The Xbox Live Indie Arcade is definitely a hit-or-miss shop for gamers.

Once in a while a little gem shows up, but might be completely overlooked because of its low asking price.

“Platformance: Castle Pain” is one of these games. Costing only one dollar, players will get more than their money’s worth with this challenging platformer.

“Platformance” has a simple, old-school premise to go along with its 8-bit inspired graphics: You, an armored knight, must save the princess. However, instead of giving players multiple levels, the game puts all the levels within one giant map similar to “Castlevania” or “Metroid.” Within this map are tons of traps and enemies that must be avoided, not fought. If the player dies (which they will plenty of times) they will be revived at the nearest checkpoint (of which there are many).

Fortunately, because of the game’s many difficult obstacles, the player is given infinite lives. However, this doesn’t mean players can’t reach a “Game Over.” Near the beginning of the map, a slow-moving ghost will awaken that can end the game if it touches the player. While at first the ghost seems like nothing, with its incredibly slow movements, it can get rather nerve-wracking when the player gets stuck trying to bypass certain traps.

While this may get frustrating for some, it doesn’t give off the same kind of frustration a game like “Contra” might give. The game doesn’t feel impossible; it just requires more concentration and caution from the player in order to move forward.

Even after players finish “Platformance,” they don’t have to put the game down. The game adds replay value through various difficulty modes that add obstacles to the map, as well as a counter that records the player’s completion time and number of deaths during that game, which may push players to try and beat their records.

For $1, “Platformance: Castle Pain” is the definition of a good deal.