In my opinion the reason Xbox Live Arcade exists is not to provide a platform for poorly conceived new games but to infuse classic arcade games with new life. Already you can play arcade-perfect versions of Contra, Rush 'N Attack, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but the big one is scheduled to release on Wednesday - the original arcade TRON.
As a kid I can remember my father and I dropping many a quarter in the TRON cabinet at Starworld in Kalamazoo, Michigan and even some twenty years after that I was thrilled to find that there was a working TRON cabinet in the student center where I went to college. I don't know what it is about that game but I still love it.
Sure, it's just four mini-games that increase to an impossible level of difficulty with alarming speed but the graphics and the sound are instantly capable of transporting me back to 1982. I can only hope that Spy Hunter, 720 degrees and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are on someone's list for the Xbox Live Arcade treatment. Yeah, I know they're all available through MAME but there's something about being able to flop on the couch and play them on the TV.
Here's the press release from the gang at Microsoft:
"Featuring the familiar gameplay from the original, players battle as the mighty warrior Tron against the insidious Master Control Program and his ruthless right-hand man, Sark. “Tron” offers a four-part retro-futuristic test of skills, including racing light cycles, battling Sark’s tanks, fighting to enter the MCP cone and dodging grid bugs. “Tron” offers both the original arcade game and an enhanced version with new graphics, improved sound and two-person multiplayer. It’s the perfect re-creation of the original game based on the pioneering computer animated Walt Disney Pictures’ 1982 feature film, “Tron.” Plus, the Xbox LIVE Arcade version is the first version of “Tron” with two-person multi-player functionality of co-op and versus. The game will be available worldwide (with the exception of Japan and Korea) for 400 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB."
Here's the Xbox Live Arcade TRON website where you can find more details and screenshots.
