Casual Play on 360 Live Arcade

twoallbeefpatties writes "Columnist Chris Suellentrop writes an article for Slate describing how his desire for casual gaming is fulfilled more by the 360 than the Wii due to the presence of simpler games available over Live Arcade. The availability of oldschool Nintendo games on the Wii network fulfills his nostalgic hardcore gaming side, but when he really wants to just relax, he'd rather be trying to top his Live high score on Root Beer Tapper. Says Suellentrop: 'The Nintendo Wii will transform the way we play games at home. But the Xbox 360, through its Xbox Live service, is building something equally compelling: a celestial arcade, where casual and hard-core gamers alike can connect over the Internet and find like-minded souls. For an old-timer like me, the celestial arcade also lets me feel like I still have some of my old gaming mojo.'"

Playing Catch Up

[AKAImBatman]

In all fairness, the 360 has had a full year head start over the Wii. Which means that the Live! service is well developed to meet the needs of the (rather massive) casual gaming market. However, I do expect that to change in the near future. For one, Nintendo has already stated that they'll be hosting "Wii Ware" downloadable games that can be purchased from the Wii Store. Rumors are already circulating that Super Paper Mario could be the first.

For another, tons of gaming sites have popped up to fill the "casual" needs through the Opera Web Browser. In fact, the most popular [wiicade.com] of these sites just announced a new API [digg.com] that lets game programmers make use of *all* of the Wiimote's buttons. If they get multiplayer gaming up and going (e.g. poker, battleship, hearts, etc.), they could end up being an impressive force for casual gaming on the Wii.

Re:Playing Catch Up

[Aaron England]

In all fairness, why does one need to be fair to Nintendo? If Microsoft had a year head start, then would that not also imply that Nintendo had an additional year to plan? Both companies made trade offs, and we are now seeing the results of their works. An 80% solution today is often more desirable than a 100% solution tomorrow.

That's just like your opinion...man.

[BrickM]

Obviously both consoles have fun, short/small downloadable games for cheap prices. In the end, the article is more about personal preferences in games, than any sort of comparable quality. Especially since the 360 has an entire year head start over the Wii.

Personally, I'd rather play Super Mario world and Legend of Zelda than most of the games on Live Arcade. One of the reasons is that they're known quantities, whereas many of the Live ports have been very dubious in quality (anyone who made the mistake of getting Contra knows what I'm talking about here). Everything from Nintendo has been incredibly well emulated, with the added bonus of being able to have a "save state" that means you can pause the game, turn off the console and come back to play later. Man, I wish my NES and SNES had that years ago.

So while I'd come down on the side of the Wii in this debate, in the end it's totally personal preference on the games - just like it always is with this console debates.

360 arcade== Whee!

[CedhedCO]

One of the bigger surprises when I bought my 360 was the arcade. I got it with Dead Rising and Chrome Hounds. After getting thoroughly frustrated or bored with both titles one night I started looking for something to do with my $400 investment. $30 later in the arcade and now I have a collection of games I can pick up and play whenever. Some of them are pretty inventive. Wik is very strange but good. Not to mention they have DOOM! Quite a few of them have multiplayer built in too.

Naturally these won't supplant the normal A list titles, but when I am looking for some quick game play they fit the bill nicely. Just have to make sure to download the demos before buying them, the quality can vary widely.

Re:Xbox Online Becoming A Bit Of A Joke

[Mr2001]

I agree about the dedicated servers. For a paid service, it's outrageous that the games are still hosted on individual players' home connections, which is what makes all the "standby" cheating possible. Matchmaking is cool and all, but Halo is a much better experience on the PC than on the Xbox because of dedicated hosts.

This is a garbage 'column', not an article

[Rosebud128]

One columnist finds himself playing XBLA more than Wii for his 'casual gaming fix', so he writes a column branching his feelings as the reality of the marketplace? Why is Zonk posting this 'column' anyway? It is all 100% of one person's feelings.

Here is some real information. Most casual games and gamers are on the PC. Most casual gamers are females. XBLA was not originally intended for what it became which is why the model for game releases cannot be met (there are weeks where there have been no releases or, worse, something worthless like Kameo Uno Theme Pack). People buy Xbox 360s for Gears of War, not to play UNO online. There is a reason why Gears of War has sold so much (which contradicts our "insightful" columnist).

It has been said that console companies were leaving much money behind on the table by failing to penetrate the huge casual gamers (on PCs). If a console ere to do that, it would sell and sell and sell. There is a current console out there that appears to be doing that. And, by looking at Japanese sales charts for the unbundled 'casual games', I see Wii Sports and Wii Play in the top ten weekly with the occasional first week of sales of a PS2/PSP game (which then immediately disapears from the chart). The rest of the top 30 are DS games.

Imagine if someone wrote a column where he "felt" that the PS3 was an 'incredible value' at its price. Would Zonk call it an 'article'? Sales data would refute the idea that most customers find the PS3 'an incredible value at its price' which is why no one would take seriously of such an opinion. So why is this story, which is one columnist's opinion, even linked on Slashdot?

A columnist can feel whatever he wants, but the market and sales data are the reality. Zonk linking to such opinion pieces is not helping readers understand what is really going on.