Game review - Game Room

Okay, for those of you that are achievement whores and completionists, I want to issue you a warning about the new Xbox Live Arcade game, Game Room.

Game Room is kind of a non-game game, actually. What it is, is a room that you fill up with classic arcade and console games. You can play these games and earn medals and such, and you can go to your friends' arcades or invite them to yours. It's a very interesting idea. The problem is, you have to buy all the games you want to place in your room. With Microsoft points. 240 points a piece, or $3. That's better than standard Live Arcade games, but still adds up if you want to add a lot of games to your room. And you will want to do that, because that's how you earn achievements in Game Room. You have to play a lot of games, earn medals, and unlock new items and themes for your arcade. Depending on how good you are at the games you play, you may have to spend upwards of $70 to get the complete 1,000 achievement points. Yes, I said 1,000.

Now, this on the surface is okay by me. It's not too different from Family Game Night. Some people may not like it, and that's fine, you just don't buy it. But here's the kicker. Game Room is free to download (only the games you add to it cost money), but the moment you load it up you get a five point achievement. There's no going back after that, you can't remove the game from your list. If you're a completionist, you'll have no choice but to buy up a bunch of games to get the rest of the achievements.

Now, personally, I don't have a big problem with this, but I know a lot of people are upset about it, so I wanted to make sure you have all the information beforehand. If you're a completionist, and you're not interested in spending a lot of money on classic games, don't load up Game Room.

On the other hand, if you're like me and you love classic games, check it out. It's a very cool concept.