Anyone that knows me will know of my disdain for arcade games in general. Other than Geometry Wars (back in the day) I just feel that the standard has generally not been high enough to justify the costs. Paying over the odds for games like Yie Ar Kung Fu (which I had on the Spectrum 128k about twenty years ago) et al just feels like a real kick in the nuts when such games can probably be found for free all over the internet.
Hopefully things have started to pick up recently. Games like Castle Crashers, Monkey Island (is know its just and old game made anew), Splosion Man and the like have given me hope. The quality of original games seems to be on the rise while the older remakes are actually adding something new rather than just being a straight port. This can only bode well for the future. Though I have noticed that the prices have crept up too - 400 point games seem to be dead now, while 800 is becoming increasingly rare. Can you honestly say that such short games are worth as much as 1200 or 1600 points? I think not, but I'm sure many would disagree.
What I did pick up on the cheap was a copy of the Namco Museum disc, which includes nine arcade games for a fraction of the price it would have cost me to buy them seperately. I haven't exactly gotten over my hatred of so many cash in games, but the chance to snag an easy 1400 points in just a few days seemed too good to miss.
I got stuck in over the weekend and managed to get the full 200 in Pacman, Galaga and New Rally X. I'm also one achievement away from completing Dig Dug (just need to clear the whole screen on one level and then I'm done). Next up will be Ms Pacman, Pacman CE and Xevious - all of which seem to be a nicely attainable 200. The only two games in the collection that I'll be giving a miss are Galaga Legions and Mr Driller, Legions is meant to be a rough game to polish off and I have to admit that my shoot 'em up skills will probably not be up to the task while Mr Driller has a bunch of online achievements that seem like a bit of a drag to get done. I don't want to invest too much time in a mere 200 points. Though I did slog through Puzzle Quest but at least that was enjoyable.
On the retail game front most of my time is being taken up with Rainbow Six Vegas, as I claw my way up to Elite rank. I've also been dabbling in the few achievements I am currently missing outside of the online mode - as I finished up all of the co-op terrorist hunt missions and am now working my way through the story in co-op too. I'm hoping to get the whole thing done by the end of the month.
I'm also hoping to get back into NBA Ballers this week and hopefully get close to polishing it off. The game is a rough one to play but I think I should be able to get through it relatively easily - having to play through the story twice is the most unappealing aspect of the whole thing. Still I have suffered through worse.
1 comment:
I agree with you about arcade games. They never go down in price either which is a shame because if you go in to a game store you can buy full retail games for cheaper. It is a shame though because there's a few arcade titles I would quite fancy playing, I just avoid due to the potential of just 250 gamerscore from a fair bit of money spent.
NBA Ballers was annoying. I need to re-rent that sometime, get that last achievement for re-completing career mode.
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