The Xbox Live Arcade was one of those things on the original Xbox that was nice to have, but let’s face it: you never really played it because 1) you needed the "live arcade" disc in order to play and 2)most of the games were pretty boring or you could get them with your PC.

The Live Arcade experience on the 360 however is a different story. At the time of this writing there are fourteen (14) games available for purchase in the Xbox Marketplace and they run the gamut from Action to Strategy and can require anywhere from 400 to 1200 “Microsoft Points.” In this bizarro world, each "point" is the equivalent of 1 ¼ cents (.0125). Wik: Fable of Souls asking price is right in the middle – 800 points or $10 (US).

Wik originally debuted on the PC in September of 2004 as a download only game which you unlock for $19.95. The game on the Xbox 360 is to the best I can tell, the same game as the PC version.

The premise of the game is that you control Wik, who has quite the tongue. He uses this tongue to collect grubs to feed to another character, named Slotham. The grubs are scattered all over the field. Sometimes, Wik can’t reach the grubs easily with his tongue so instead, he uses his tongue as a swinging vine to climb to those perches to collect the grubs.

Wik and Slotham aren’t the only ones who enjoy the grubs. There are other bugs flying around that also enjoy the grubs. They will fly down, collect the grubs and try to take them away in the same way that those evil ships in Defender take humans away before turning them into mutants. In order to stop this, you’ll need to shoot acorns at the bugs. When you hit the bugs, they drop the grubs and the grubs land wherever they were dropped. You can actually strategize this to your advantage so you don’t have to climb up to those very tall ledges.

During all this time, our pal Slotham is moving across the bottom of the screen from left to right. You have to feed him a certain number of grubs to finish the level and there’s an on screen meter to keep you posted of your progress. If he makes it to the right hand side of the screen, you will lose a life. In some levels, you can impede Slotham’s progress by feeding him honey.

With over 120 levels and quite a number of Xbox 360 Achievements to accomplish (although they aren’t worth many points), the replay value on the game is endless. As you delve deeper into those levels, the game can get very difficult with poisonous bugs and plants which you need to avoid when collecting grubs.

Graphics are very good, and sounds are even better. Control is very easy once you get the hang of it, and the game gives you a great tutorial to start things off. Single console multiplayer is available, but it’s too bad you can’t do anything else over Xbox Live besides leaderboards.

If you’ve played out your collection of bundled launch titles and have an extra 800 in Microsoft points lying around, this game is well worth your time.