Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition (Video Game Review)

The award winning, sandbox adventure game Minecraft has finally made its way to home consoles on Xbox LIVE Arcade. In this port of the critically acclaimed game, you still play as the character Steve, as you explore the block filled world and do nearly anything you can imagine. Minecraft is the king of sandbox games, and this freedom to do anything is transferred perfectly to this new port. In case you've never played Minecraft before, you should know the game begins with Steve stranded in the wilderness with absolutely no items except the clothes on his back. You'll have to destroy blocks in the world to gain resources, and then, craft these resources into new, more useful items. Soon, you will have access to vital items necessary to perform the game's many actions properly and more efficiently such as digging, mining, farming, fishing, fighting enemies and much more. Luckily, monsters only appear at night and can't enter a fully constructed structure, so build quickly!

The real draw to Minecraft stems from the ability to do anything you want at any time you want. The entire world is unlocked for exploring as soon as the game has loaded. You can then choose to build weapons and armor in preparation to take on the nasty creatures of the night, build yourself a little farming community complete with livestock and crops, start a mining site where you continually dig for buried treasure or you could simply choose to build a giant statue in midair. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination in Minecraft. Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition stays true to the original’s gameplay, but it does sacrifice a few game modes. The classic Survival Mode is your only option in this version of the game, but the game is now much more approachable thanks to some great new content. You'll be given the option of beginning the game in tutorial mode where you learn the basics of mining materials and crafting using the new Xbox 360 interface. Crafting items has become tremendously simplified thanks to included blueprints on how to make structures, tools and weapons, food, mechanisms, transport items and decorations. Detailed item descriptions are also included that allow you to easily learn more about the items listed and how to modify them. The friendly new interface also comes with tips on how to manage your inventory, how to use the game's control scheme and much more.

Simply put, the lack of a couple game modes is more than justified by the incredible amount of useful new content crammed into this version of Minecraft. Multiplayer is more simplified in Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition as well. Now, up to four players are allowed to play cooperatively via split-screen on the same console. You can also take local players into online matches where up to 8 players can play in the same world. Playing an online match is as simple as loading your own world and turning on the online option from the loading screen or accepting a friend's invite to their world. The game's spectacular presentation is made complete with the same classic graphics you've come to love, an enchanting soundtrack, great sound effects and plenty of unlockable goodies and achievements. Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is the premiere choice for any gamer. The wonderful new interface, control scheme and HUD easily make the Xbox 360 version the most approachable version of the game, and the developers have managed to integrate all of this new content without sacrificing too many of the classic features. Players have already been promised to be provided with continuous future updates as well, so Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is a great game that will get better and better as time passes. We can't recommend this game enough. Happy mining!

Game Features

Offline Co-Op 1-4

Online Co-Op 1-8

DLC Support

Leaderboards

Achievement Support

Game Information
Developer: Mojang / 4J Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Rating: E10 for Fantasy Violence Platforms: Xbox 360 Exclusive
Release Date: May 9, 2012

Score: 9.5 out of 10