[theme music]
[fizz, sip]
Aahhh!
Retro gaming has been on the rise in recent years,
with things like Xbox Live Arcade games
and retro compilation discs appearing all the time.
With the rise in online content has come a new way to experience all things retro:
Microsoft Game Room.
Game Room is a free download for the Xbox 360 console and Windows PCs.
The idea behind it is to provide a virtual arcade experience,
which at this point is harkening back to the glory days of the early 1980s.
You're provided with a three-storey arcade building,
with several rooms to fill with arcade machines
game consoles and retro memorabilia
for you and your friends to enjoy.
If you've been in PlayStation Home's Namco Arcade area,
you may be getting a similar vibe.
But other than being arcade-oriented,
the two are nothing alike.
Here's the first thing to understand:
Microsoft Game Room is nothing more than a really shiny menu system.
Now you could say the same thing for Home,
but no, really, this is just a menu.
You can't walk your avatars around.
You can't change the camera freely.
All you do is move around to preset areas on the screen,
which represent different options to choose.
It's a 3D menu.
But it's an awesome 3D menu,
so allow me to finish before you disagree.
You start things off with an empty set of rooms
and a profile at Level 1.
The concept behind Game Room is that you can customize your arcade
with items unlocked by gaining levels.
Kind of like a role-playing game for retro geeks.
In order to gain these levels, you have to earn medals.
And in order to earn medals, you have to buy games
and play ranked games online.
So, yes, Game Room is free,
but most of the content costs real money.
You have the option to play around in the Showcase Arcade for free,
and you can demo each game one time for a few minutes at no cost.
But after that, you will either have to buy the full game
or pay 50 cents to play another game.
You can also earn tokens by having people visit your arcade.
Buying a game for Windows or 360 costs $3.00,
or you can buy it for both platforms
for $4.00 and some change.
I would just pick one platform and stick with it, honestly.
They're identical except for the PC maybe having
higher resolution and support for more controllers.
So, how about the arcade options?
Well, you start off with a bland, oddly colored set of rooms
that you can customize somewhat.
You can play certain items with as many copies of any item as you'd like,
so if you want a room with all Tempest machines or chainsaws, go for it.
The themes are somewhat theme park like,
but the retro ones in particular are awesome.
None of the decor items cost anything.
They're all unlocked through earning medals.
The games themselves cost, of course, and so do the mascots.
Yeah, you're gonna have mascots roaming around your arcade,
just sort of flying... doing nothing.
Like a dragon or Yars' Revenge fly.
They're useless, but pretty nice to have, I guess,
and don't cost much at all.
Probably my favorite part of Game Room is the atmosphere.
I mean, there's nothing like a real old school arcade.
And Game Room pulls this off great.
I mean, there's a lot of subtle touches that really make it superb.
You have the retro-sounding background music,
items like change and snack machines,
the realistic arcade cabinets which even come complete with
actual control panels and glowing coin slots,
and game consoles with their respective cartridges for each console.
You even get the slight, fuzzy screen glow
that was on those vector games like Lunar Lander.
Best of all, you get the arcade ambient background noise.
I mean, if you've been in an arcade, you know what I'm talking about.
This is that classic mishmash of games and gamers blaring in that constant cacophony.
I mean, along with the whole look of the arcade,
it's just an awesome feature to have.
It sets this really apart from those retro compilation discs.
The only sounds that I can think of that are really missing
to make it an authentic arcade experience
is that crying kid with an angry mother,
Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga,
and of course...
[Daytona USA theme song]
One of the most intriguing opportunities here is for the social aspect.
Now Game Room could easily be a great place to hang out with your friends
on Xbox Live or play some multiplayer arcade games.
But sadly, this just isn't the case at this point.
Your arcade is populated by you and your friends' avatars, but they're just props.
Even when someone quote-unquote "visits" your arcade,
you can't just go up and watch them play a game.
An avatar just kind of stands there like an idiot in front of a random machine.
Not to mention their stupidly large alien heads
get in the way of the game that they're in front of,
which can make it annoying when you're trying to choose a game to play.
You'd think being on Xbox Live, you'd have SOMETHING online,
but there's nothing online multiplayer at all,
just leaderboards.
And that's crap because the potential is huge.
I mean, online Combat for the 2600?
You do get to send out score and time challenges to your friends,
but this is no replacement for multiplayer.
Now finally, there's the games themselves.
At this point, there are around 30 games from Atari 2600 and Intellivision systems.
as well as some arcade games, mostly from Konami and Atari.
The selection is decent but not spectacular,
and lots of DLC
is planned to add more games later on.
I really hope that Namco, Sega, Activision
and whatever's left of Midway get onboard
because their games are sorely lacking.
But the few games that are on here so far are pretty fun
and seem emulated very nicely.
I was especially impressed at the Atari 2600 games.
You even get virtual switches in the consoles and cabinets to modify.
The Intellivision games are a bit of a joke, though,
as many of the games try to emulate a control pad
and it just does not work, in my opinion.
It's a little easier on the PC,
but have you ever tried playing an Intellivision gamepad with a mouse?
Or a game controller?
Ah, no. It's like trying to knit a sweater
using Vienna sausages for needles.
Speaking of mouse support,
you'd think that the PC version would have the advantage
with trackball games, right, since it supports a mouse?
Well you'd be wrong.
You can only use a keyboard or a controller.
Now this is completely stupid,
since I have an X-Arcade Tankstick that I use
on both the 360 and PC versions.
I'd love to be able to get my trackball for games like Centipede and Crystal Castles,
but it's not even an option.
On the other hand, you still can use Game Room
with the X-Arcade and other similar joysticks.
So if you have an arcade stick,
it really is the only way to play, in my opinion,
since the keyboard and 360 controller suck for these arcade games.
Final point that I would like to make is the cost.
Now Game Room itself is free, yes,
and the games don't really cost a whole lot,
but there isn't much you can do without paying quite a bit.
You can demo games once and lay down some decorations,
but that's ALL that you can do without spending anything.
You need to play those paid-for games in order to unlock new items
or any achievements after that.
And the problem comes with the cost.
Now here's a breakdown of the fees:
There are 15 medals unlockable per game.
And you need 20 medals to gain the next level.
There are 50 levels to unlock in all to get all the different items,
so that means that you'll need 1,000 medals
You'd have buy 66.6 games
and at the minimum of $3.00 a game,
that's around $200
just to unlock the games and items.
Not including the other things, like mascots and such.
So at this point, even if you did pay that much money,
you still couldn't unlock all the items, since there aren't even 66 games yet.
Not only that, but some games don't even have medals,
like Adventure for the Atari 2600.
Whatever, it's fine since most people
will probably only wanna buy a few games anyways
but it just annoys me
that there is no way to level up at all without buying tons of games and playing them a lot,
and I'll never be able to get some of these unlockable items as a result.
I mean, it'd be nice if maybe you could just use some Microsoft points instead.
Ah, well, the Game Room is still a neat idea.
Taking the classic arcade experience
and making that a virtual preservation of sorts
is a great idea.
I just think it leaves something to be desired at this point.
However, for what it is, I do like it.
I've bought a few games that I wanted on my Xbox for a while,
namely 2600 games,
and being able to unlock Game Room achievements
for playing them is great fun.
It gives me a whole new incentive to play these games again even more.
Game Room is a nice idea, and I like it.
I just could like it a whole lot more with a few additions.
Not the least of which being...
[Daytona USA theme song]