I’m not going to lie when I first heard about Minecraft and its overwhelming success for a game that wasn’t finished yet, I just didn’t get it. The 8 bit 3D look and no real sense of accomplishment left me scratching my head but I soon figured out that it doesn’t matter until you actually play it for yourself. What you have here is no simple port but an enhanced, well cropped experience for the Xbox 360.

Something that should be quickly noted is that this version of the game is not caught up with the PC version and is missing some components. The ability to run, stack food, breed animals and go through jungle terrain is some of what’s missing to name a few. This doesn’t however change the experience of the game for which it is known for and that’s the important part.

Minecraft in itself is a bit hard to describe. There are no checkpoints or main objectives to follow. You make your own rules and goals in the randomly generated worlds. Mining, gathering and building is mainly what you will be doing but as day turns to night one of your goals will be to survive. The name of the game is just simply to do that and how you want to do that is up to you. Shelter as small as a hut or as big as a fortress is all about your will of what to accomplish.

New to the Xbox 360 version are sets of tutorials throughout the game explaining materials, how to create with the workbench or other stations and ingredients for items. Not everything is shown to you however so exploring new possibilities will have to come from what you can imagine. While multiplayer can be achieved in the PC version, the seamless connection you get here is some of the best in any game I’ve seen. Up to eight player multiplayer online or 4 player split screen on one console.

Everything from the subtle tones of music, smooth 60 Frames Per Second gameplay and in n out multiplayer work flawlessly! That’s only the tip of the iceberg as the root of the game is what easily hooks you on this quest of self or group discovery. You can learn something new every second you play and probably will.

Minecraft is one of the most addicting experiences I’ve had with any game. It’s a bit disappointing the Xbox 360 version is a couple of updates behind the PC but it wil most likely get there. Don’t let that stop you from play, as the game isn’t deprived of what you will get right from the start, which is the ability to created something really unique and in your image.
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It has been awhile since we’ve had a Fable game or have had heard much about the next iteration which is said to be Fable The Journey. In the mean time no one said we can’t have a little fun with the world and characters of Fable in a different setting?

Fable Heroes is a brawler type game with the characters of every Fable to be released, difference is it looks like a puppets play setting which makes everything look adorable. You can go though each stage with up to 3 other friends, battling enemies and gathering coins. While you are playing cooperatively with others or computer characters it does set you up somewhat competitively. After each stage you will be ranked by the amount of coins you’ve gathered from enemies and award for it.

With the coins you are allowed to purchase attributes for your character which will help you in the stages to come. Interestingly enough it is played on a board game, rolling dice to land on a space that corresponds to an attribute that can be collected. The colorful pallet of Fable Heroes is welcomed with the soundtracks fitting to its settings.

Unfortunately while there are some good aspects that have mostly to do with the Fable cast and feel, the game is missing some basic fundamentals. Characters feel a little sluggish and floaty in movement. They also only have three attacks that are on repeat with no formation of any combo or extension to it.

Stages are linear and while they do give you two paths within the stage it never gives you much or a different experience. Character AI is not really benefiting here either as they don’t provide a challenge for coins nor give you real help. The biggest thing that hurts this game is that since not much changes your progression from playing the first stage to playing the last stage isn’t much different.

Fable Heroes was intended to be lighthearted pickup and play game for Xbox Live arcade and it achieves that in ways. It missed it’s chance to be a great and memorable game with some missing components so it’s hard to fully enjoy unless you have 3 friends to play with.