May 6th 2009 6:59 am PT

YES! I’ve waited many years for this!

NOT available in Australia or New Zealand? Whatever for? Surely there MUST be some reason for this. That’s ridiculous.

Major! Help!

It is almost as if MS are trying to alienate as many non-US members as possible. The only way to get the message through is to cancel your subscription and tell them your reason why, since you have to phone some Indian to do so. Sooner or later they will listen.

Been waiting for this,and now i cant have it.Great stuff ms.

Can you stop releasing crap on xbla please.. Thank you

Shame, i understand due to policies / rating boards etc some releases are not available in certain regions. Though when the 3 titles were announced on this site, i thought Arkanoid – Great! (i had lots of fun with this as a kid) and was looking forward to the XBLA version. That was the title i was initially going to buy though now its not available in Aus.

Not completely disappointed though, i’ll have to head off and have a look at the other two!

Hopefully Arkanoid eventually becomes available in Au.

Cheers

Crying shame this is not Australia/NZ content. I would have bought this.

@rlan, since they didn’t apply for a OFLC rating for Australia, we didn’t get it,

@cheekyleath, The moderators on the XBOX FORUM always state that there isn’t a XBOX SUPPORT CENTRE in India, but we know now the truth, check out the Seattle times, they was a article in there about 2 years ago, which states that not only is there a call centre there, but that they were trained the speak like they were from seattle!

@ Vegemite…

Just like those calls at evening in Ozland that go “hello mate, theese eez Bruce from Melburne calleeng and i’d like to geev you a free mobile phone mate g’day mate” e.g

Bruce from Melbourne = Ranjeev from Mumbai

Major Nelson from Seattle = ” ”

Remakes of classic games should never cost more than 400 points. *00 points for this is a ripoff.

I think MS are actually trying to stop the recession by tying to start hyper inflation. 100% rise in price over 1 year in classic games

Yeah this should have been a 400 point game, its just Arkanoid with sharper graphics.

I had so much fun with this game. I cant wait to try this version. 800 pts for a straight port is to much but for HD remakes it’s ok to me. Hope its as good as I remember.

I just play the ROM on my DS & PSP… I have no reason to pay $10-$12 for this. Arkanoid was about the gameplay, not the visuals.

Cant seem to download the full version . Getting error code 80153024

Maybe Major should spin off a “US.MAJORNELSON.COM” so you people will quit bitching every time some title is released here that you can’t get. I don’t complain that you people across the pond have better internet and better cell phones than we do so quit complaining. It really, really gets tiring to read. I would just like to see people who have at least TRIED The game to comment on it to help me make a purchase decision.

800pts is fair until you realise that this only comes with 50% of the levels with the rest to follow as DLC.

My guess = for 400 pts.

(1200 after all then…)

Nice, so now MS are hiding the 1200 point games by cutting half of the game out, releasing it for 800 points, then later on selling you the other half.

I think I’ll just stop buying XBLA games all together, shame, but he prices are outrageous.

Full game wont work

Whats this madness? Im in the UK and when i click to Buy Arkanoid Live it says “Cant retrive info from Xbox Live” whats that about……… yet i can dl the trail.

yep – confirmed. the 800pts gets you the first two episodes.

there are four episodes on the main menu.

the achvs only relate to eps 1 and 2.

this is a 1200pt game disguised.

and that fact is mostly hidden in the demo.

M$ are scum.

I like this game and all, but I’m not happy with only getting two episodes when you buy it and more later. And I am also guessing that that DLC is already in the game judging by the size of the trial.

Was looking forward to this but won’t be picking this up after finding out only half of the game is included. Pretty shady MS.

cant download full version. Getting error code 80153024

Wow talk about going behind our backs jeez have to pay for the other half of the game…….. this has put me off buying this title. I sense that space invaders is hiding something because i remember hearing it comes with the retro game as well

i cant download either – is it just a UK issue for some reason

The issue with cant be able to download the full version of this have been at fault all day . Is this going to be fixed .

@Schoon “I don’t complain that you people across the pond have better internet and better cell phones than we do” Well, you not only just did exactly that, but you also did it in a place where it is completely irrelevant. You should be complaining to your internet providers and mobile phone companies about those specific problems. What we are doing in this blog is responding directly to the voice of the company who is providing the service that we are unhappy with. Where else should we be airing our grievances? Also, this is no review site. With just a little bit of searching you will find that there are plenty of those out there for you to visit to find out what the games themselves are like. http://forums.xbox.com/1408/ShowForum.aspx would be my first port of call if I wanted to know anything about this game. As to providing a US only site, I would be all for it. It would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that MS are favouring the home-based subscribers, which they would be entirely entitled to do were it not for the fact that they are actually charging the rest of the world more in real terms for less of a service. All any of us are asking for is to be treated equally.

400 would have been a much better price for this – Space Invaders is the better of the Taito offerings by a long way , and that is worth the 800 price tag.

This isn’t a very good version of Arkanoid. They radically altered the size of the playfield so that, overall, it’s smaller, and the bottommost row of bricks is way closer to the paddle than in the original. But, they’re trying to use level layouts that are similar to the original, so you end up with messed up physics on the level where shots that used to work, don’t work anymore. It kind of messes up the game, I think. I understand they wanted to make it where two playfields could be up at once for 2 player, but like I said, it’s messed up the geometry of the levels. It shouldn’t take 15 minutes to clear one round.

OK.. so why is it not on the UK marketplace?

This confirms it. I’m done buying XBLA games. First it was crap retro games every other week. Then it was raised prices to the “1200 point standard”. Now it’s purposefully disguised crippled games. It was fun while it lasted MS, but I’m done buying XBLA games from you.

I’m still going to hit up Amazon for discount priced codes though.

FULL GAME COSTS 1200!!

As others have said, 800 points only gets you 2 of 4 episodes. To buy the full game, it will cost you 1200 points.

I would have figured MS learned a lesson from Lumines. Isn’t it deceptive that in the marketplace, to buy it you click on “Full Game”. Maybe they should change it to “Half Game” for Arkanoid.

thumbs down

This sux, I was actually looking forward to this.

Oh great not available in Aus, that makes me so god dam happy! thanks for nothing

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Yep Getting error code 80153024 aswell. Had it all day yesterday and still getting the error code today.

@Major Nelson.. Whats up with the uk version of Arkanoid Major?? We cant unlock the full game.

@ Deadly Moves:

It is, just browse under ALL and you’ll find it.

There are not new things in Arkanoid Live. Short intro and menu are the only real new things. For 800 Mp I was expecting for more than only 62 levels (a part of it yet played hours and hours in pc version). To obtain other 62 level you need other bucks. It isn’t for me.
I’m really disappointed. With only 200mp I purchased a much better brick breaker (Bricks4ever a Community Game) that has some new ideas into.
I waited a lot to try Arkanoid Live… a waste of time!

@BBIAJ

Finding it and playing the demo is not the problem.Downloading the full game is,sorry i mean half the game.

why the hell can’t we just use a usb mouse ? terrible controls ruin this game aside from the hidden pricing issues, this is a disaster. i really really wanted to get this NOT HAPPY. ——- anyone know if the spinner on the shitty madcatz arcade controller works with this ?

The full game is now on the UK marketplace. Downloading it this very second

I downloaded it fine (full version), but it refuses to put any of my scores on the leaderboard. The price thing is a real con – if I know Taito it’ll be 400 points EACH for Episodes 3 and 4.

Has anyone called the Better Business Bureau yet? Nowhere on the game’s Xbox page does it say that you have to pay to unlock the rest of the game.

So, I was reading the latest copy of The Official Australian Xbox 360 Magazine, and was excited when I saw a review of ARKANIOD: Live!

Why would it get a review in the OFFICIAL AUSTRALIAN XBOX 360 Magazine and then not get a release here?

I’m incredibly frustrated by this, Major. Once again your deafening silence on this issue is eagerly anticipated…

Well this just isn’t very good. Looks and feels like a Flash game and if the whole “hidden pricing” thing is true then wow, what a dickmove.
Still, just as well it isn’t worth buying in the first place.

MICRO RIP OFF

WOW 800 points for HALF the game?!?! LOL Major Nelson, this is beyond embarrassing. First Lode Runner and now this?! GO F YOURSELVES M$!!!!!!!!! WE ARE NOT F-ING RETARDED. STOP TREATING US LIKE WE ARE.

Wow im glad i hadnt got around to buying this yet
I got space invaders and was going to get arkanoid in a day or 2

800 point trials what next lol

one more game i wont be buying

@ Ozzzy189:
A USB mouse would have been great with this game. If you have the 360 retro Joystick (MadCatz) then you can use the spinner (finally, a use for it), but beware. It’s very jerky and NOT worth the waste of time on it. Very disappointing!

ZOMFG, are you people dumb or something? It’s DLC FFS!!! You can get all the current achievements that are available without the additional episodes, meaning it is the full game you are paying for!!!