1200 Points gets you version XX of the franchise that wouldn’t die:

Breaking onto the scene, it’s the first code name title since “Metal Slug X”! Joining the fight are the familiar four warriors Marco, Tarma, Eri and Fio, backed by two allies from “The King of Fighters”: Ralf and Clark. In addition to including a total of 7 multi-path stages, this ultimate 2D action shooting masterpiece includes elements like “Combat School” loaded with more than 70 missions.

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I consider Hydro Thunder to be one of the last great arcade games I ever played.

Back in the late ’90s, arcades were already headed well on their way to extinction, or at least a pitiful existence not nearly as glorious as their reign in the ’80s.  As such, I never really cared for most of the arcade titles that were coming out at that time like Dance Dance Revolution, but racing games could always tend to grab my attention.

Hydro Thunder was no exception.  The frenetic, high-speed boat racing game was so fun that I had to rent it for my Nintendo 64 as often as possible.  In hindsight, I really should have saved money and just purchased the game.

Unfortunately, Hydro Thunder arrived at a time when most home consoles were still woefully underpowered compared to their arcade counterparts.  So while the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of Hydro Thunder were decent enough and could certainly qualify as arcade ports, the definitive home version landed on the Dreamcast, and, well, we all know what happened to that thing.

Luckily, Hydro Thunder is headed for the Xbox Live Arcade care of Vector Unit, the developer that has grabbed the rights to the game from Midway’s cold, dead hands.  It has even grabbed an updated title: Hydro Thunder Hurricane.  Sounds fancy.

The title is already planned to retain the 4-player splitscreen mode previously seen only in the Nintendo 64 version (which suffered from horrendous framerate issues) and feature an 8-player online mode.  However, the developer has shared some new features for the downloadable title, such as online leaderboards and a Wave Race-like slalom event, which you can read below.

The title is planned for a vague summer 2010 release.

• Ring Master
A slalom-style event, Ring Master challenges players to race through a series of rings and compete for best time. Every track environment in HTH features three unique Ring Master layouts, which ramp up in difficulty from Novice to Pro to Expert. Novice courses feature larger gates, and are designed to introduce players to the basic mechanics of each level. Pro and Expert courses feature smaller rings, and the layouts are more challenging – they also introduce players to alternate routes and shortcuts in each level.

• Gauntlet
Time trial with an explosive twist: every course is peppered with exploding barrels. The barrels are generally placed off the primary racing line, on the outsides of corners and such, to encourage players to use the fastest racing line possible. However in spots they are also placed in the center of the track, requiring players to dodge between them or hop over them using the Boost Jump mechanic.

• Leaderboard Opponents
Single Player Race, Ring Master, and Gauntlet events all support asynchronous racing with your Xbox LIVE Friends through a feature we call “Leaderboard Opponents”. When you begin an event, we grab your next-best-Friend’s time and display split times at every checkpoint so you can compare your time to theirs as you’re racing. If you’re the best of all your friends, we pull times from the global Leaderboards.

Revolt is a twin-stick shooter (or twin-thumbs if you’re a stickler for accuracy) featuring some of the best graphics yet on the iPhone. Gameplay appears pretty solid for this type of genre and the feature list is very promising. Perhaps most impressive is that Revolt was made by only two people over 10 months of time.

Features:

• 8 Story Levels and 20 Survival Arenas
• 15 Weapons
• 8 Unique Enemy Types
• Weapon and Armor Upgrades
• Advanced Gameplay
• Destructible Environments
• 3 Difficulty Modes
• Kickass 3d Graphics
• Killer Music and Sound Effects
• High Score Leaderboard

Revolt Homepage

Microsoft made an announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show about the forthcoming spring release of Game Room, a new virtual space for players to hang out as their avatars and play classic/vintage arcade video games. Sounds fine as a basic description, but my intuition says this will be a bust.

There are several issues that will get in the way of Game Room’s success. First up we have the games themselves. Game Room wil be launching with approximately 30 titles, with a promised 1000 titles within three years. That is a ton of shit and I mean that quite literally. If you can name me 20 classic video games that actually withstand the test of time, let alone 1000, I’ll send you a virtual medal.

Then there is the pricing, an area where Microsoft really understands the fine art of screwing customers. Players can either pay $5 for a dual-license that allows for PC and Xbox 360 play, or $3 for a single platform. Finally, players can sink 40-points (50-cents) for a single play.

As someone who grew up with the dawn of video games, having played just about every classic arcade title when it was actually available at my local Shakey’s Pizza, I can honestly say the vast majority of those so-called classics sucked. Add classics from vintage home consoles like Intellivision and the Atari 2600 and you have a recipe for complete boredom.

Look, I find value in these old games as museum relics and they are worth a time-limited trip down memory lane, but the overwhelming majority are just awful by today’s standards. There are only a few games from the 70s and 80s that hold up, like Asteroids, Missile Command, Galaga, Defender, Tempest, Star Castle and a few others. As for Atari 2600 games, none will hold your interest beyond a minute or two, perhaps longer if you’re bathing in nostalgia. I mean c’mon, $5 for Sub Hunt? Sea Battle? Outlaw? Ugh.

Microsoft Game Room smacks of a way to attract impulsive consumers into spending money on something that seems cool but will ultimately lead to regret. Besides, every single one of these ancient games can be played on the PC right now, complete with rule sheets and virtual cabinets, using a well-known emulator called MAME. I assume most hardcore gamers already have MAME or had it but grew bored once the novelty wore off.

If I had been in charge of developing the Game Room, I would get rid of 99% of the vintage games, only using the true classics that have aged well, and devoted the rest of the space to new and relevant XBLA (and XNA) titles like Castle Crashers, Space Invaders Extreme, Geometry Wars, etc. This would boost sales of new wares and foster increased multiplayer competition with games people actually want to play.

Unfortunately, I’m not in charge and Microsoft is wasting resources on something that will prove itself an underutilized failure. It wasnt that long ago that Xbox 360 gamers were complaining vociferously about the abundance of crappy vintage games clogging up XBLA. MS seemed to listen and reigned in the number of releases. Now MS is back with a vengeance, eyes on your wallet, hoping you will succumb to memories and ancient passions, futilely chasing Sony’s Home scheme while ripping off Nintendo’s Mii’s, all so you’ll pony up $5 to play Adventure?

Good luck with that.