Bomberman Live(s)
May 16th, 2007This is why I often like what Microsoft is providing with the XBox Live Arcade over the Wii Virtual Console. Say hello to 8-player online Bomberman Live.
Sure, the VC does get a lot of great, classic games. The VC even got one of the better, “classic” Bomberman games. That’s great, but it’s no HD Bomberman with 8-player online support. Assuming it pans out, this will be an awesome update to a classic game. Rather than making us pay for the same old classic game, the XBLA often actually gives us some extra added value for our money. Of course, there’s no word on how much this will cost, but hopefully (and perhaps most likely) it’ll be no more than $10. The extra $4 over the VC Bomberman would be well worth it if the online play works as well as it should.
XBLA also has a remake of the original Prince of Persia coming out. My original favorite version of the game was the SNES one, so when I originally heard PoP was coming to XBLA as well, I figured I’d probably have to wait for the SNES version on the VC. I was wrong on that one too. Check out a videos for the enhanced “Prince of Persia: Classic” here.
I have no problem with what the VC is doing in theory. I think it’s great that we can get nearly 100% accurate reproductions of older games, but given that XBLA is giving us updated versions of some of the same games within roughly the same price range, isn’t there any room for the VC to give us both the “classic” version of a game alongside an updated one?
Posted in Jeff, Virtual Console, Xbox Live |
May 16th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I agree with what you’re saying, but I don’t see it happening. The great appeal of the VC to developers is that they don’t really have to do anything at all — they can just sit and watch the money roll in — so there’s no incentive to retain a dev team to do an updated version.
In theory, people should object to this and vote with their wallets, but as you can see that’s not happening.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
They can just re-release and watch the money roll in…or they can update the title and watch a lot more money roll in.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I’m with Allanon. Part of the problem, I think, is that Nintendo’s a gatekeeper for the VC - since their strategy isn’t explicitly about updated games, they don’t encourage them.
Microsoft is trying to populate Live with content they *didn’t* create, so that’s not an issue there. And developers need the extra “hook” of an update to make themselves stand out.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
The XBLA developers that make games like this aren’t doing anything either aside from making better graphics (And since when did it become horrible to play a game without the best possible graphics available? You’ve probably played these games before and the graphics didn’t bother you) and adding online multiplayer and how much work do you think that is for an entire team of professional devs? They just get the added benefit if not having as many thinking customers so they’ll make money from people who just buy it for the XBox name so they can appear “hard core”(You won’t believe the stupidity of some of the people I know as they blab away about XBox Live this and XBox Live that. It seems like none of them even bother with the single player aspect of the game, which is the main advertizing point of those kinds of games). Now, granted, not all of the people that by XBLA games are the kind of people depicted in the above sentances but many XBox owners are. Some of the people may have bought the game because they liked or are interested in but never got to play the original. But people capable of that much thought woul either also have a Wii or have respect for the Wii and it’s users enough to not insult the users of a different system that buy things for the same reason they do.
In theory, it’s not worth a boycott to add these “updated features” to the VC so people should stop saying we need one, but as you can see many people are too ignorant to believe that so it’s not happening.
And Rob, the reason people aren’t “voting with their wallets” for “updated” VC games is because they’re buying the games for the same reason I proposed any intellegent XBLA user buys those games.
It’s not that I wouldn’t appreciate online multiplayer and enhanced graphics on VC games—everyone would—it’s that I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker for games that are already so good.
How did I manage to type that much? It started off as such a simple idea.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
FX-1:
Well, your argument cuts both ways. First, it probably takes a lot more time than you think to remake a game and add online multiplayer. For something like PoP, the entire game engine has been re-made it seems in full 3d (but presented from a side perspective, obviously). For Bomberman, implementing a non-laggy online component could definitely prove tricky, as the Contra “upgrade” proved. Along with the graphical updates, I just don’t think this is something that can be done by a couple interns in just a few short days.
On the other hand, lets say you’re right and it doesn’t take them much effort to update them. Well, then there’s no excuse… they should be updating them with new features to sell more copies. For instance, how many more downloads of Mario Kart 64 do you think they would sell if they implemented an online multiplayer mode? I certainly would have bought it.
It’s not necessarily a “boycott” that’s necessary… it’s just being a little more sensible about what you’re paying for. Nostalgia is a strong motivator, but how long is it worthwhile? Adding new graphics, new modes (like multiplayer), or new levels/puzzles (like PoP appears to be doing) is a much better motivator.