Welcome to the next generation of gaming. No, I'm not referring to Project Gotham Racing 3 or Gears of War, I'm referring to Xbox Live Arcade for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360 console. This past weekend I headed up to Eugene, Oregon for the Independent Games Conference sponsored by Garage Games and Microsoft, and I came away very impressed with Garage Games Marble Blast Ultra and the rest of the Xbox Live Arcade experience.

Before I get into the blast from the past that is Marble Blast Ultra (no pun intended), let's take a quick look at the Xbox 360 dashboard and Xbox Live Arcade so you can understand just how accessible Marble Blast and the rest of the XBL Arcade games will be.

When you start up your console without a disc in the tray, you'll start off at the Xbox Live tab. Press to the right once and the games tab of the dashboard will come up. From here you can either scroll down for one click access to the last XBL Arcade game you played, or you can move down to the My Games or Download Games tab to play a game saved to your hard drive or memory unit, or download a new trial or full game. If you're in the middle of a game, a quick tap on the Xbox Live button in the center of the 360 controller will give you fast access to the dashboard.

In my case, Marble Blast Ultra was the most recently played game, so with a quick tap down we were ready to play. As you can see, even if you didn't have Marble Blast downloaded, it would be two quick clicks to get the trial, or pay a small fee for the full version.

The basic premise of the game may remind you of Marble Madness for the original NES and arcades. Players will need to navigate a marble through 60 single player maps with a plethora of power ups, the ability to jump, and flip the stage to gain access to gems and other items. Fans of Super Monkey Ball should feel right at home in the single player mode of Marble Blast Ultra.

Once I had Marble Blast Ultra loaded up, it was time to hit up some intense multiplayer action. At the Indy Games Con they had several Xbox 360 units linked via Xbox Live. Up to eight players will be able to go head to head in ten different multiplayer maps. In the Xbox Live multiplayer, it was my job to roll around a large 3D environment in search of gems and power ups, while occasionally taking out my competitors. Red gems awarded me with one point, while yellow gems gave me two points and blue gems gave me the mother load of five points.

When I first began playing, I was smoked because I was focusing on collecting gems in general instead of the lucrative blue and yellow gems. Each multiplayer game had a time limit, where the player with the most points at the end was crowned the winner. In the final build that will be available for download around the time when the Xbox 360 launches, in-depth stats will be available just like you'd find at the end of a round in a first-person shooter.

Multiplayer also features power-ups that will assist in collecting gems and battling against the other players. A rocket power-up will launch your marble across the stage. Since you have a radar that shows you where the next set of gems are located, this power-up certainly comes in handy as the gems can be clear across the stage. You've also got a power-up that super sizes your marble and allows you to easily knock other players off the board. A gyrocopter power-up gave my marble the ability to fly for a limited amount of time, which was great for collecting those hard to reach blue gems. The game also features a spring power up that gave my marbles jumping ability a huge lift, and helped me get to hard to reach places. When this item was used in conjunction with my forward movement, I could fly across the stage with ease.

One thing that's very important to note about Marble Blast and all of the Xbox Live Arcade games is that these are 100% Xbox 360 titles. That means they support voice chat over Xbox Live, leader boards, HD 720p resolutions, 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, and everything else you'd find standard on high budget Xbox 360 games. Of special note, all Xbox Live Arcade games will feature an achievements system (a standard feature in all X360 games). These achievements will boost your gamer score and can be viewed by your friends. The further you progress in a game, and as you meet specific goals, you'll earn achievement badges, and your gamer score will go up.

Marble Blast Ultra is one of many games that will be available within the launch window of the Xbox 360 release. With eight player Xbox Live multiplayer, leader boards, a slew of achievements, and sixty single player levels, Marble Blast Ultra should be a given for a low-priced download on launch day. Microsoft is looking to have around 15 Xbox Live Arcade titles available for download on launch day, along with Hexic 3D, which will come free on every Xbox 360 hard drive. Xbox Live Arcade and Marble Blast Ultra are the perfect additions to an already solid Xbox 360 launch. We'll have more on the Xbox 360 dashboard, Xbox Live Arcade, and everything Xbox 360 in the coming weeks.