Last week at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft announced the spring release of the Xbox LIVE Game Room. Microsoft describes it as a virtual arcade room where users can play thirty arcade classics, including Centipede and Asteroids Deluxe.
Perhaps many will herald the throwback to old times. After all, remakes of arcade classics on the Xbox Arcade have garnered some critical acclaim, such as Galaga Legions and Pac Man: Championship Edition. However, I recently visited Barcade, a bar with thirty or so old arcade games. I was extremely excited to imbibe and hit the old school classics that I loved, especially Q*bert and Centipede.
However, after playing a few games, the nostalgia-induced fantasy was dead. And rotten. Games are better now. They can have developed stories and invoke emotions. They can have more varied game design than everything moves faster. And they can require more inventive strategies than react faster. Simpler in this case does not necessarily equal better. I’d much prefer a new take on an old franchise incorporating new game play elements than to play the arcade classics. Don’t give us the arcade originals. Give us something better. Let’s toast to the arcade games of yore and let them die in peace.
