Minesweeper Flags XBLA Review
Is 3D and multiplayer worth 400MP?
By AXIS of Reality
©2009 Alex Baldwin
It’s almost the very definition of shovelware: take something that’s free, dress it up in 3D graphics and demand money for it. Minesweeper has graced almost every PC, included free in Windows and sucked away countless hours of potential productivity in office jobs.
Now Minesweeper has ‘finally’ made it onto Xbox Live Arcade in the form of Minesweeper Flags. Is it really worth shelling out the admittedly cheap 400MP for dressing up an old favourite?
For the uninitiated, the goal of Minesweeper is to ‘flag’ every mine square without touching it. Uncovered squares display the number of mines in the 8 surrounding squares, allowing you to slowly work it down logically until the only squares left are the flagged mines.
To get the obvious out of the way, the most immediate addition is the 3D graphics as Minesweeper fields are now set in a generic representation of every continent. Trying to ignore the question of why there would be minefields in Antarctica and Australia, you can now sweep for the ever elusive mines as horribly low-polygon moose, deer and other generic animals wander around the edges (makes me wonder how they managed to avoid stepping on the mines for so long).
Really for a free game to move into 3D I would have expected some effort put into making it look nice but instead it could barely pass for a last-gen game. It’s not like there’s much going on so I put it down to developer laziness.
The game holds at 30fps with slowdown when moving the cursor which does hamper enjoyment compared to the immediacy of the old PC Minesweeper. Similarly, the camera always seems slightly too zoomed out on an angle even with camera control on the right stick and triggers. In an effort to use 3D the view is tilted at about 60 degrees which does get annoying.
The other new addition is the competitive Flags mode which turns the gameplay on its head – now you need to uncover as many mines as possible until you have the majority as your own. Each player has a set amount of time to pick a square to uncover.
If the player manages to find a mine, it is counted towards their score and they can keep uncovering mines until their turn time runs out or they uncover a blank square. While this can be fun with friends, it won’t be long until you’re back playing a ‘real’ multiplayer game.
This, along with Classic mode allow you to play single rounds in any setting. Or at least it should, because unfortunately you can’t use any settings until they’ve been played in the Campaign mode. This is a serious issue, as forcing the player to go through 100-odd campaign rounds (no story, just like classic matches except in an order) to get the settings unlocked is asking too much for a game made to be dropped in and out of in small sessions. It simply feels like the game is striving for longevity by holding content locked until you’ve grinded your way through the campaign.
So is Minesweeper Flags really as terrible a game as I seem to be describing? It depends if you already enjoy Minesweeper on PC. If so, 400MP might be worth it to play a prettied up version with some occasional multiplayer fun. After all, it’s still the same game with the same addictive quality that made the free PC version so famous. If you don’t like it already, there’s nothing here that will change your mind.
©2009 Alex Baldwin
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”5.5/10
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Filed under: Xbox 360 Game Reviews Tagged: | flags, minesweeper, OXCGN, review, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade
