Microsoft GameRoom: What Works and What Needs Work

The much lauded Microsoft Game Room has finally been launched for the Xbox 360, as well as Microsoft Live, for gamers to experience. Constructing your own game room, with various arcade games you are able to purchase, as well as unlockable material, sounds like a gamers paradise. Unfortunately, the early build is limited to what can be played, as well as what can be achieved through even the most conventional means. The initial batch of arcade, Atari 2600 and Intellivision releases are pretty much throw-away experiences, with only a bare minimum number of worthwhile titles to choose from. While that’s an immediate issue that can be resolved, there are several other aspects to this so-called Game Room, that can benefit from additions and refinements that should be introduced gradually. But before we get into that, lets discuss what Microsoft has brought to the table.

With this free download (and a couple of subsequent free download packs in order to make it work, followed by long initial loads), you will be able to create your own Game Room, based on predetermined items initially offered, as well as themes for your room, and even more items you can unlock after you match the prerequisite for each piece. Of course, even with the Game Room purchase being free, you’ll still have to open your virtual wallet and shell out some points on the games that are compatible with the Game Room.

It's a neat little touch watching folks on your friends list "playing" on your arcade machines.

After your singular, or multiple game purchases, you can play them to your heart’s content, trying to defeat either your own high scores, your friends scores, or even the scores of gamers around the world. Meet the requirements for each title, and you will receive medals and tokens, as well as “Level Up”, unlocking new content to place into your Game Room. Bored of the games in your arcade? Visit a friends Game Room, throw down some of the tokens you earned into their game machines, and try to overtake their high scores. You can also wander around the Arcade Showcase, visit different rooms and demo each and every release there is. You’ll need coins in order to operate an arcade unit (which seemingly doesn’t deplete at this time, at least in your own virtual Showcase world), while the Atari 2600 and Intellivision titles are free of charge to play-test.

You do have a diverse number of items and themes opened up to you right off the bat, enough to make whatever room you want, without feeling as if you’ll stumble into a similar room your friend made. The themed rooms have a few extra areas you can add some decorations to, though they mostly pertain to lighting or other gimmick related placements, based off the theme selected. It’s a noteworthy achievement to be able to customize the look of your room as much as you can, however, there’s plenty that can be adjusted and spruced up in order to make the experience that more expansive, as well as more important than what PlayStation Home offers in their Game Rooms.

First and foremost — we shouldn’t be limited to what games we are allowed to have arcade machines for in our Game Rooms. Many of us have purchased legitimate arcade classics over the years through Xbox Live. Here’s a short list of some of those magnificent arcade games that I’m sure many of us own at least one of:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Marvel vs Capcom 2
King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match
Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo
Dig Dug
Gauntlet

Wouldn't it have been ideal to have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, available to use as an arcade unit that can be placed into your Game Room?

Wouldn’t it be a lot more intuitive to add these titles to your Game Room? Have a friend come on in while you’re playing, and join in alongside you, or even against you? Imagine if you’re entering the Technodrome in TMNT: The Arcade Game, and you really wanted the aid of a friend to get through the section with less fuss, or even continue your little rivalry with a friend in a fighting game. He or she would have the ability to jump right in and give you a hand, or try and give you a backhand. I don’t see how such a seamless integration of your current arcade titles, couldn’t be completed in a future update. Of course, you’d have some exclusions, mainly titles that were never arcade games (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Sonic & Knuckles, Undertow). While some of these titles might be a bit too large to have a streamline temporary download in order to play in another persons arcade, it can definitely be a one time download, and saved into the Game Room programs memory.

Even if Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix was never an arcade release, it would fit a lot better into your Game Room than the random Intellivision titles offered.

The selection of titles, while aided by the sheer number readily available, really lack any lasting power. Out of everything released on launch day, only Asteroid Deluxe, Millipede/Centipede, Adventure and Tempest catches the eyes of gamers over the age of 21. The rest are, to be kind, filler, or so obscure to anyone under a certain age bracket, that there’s no reason whatsoever to have released them in the first place. I’ll be 30 years old in late September, so I’ve been around the virtual block and I’ve played quite a few titles throughout dozens of systems. I own an Atari 2600 and have had time with an Intellivision. Unfortunately a significant percentage of these titles, even I’ve never heard of. While the decision to have a plethora of titles available at launch was a noble idea, it reminds me of the Nintendo Wii’s launch, in that the number of launch titles were high, yet most of the releases were pretty miserable, with maybe two outstanding titles to choose from. But hey, variety helps sell, doesn’t it?

On the subject of sales, the prices of these classics, even at a paltry sum of 240 MSP ($3) still seems too excessive. One can argue that the lasting power of a certain few could warrant even a doubling of its price, the fact of the matter is that with the initial batch of releases pretty much coming off as mediocre, the price seems a bit inflated. We can talk pennies or pounds, and how it’s only $3 per game ($5 to enable “Play Anywhere”, referring to the 360 and PC), but the fact of the matter is that there’s not enough legitimate content to support that price point right off the bat. I tried some of more obscure titles out, and the gameplay on some are so elementary (I’m looking at you, Outlaw) that it’s almost a slap to the gamers face to charge more than 80 MSP for such a bland experience. Bundle packages of three titles for 400 MSP would be an commendable compromise, even if you lack the ability to choose which three titles you’d want. At least then you’ll feel like your money is going where other than the endless pockets of Microsoft.

To further your experience in your Game Room, players should be able to use those mock up Atari 2600 and Intellivision units you can place in your room, with a mock up CRT television set, and play the designated titles through those means. Not only will it become a more immersed feeling, watching your avatar sit down and take control of a classic game via classic system and television set, but it cuts up the monotony of everything looking like an arcade unit with little flair to distinguish them from afar. It looks so cumbersome having what looks like a full-screen LCD monitor housed inside an arcade cabinet, with an Atari 2600 and controller placed where the standard arcade layout usually goes. Diversify things! Make a beanbag chair and have it coincide with an old school mock up layout.

Finally, in probably an unlikely adjustment, being able to walk around your Game Room, and not just dart from machine to machine. Right now, it feels like the Game Room is nothing more than a Barbie Fun House play-set, where you can decorate portions of the room with miscellaneous items, or fit them into a themed room and adjust your props to fit the theme. You end up just plopping Barbie and her friends around designated spots in the room, with little or no movement between stations. This is a Game ROOM. We should have the ability to navigate through said rooms, as well as the surrounding areas outside of it in a smooth and natural way, not just randomly porting to designated posts. Streamlining the experience to menus and stock selection spaces, all but dissolves the immersed feeling you’d expect to receive. Luckily, this is only a launch perspective of what can be adjusted and augmented to further enthrall you into this concept presented by Microsoft.

Some of the earlier mock-ups actually look more intriguing than the end result.

What we were given were building blocks with missing pieces. While we can construct various rooms with somewhat of a semblance of a legitimate “Game Room”, the pieces of the foundation have not yet been introduced, giving what you build a very shaky base. There’s definitely a lot of promise to this new Game Room feature, and with gamers imagination and hopefully some of our feedback, we can turn promise into a delightful reality, one filled with some more legitimacy, options and opportunities to import past and future XBLA releases into our rooms. The question is, “Will Microsoft grant our wishes, or will the Game Room be nothing more than a short lived gimmick, with little or no evolution?”