A free newspaper in the US and Canada, Metro, has published an article stating some of the great things about Xbox Live Arcade.
Writes Robert Summa, “While the Xbox 360 may be a modern-day technological marvel and achievement, its real benefit and joy comes from Xbox Live Arcade …. [which] gives gamers something that today’s mega games can’t deliver: fast-paced fun.”
Joystiq mentions the article and brings up some very good questions:
Is a revolution afoot here? Are gamers finally starting to come around to the idea that games don’t need to offer hours of prerendered footage in order to be very, very enjoyable? Or is this just some temporary enthusiasm that will cool off once we all get used to it? Will this new ardor for casual titles played on consoles drive mainstream acceptance of console gaming?
I am of the mind that video games never needed hours of prerendered footage to be enjoyable. I am sure most gamers remember the Nintendo and Sega machines that came out in the eighties and nineties that we all enjoyed without any real cgi cutscenes or prerendered footage. As with many things, like fasion, things come full circle, and as people get bored from the same old, same old, they look to the past to recreate the things they enjoyed when they were younger. That is where the success from Xbox Live Arcade comes into play.