F-Zero Draws Console Gamers To Arcades?

Thanks to Gamers.com for their report discussing the newly revealed synergy between F-Zero's home and arcade versions (here's an alternate article at GamePro.) According to the article, "..customized racers are freely interchangeable between the arcade and console versions of the game. Just save a custom racer to the GameCube memory card with either game, and you can transport it from one game to the other." As well as this, "..winning a race in the arcade game can unlock.. ships or tracks as a special bonus - save that data to a GC memory card and you can play an otherwise unavailable ship or course in the home game." You'll also get a special magnetic License Card for high scores in the arcade version, in this interesting attempt at providing incentive for players to return to arcades.

Comments

Re:Why?

[Schezar]

Arcades (good ones) also have food, pool tables, and... people! They're great places to hang out. Who wants to sit in their house all day? That's the second leading cause of obesity (staying out of pie shops is number one.)

Re:Why would anyone ...

[Gr33nNight]

Because at home most people dont have a whole device that you sit in that moves, and vibrates and has 6.1 surround sound, with a crystal clear TV. Some of you may do, but many many do not.

Re:Seems like an extraordinarly bad idea...

[Sancho]

There are plenty of bugs and oversights in games. Metroid Prime has a number of crashes that I bet you could exploit (but to what end?). Gaming companies aren't perfect, it's not unreasonable to expect an oversight if not a flat out ignorance of the problem, particularly on one of their first foray's into this sort of thing.

Easy to crack?

[jpsowin]

Sure, that's all fun and games, but how long before someone simply figures out how to change the high score on their magnetic cards? Without actually storing it on the machine, and letting people take something home to play with, is just asking for trouble.

I think this may encourage more than simple "connectivity." It'll be interesting to see what happens, either way.

Wonderful!

[sheared]

What a great idea! I buy a game to play at home, but don't get use of the full game because there won't be an arcade withing 1000 miles of me with the game.

I guess this is to be expected from Nintendo -- with their push for the gameboy-gamecube connection. Now you can pay 100% for a gamecube game and get 90% of it in return.

I certainly hope there are cheats that can open up the "hidden" tracks for those of us stuck in the god-forsaken corners of the world.

Re:Wonderful!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's highly unlikely that they take something out of the game to make it exclusive for the arcade. They decide they should add something to the arcade version to entice people into the arcades. It's the same for GBA/GC connection extras. How is that a bad thing?

Not enough arcades

[Apreche]

I definitely see the lack of arcades being the downfall. Someone like me would be happy to pay for the full F-Zero experience. I'm already guaranteed to buy GX, but there are no arcades anywhere near me. The only places arcades exist these days are

• Major cities
• Tourist attractions
• Dave+Buster's/Jillians
• chuck e cheeze

Things like DDR, Time Crisis 3, and F-Zero are giving kids a reason to head to the arcade. The problem is that there aren't any. And where there are arcades, prices are high. 1 dollar per credit is a little nuts if you ask me. And most arcades don't update with the newest games.

Someone should open up a chain of very small arcades in areas with lots of gamers and no arcades, like suburbs. The arcades don't need a lot of games, just the new big ones. They can make money of skee-ball, crane machines, mini golf, a skate park, birthday parties, etc. However, they should also be run with the gamer in mind. When new games come out that will be popular the arcade should get them asap. High Score and such should be taken seriously. Tournaments could be hosted. A LAN area would work well too. Set up a chain/franchise of these and money is coming your way.

Also, back in the day arcade games used to be superior to home games. Obviously today they aren't. Expensive peripherals like light guns and ddr pads add something. But what we really need are arcade games that use vastly superior technology than console and pc games. Think about it. A 300$ console setup + television has a game of equal quality to a 3000$ arcade machine? For the very high prices arcade machines could have extremely powerful computers inside and have pixar quality graphics and surround sound, etc. that gamers can't get in their homes.