Game Room for XBLA and WP7 – A wasted opportunity

The Game Room on XBLA was eagerly awaited by many and is now falling into the gutter by the side of the road. A wasted opportunity? Retrofusion looks at what went wrong.

[boyo]

Does anyone actually have anything positive to say about Game Room?

[Tony P]

It was a nice idea.

But the article hits the nail on the head: extremely poor execution.

[darthv72]

didnt like that you couldnt use existing live arcade titles within it. Like the original sf2 or tmnt are arcade games and yet you could not set them up in the virtual game rooms.

Same with having to buy the games only from inside the gameroom and not having them available outside of it.

It was touted as being a virtual arcade for you and your friends to wander in and game and chat. Like a gaming only version of home (to a lesser extent).

The selection left much to be desired. Considering the notion of it being a virtual arcade...the selection of older non-arcade games in it made little sense. 2600 and intellivision games flooded the listings and fewer and fewer actual arcade games (worth playing) was seen.

No capcom or sega support....WTH? They had some great arcade titles from back in the day.

[Redgehammer]

The minute they add Sinistar, I will be in the Game Room, a great deal, more often than once every 4-5 months. When I do go in to the Game Room, I am taken back to the 80's by all the noise and "atmosphere", that reminds me of Aladin's Castle et al.

[Godmars290]

Doesn't the Game room only offer Atari 2600 level titles in terms of graphic quality?

[Redgehammer]

No, actually they have actual cabinet arcade games in, like: Time Pilot, Shaolin Rd, and many others, as well as Atari and Intellivision games.

[SRTold]

I like the idea of the Game Room, the only thing about it though is that the games are so overpriced for what they are. Also, I wish there was more actual arcade games that I remember, like the old wrestling game from WAY back, the old GI Joe that was 4 players.. Hard Driving... Time Killers... Some 3d hologram cowboy quick time game (Yes, there was a 3d hologram cowboy arcade game in the 90's).

I don't really care about intellivision or atari or those old school systems, especially when a lot of HD remakes of old atari games are already out on XBLA.

[Orionsangel]

The menu always confuses me. It's a messy setup.

[boyo]

Yea, when I first downloaded it I had no idea what to do, and pretty much said 'Is this it?'.

[MaverickStar7]

Nice idea. There is a big of fun in the novelty. But thats about it. The selection stinks. I'm 32 and most of those arcade classics were before my time even. I always felt the Gameroom layout would have done better if it were integrated with the XBLA game selection.

[boyo]

Well I am 41, but I still refuse to buy/play Atari 2600 games - too basic! Best remembered not played these days.

[Redgehammer]

Are you a "5 decade" gamer also?

[boyo]

Not sure what that means!

[baodeus]

yeah, i thought the idea was good until i looked at the list of games they offered. They don't even have like Street fighter 2, sunset rider, or contra, etc... orginal. Those were like the arcade to play back then. The list is just too outdated (mostly artari games). Overall it was a nice idea, just didn't have the support it needed. And like some people said, linking it w/ xlive would have been better.

[hazelamy]

you had to pay again for games you already bought.
you couldn't actually wander around the arcade, it was in essence a 3d menu system.
and it didn't have a great selection of games.

nice idea, it could have been really great, but they turned it into, something less.