You play a character who, well, explodes. That’s all he does, run around and explode. But the explosions propel you around, let you trigger various things, etc., and you use that to make your way to the exit. There are of course various obstacles, timed puzzles, enemies, tricky jumps and triggered sequences, etc., along the way. For example, you might have to wall-jump, er, wall-explode up a shaft into an area where spiked walls move inwards and you have to explode up to trigger a barrel drop that you blow up to lift you up enough to trigger a door switch and…etc. I’ve done the first 11 levels so far, and things are getting pretty tricky.

Trials HD: I have the PC version of Trials 2, but word-of-mouth was that the 360 version was an improvement, so I picked it up as well. One of the biggest improvements is that you can see how well you’re doing relative to your friends, which can be motivating or depressing… I’ve done the Beginner and Easy levels so far, usually placing near the bottom but there are a couple of levels where I managed to get to the top of my list of friends.

Shadow Complex: It’s a semi-modern-day version of Metroid, basically, with the same kind of side-scrolling exploration and upgrade-finding, but with an analog aiming stick. I’ve barely started this one, though.