There is a reason why I haven’t taken the time to review many Xbox Live Arcade games since ringing in the New Year. Truth is -- they’ve sucked serious ass. We hit the pinnacle of what Live Arcade can offer during last year’s summer/fall period with such titles as Braid, Castle Crashers, and Bionic Commando Rearmed. Since then we’ve been offered up such classics as Merv Griffin’s Crosswords and Doritos Dash of Destruction to trick us out of our hard earned Microsoft Points. Well I said no!

But this past week there was a glimmer of hope; a game that reminds us of days when you can get a quality gaming experience without having to spend $60. That game is The Maw, and it’s the first good game of the year.

The game uses a very simple mechanism to allow gamers the opportunity to progress through the eight different levels. You control a little alien named Frank who has been grabbed and held captive on a ship along with a bunch of other creatures throughout the galaxy, including The Maw: a little purple blob with ferocious teeth that seems to be inspired by the aliens of Simpsons and Futurama fame. Well these creatures catch a lucky break and the ship they are being transported in crashes; setting them all free. It then becomes Frank’s job to traverse the landscape and find a way to freedom. The catch is that Frank learns the Maw grows in size the more he eats, letting him eat bigger and bigger creatures and thusly, lets Frank cover more ground. It’s almost like Katamari Damacy with eating instead of rolling. The Maw can also gain special abilities when he eats certain objects like the ability to breathe fire. It’s these inclusions that make the game-play dynamic a bit more interesting and give variety to the platforming puzzles-- which is this game’s core. And the platforming doesn’t get stale because The Maw isn’t a particularly long adventure.

The production value on The Maw is also fantastic. The visuals pop off the screen with dynamic colors and lighting, while the controls are extremely easy and intuitive giving gamers of all ages something to enjoy. Everything about this finished product shows how much love the developers put into its creation. It might be an Xbox Live Arcade game, but it obviously got more attention than a lot of full $60 releases get which is a testament to the overall quality of The Maw. The sound effects are also fitting for this game with no real language used, but instead cute noises coming out of Frank and the Maw’s mouth to showcase their emotional state at any given time. The music is also catchy without being obnoxious and droning with tunes that seem to blend the best of Toe Jam & Earl with the Gorgon levels from The Legend of Zelda titles.

The Maw is the first Live Arcade game of 2009 worth any sort of Microsoft Points. And 800 is a fair asking price for a good few hours of entertainment with some of the best production values for the price of admission you’re likely to find. Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed…..that is unless you hate fun things.