Minecraft Dungeons is Getting Turned Into an Arcade Cabinet
By Emily Bell
The heydays of arcades may be behind us, but that hasn’t stopped the trend of games that have previously released on consoles and PC making the backward leap onto arcade cabinets. The latest game to make this transition is Minecraft Dungeons, the top-down Diablo-esque dungeon crawler. Mojang, the Swedish developer that created the all-conquering megahit, has teamed up with Play Mechanix to create a custom version of Minecraft Dungeons specifically tailored to this retro platform.
Image: Mojang
It’s not the first platform that would come to mind, but Play Mechanix wants to make this arcade version a great experience in its own right, with a control scheme that is inclusive of newcomers. The game is ever so slightly different from the original console and PC version, with nine levels and dedicated buttons for melee attacks, dodging, and ranged attacks laid out on the cabinet. The game doesn’t support saving in the traditional sense, instead opting to use physical save cards. Will Carlin, creative director at Play Mechanix, explains:
When you play the game, you collect gems and [defeat enemies], which fills your card meter. Once card meters are full, they activate, and you can use them to defeat enemies all around you. Every time you play the game, a card will be given that is yours to keep.”
The original release of Minecraft Dungeons released almost a year ago and received a mostly positive reception, but the consensus was that it didn’t hold up to other games in its genre, or even Minecraft itself. Despite having Minecraft in the name, the game featured no mining or crafting, which was an interesting choice. The dev team followed the game up with a number of DLC levels and content to add to that experience.
It’s also worth mentioning that the game, like so many Xbox first-party titles before it, is available for no extra cost for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, so it’s no harm in downloading and trying out. Very recently, Game Pass members got a new selection of games to play through the months of February – if you’ve given Minecraft Dungeons a go recently, what did you think of it? Leave us a comment below.
