Review: Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
Price: 1600MS Points
Only on XBLA

If you haven't heard of Minecraft, chances are you either aren't a gamer or were in a coma. Minecraft is an indie smash hit among reviewers, critics and gamers alike. Minecraft has been released on PC, Android, iOS and now the Xbox 360. Since this is my first time playing Minecraft properly since my previous experiences are the current Pocket Edition and the PC version Alpha this will be a relatively un-bias review. Well let's see how this game stacks up shall we?

Minecraft has been described as a game of endless possibilities... personally I can't really agree. Minecraft's world on the Xbox 360 is actually smaller then expected. I found the end of the world on every front and if the 1024 x 1024 size is the true number of it's size, it feels smaller to me. Also considering the size it also means that it's not as endless as you are meant to believe and resources like iron and diamonds don't respawn.

There isn't any drive or motivation in the game either. Your are basically dropped into the world and you have to figure out what you want to do. Mining, harvesting and building stuff are the main tasks you can do but it's not just that... monsters will appear at random in the world, mainly at night. Spiders, zombies and skeletons are the main enemies you'll encounter at night with the occasional zombie pigman and at all time the fear of a Creeper always looms. Creepers are the primary enemy in the game and they are to be feared! Creeper will self-detonate and kill you and destroy everything near by and they LOVE to do it to your house and while you're deep in a mine. Along with the monsters there are environmental hazards like drowning in water, falling to your death from heights or incinerating in lava. What's worse is when you die you drop EVERYTHING on you and you have 5 minutes to find your stuff or it's gone forever and if you were incinerated in lava, the lava will destroy all your stuff... yeah you don't want that.

Thanks to the streamlined interface Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition, crafting is so much easier then the PC. The list of recipes are all there for you to use without the need to memorize them. Unfortunately there aren't as many as the PC version, so anyone playing this version after playing the PC version will be disappointed that they can't enchant items or make potion or obsidian fences or fight the Neither Dragon. Crafting items is the lifeblood of this game and you can craft a fairly large amount of items including tools, food, armor, a sword and various building blocks.

As expected you are pretty much meant to make your own fun using the tools provided in the game. The major appeal of this game is to create awesome project that you want. You can also play the game on the Peaceful difficulty if you want to build without the need to "Fear the Creeper!" and enjoy the freedom but it can loose it's fun at the same time.

Look, to be honest Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is not for everyone. If you love building with Lego then this game will be a dream come true if you don't already own the superior PC version but if you aren't very creative or expected more then building and killing monsters then sadly this game is not for you. Regardless if this a game that looks like fun to you then I recommend it but advise to choose the PC version over it if you can. I also recommend using the Minecraft wiki whenever possible to help put more focus on things.

Score 4/5