Post by Farulosonoth on Oct 8, 2010 12:11:17 GMT -5
XBox's Game Room is an attempt to recreate the feel of the old Arcade's inside your XBox. It is a combination of many games and I won't be reviewing each one individually, I will be reviewing the experience as a whole.
Story
There is no story to speak of. Basically this is an experience about bringing back the feel of the old Arcades. It does this quite well actually. One of the coolest aspects could be the interaction between people with challenges, comparing stats, levels, etc.. The only problem with it is the games that were chosen and the fact that not only are they mostly crappy games, but they are 240 points… and to add insult to injury, there are games you can buy for the game room that you may have already purchased for Xbox Live Arcade but in order for it to count in the “Game Room” you have to buy it again. It is a great idea folks, just failed a bit on the implementation. For those of you who for money is not an object, the last one isn’t really an issue.
Gameplay and Controls
All games are played with the standard controller. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. I’d say, Arcade game controls are for the most part worse (from just a little to a lot) and Console games (Atari 2600 and Intellivision are the only ones available at the moment), are about equal or better. The exceptions to this rule are any games on a console or arcade that should be played with a spinner or paddle. These particular games are nigh impossible to play for the average person and should have never made it into the game room at least not unless they were going to release special controllers for it. Every once in a while a “Game Pack” is release that adds games to the store for you to purchase.
Graphics and Sound
I won’t go into pick apart each individual games graphics, that would be absurd. What I will note is that A. Graphics and Sound alone do not a good game make. And B. You also don’t need them for a good game. That being said, all the graphics for the individual games are… let’s just say a bit pixilated… The real review here will be on the Game Rooms interface graphics since that’s what is new. I like it quite a bit. Your arcade is like something from a teenage nerd dream (from the 80’s). If a real arcade like this existed back then, I would have never left. There are 3 levels with 3 or 4 rooms on each level. Each one can have its own theme and the representations of the arcade games are very nice. Of course you have to deal with the cheesy looking player avatars of yourself and all your friends roaming around (which I like, just not the cheesy big head cartoon graphics) but those “Big Head” graphics are not the fault of the Game Room. Its actually cool to see your buddies walking around playing in your arcade and watching you play (even if they really aren’t). Oh and the sound is very nice, it gives a very good arcade ambience with all the other arcade game sounds going in the background while you roam your arcade.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Game Room for the Xbox, while not a game in itself, is a pretty cool idea, but needs a much larger and better selection of games and platforms. I had a decent amount of fun with it, but it could have been multiplied ten fold with some good games. If it had good games it might even take off and make it more interesting as more people might plunk some cash down. As it is, not many people are going to dish out for the mostly crappy games they have available, and on top of that some of the games they may have already bought on Xbox Live Arcade and would have to buy again. What they have to do (but wont) is take a hit and release a pack that just has all the games that were already released for Xbox Live. Then if you bought them already, you get them for free in the Game Room. All in all, it was still a fun experience that I would recommend at least trying and maybe looking for some decent games. There are a few. Some achievements will take some commitment though i.e. one is 36 hours of playing games in your game room(ouch).
I give it [glow=blue,4,500]3 1/2 out of 7 [/glow]pieces of the rod of seven parts.
Story
There is no story to speak of. Basically this is an experience about bringing back the feel of the old Arcades. It does this quite well actually. One of the coolest aspects could be the interaction between people with challenges, comparing stats, levels, etc.. The only problem with it is the games that were chosen and the fact that not only are they mostly crappy games, but they are 240 points… and to add insult to injury, there are games you can buy for the game room that you may have already purchased for Xbox Live Arcade but in order for it to count in the “Game Room” you have to buy it again. It is a great idea folks, just failed a bit on the implementation. For those of you who for money is not an object, the last one isn’t really an issue.
Gameplay and Controls
All games are played with the standard controller. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. I’d say, Arcade game controls are for the most part worse (from just a little to a lot) and Console games (Atari 2600 and Intellivision are the only ones available at the moment), are about equal or better. The exceptions to this rule are any games on a console or arcade that should be played with a spinner or paddle. These particular games are nigh impossible to play for the average person and should have never made it into the game room at least not unless they were going to release special controllers for it. Every once in a while a “Game Pack” is release that adds games to the store for you to purchase.
Graphics and Sound
I won’t go into pick apart each individual games graphics, that would be absurd. What I will note is that A. Graphics and Sound alone do not a good game make. And B. You also don’t need them for a good game. That being said, all the graphics for the individual games are… let’s just say a bit pixilated… The real review here will be on the Game Rooms interface graphics since that’s what is new. I like it quite a bit. Your arcade is like something from a teenage nerd dream (from the 80’s). If a real arcade like this existed back then, I would have never left. There are 3 levels with 3 or 4 rooms on each level. Each one can have its own theme and the representations of the arcade games are very nice. Of course you have to deal with the cheesy looking player avatars of yourself and all your friends roaming around (which I like, just not the cheesy big head cartoon graphics) but those “Big Head” graphics are not the fault of the Game Room. Its actually cool to see your buddies walking around playing in your arcade and watching you play (even if they really aren’t). Oh and the sound is very nice, it gives a very good arcade ambience with all the other arcade game sounds going in the background while you roam your arcade.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Game Room for the Xbox, while not a game in itself, is a pretty cool idea, but needs a much larger and better selection of games and platforms. I had a decent amount of fun with it, but it could have been multiplied ten fold with some good games. If it had good games it might even take off and make it more interesting as more people might plunk some cash down. As it is, not many people are going to dish out for the mostly crappy games they have available, and on top of that some of the games they may have already bought on Xbox Live Arcade and would have to buy again. What they have to do (but wont) is take a hit and release a pack that just has all the games that were already released for Xbox Live. Then if you bought them already, you get them for free in the Game Room. All in all, it was still a fun experience that I would recommend at least trying and maybe looking for some decent games. There are a few. Some achievements will take some commitment though i.e. one is 36 hours of playing games in your game room(ouch).
I give it [glow=blue,4,500]3 1/2 out of 7 [/glow]pieces of the rod of seven parts.