Game: Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition
Developer: Mojang AB
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Release Date: May 9th, 2012
Link(s): Xbox.com Page
Minecraft 360 is an Xbox Live Arcade game that is the fourth and final game of Microsoft’s Arcade NEXT series of games. It retails for 1600 Microsoft Points, or roughly 20 US dollars. As it is a part of the Arcade NEXT series, it boasts 400 Gamerscore which is spread out across 20 achievements.
If you have never played Minecraft before, the 360 version is a great place to start. It has a very solid tutorial system that helps you learn the ropes with ease. On top of the very noob-friendly tutorial system, the crafting interface has also been revamped for the 360 version. The new crafting system suits the 360 controller pretty well and is very useful for new-comers as well long-time veterans.
Unfortunately, not everything is all rainbows and butterflies. The cross-functionality between PC and Xbox 360 versions of Minecraft, that Microsoft promised back around E3 2011, is nowhere to be seen. The 360 version is also lacking mods, texture packs, and even custom player skins. Sure, sure, you can yell and scream that they may, key word “may”, be added at some point in the future, however, I can give the cure for cancer a 10 out of 10 but it’s not here right now, so what is the point in me reviewing it? On top of the missing features, the size of the world is disappointing and seems to be even smaller than Xbox Live Indie Games like FortressCraft and Castleminer. Minecraft 360 also has the misfortune of running on a one year old version of Minecraft, 1.6.6 to be exact, which means that the game does not have a Creative mode and also lacks the ability to sprint. To top it all off, the game costs 1600 Microsoft Points which is ludicrous as that is roughly $20 when the PC version is only $6.95 more. To give you an idea of just how pricey that is, you could get FortressCraft, CastleMiner, CastleMiner Z, and Total Miner and that would still only be half the price of Minecraft 360.
Overall, Minecraft 360 is a poor port of what was a good game on the PC. The limited world, lack of features, and insane price point leaves me with no choice but to recommend that you avoid Minecraft 360.
I am the co-owner of Nerd Vice and a technical wizard. I sporadically make YouTube videos, post news on the site, and help keep the site running. I am a programmer, nerd, and gamer.
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