Its tough to think back to 2005 when the Xbox 360 arrived on the scene, for a full year after that I didn't even buy one, now I don't know what I'd do without one (or two or three). The Xbox 360 has changed so much since 2005 that its just a fragment of the system it was back then, and we keep saying, what more can they do?
The most recent addition is Microsoft's Game Room, its basically 360's answer to Sony's HOME. You download Game Room for free and it acts as your central hub, there are also two "game packs" to start that you can download, in total about 30 games. The trick is each game costs either 50 cents to play, $3 to own or $5 to own a version you can play on your 360 and your PC (if you have Games for Windows Live on your PC). Its should be said that each game comes with a 10 minute trial version which you can play either for 10 minutes or until you get bored whichever comes first, once you leave a game you forfeit whatever remaining time you had on that game. You also get about 20 tokens to start which you can use to get more play time on games you chose. I'm not exactly sure how the token system works just yet.
I spent some time yesterday getting hooked on Game Room and here's what I found. Its actually alot of fun, the games themselves range from poor to pretty cool, they are all retro games and play much differently than what we play today. All the games are from the original ROMS and include games from the Arcade, Atari and Intellivision game systems. The Atari and Intellivision games really show their age but some of the arcade games are actually still fun! I found myself spending more time than I thought I would in Game Room.
Game Room itself also allows you to decorate your Arcade and if you purchased any games on day one you earned a free Mascot for that game which will walk around your arcade (mascots can also be bought). There is a Medal system for earning new themes etc and you can Challenge friends and visit friends arcades as well.
Your avatar does not walk around Game Room, while I thought that would be cool I realized that not having to walk around makes moving around Game Room alot easier, sure it would be cool but most people would have complained about it. Its really all about the games here.
I don't mind the pricing, it could have been lower but if they keep the pricing at $3 a game max I could see myself buying more (I've bought 3 so far). The other thing is if you have two 360's you can buy on one and then bring your memory card over to your 2nd and essentially have the game twice, once on each 360. My wife will never play any of these games, but I like knowing that she could!
The PC cross platform play is cool, and you get a $1 break if you buy it for "Play Anywhere", I opted not to do this after playing a bit on the PC, I have never been a keyboard gamer and its not going to change now. What I do like is you can still Upgrade later for only $2 if you chose to go to "Play Anywhere", they really could have made you just pay the $3 again.
Achievements are for Game Room itself, not each game. You can earn Medals by playing your games, but its really designed to get you to buy more games. The controls are pretty solid and options in Game Room are plentiful. One of the coolest options is the ability to REWIND while playing a game in non ranked mode, on and role and just got killed, don't worry just rewind a bit and do better next time!
After thinking of the types of games and the fact that these are actual Arcade and game ROMS in Game Room its crazy to think of where this thing can go, there are HUNDREDS of cool games they can add to this thing, and I'd love to see some Colecovision games added VERY SOON! Just thinking of games like Mr. Do, Zaxxon, the Star Wars arcade game, all those Coleco games I had, Q-Bert - the options are endless!
Right now based on my friends list there are not a lot of people taking advantage of this, and if you haven't you should, its loads of fun and not to be missed. For those people that are complaining about the pricing lets remember that games these days cost $60! Give it a try, go ahead and buy a game, decorate your Arcade and just have fun, after all that's what its all about.
On and BTW, the retro Arcade sounds that play while your browsing the Showcase Arcade and your own Arcade ROCK!
