70/100
Players1 rating

Where to get it

Microsoft Store

2010

Game Room

Xbox console exclusive

A smattering of virtualized versions of popular bar/arcade games like pinball, pool, shuffleboard, table tennis, darts, and table hockey.

Released: 2010
Platforms: Windows Xbox 360
Genres: —
Developers: —
Publishers: Xbox Game Studios
Age ratings: ESRB E10+GRAC ALL

About

Game Room is a discontinued video game compilation distribution system developed by Krome Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Windows Phone 7. It includes arcade and console video games owned by Activision, Atari, Intellivision and Konami. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room let players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores. Players on both Xbox 360 and Windows PCs could access Game Room through their respective versions of Microsoft's Live online services (Xbox Live and Games for Windows – Live). The servers shut down on October 31, 2017, but Xbox 360 users are still able to redownload the software and purchased games.

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft announced a mobile version of Game Room for Windows Phone 7. Asteroids Deluxe was the only game announced, but a show floor demo revealed working prototypes of Centipede and Shao-lin's Road.

Keywords

minigames
minigame collection

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Games in Game Room are launched by selecting them while players browse through their arcade. Each game offers a "classic mode", where one can set a number of gameplay options, dependent on the game's format. Arcade games have DIP switches that may be changed in order to increase difficulty or offer additional lives to the player, while console games have their original gameplay variations. Both are accessible using Game Room's on-screen interfaces.

Also, some games can be played in a special "ranked mode," which allows scores to be posted to online leaderboards while limiting gameplay options to a single variation common to all players, as well as disallowing several Game Room options, seemingly to prevent falsifying rankings or other forms of cheating.