Customer Reviews

PopCap Arcade Vol. 1 (Bejeweled 2, Astro Pop, Feeding Frenzy, Zuma)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you price these separately on Xbox Live Marketplace, you'll find that this collection on disc is actually a decent value. And unlike purchasing the digital download equivalents from Xbox Live Marketplace, you will be able to resell this disc later if you no longer want it.

Of the four games, the most entertaining games for me are probably "Feeding Frenzy" and "Zuma". "Feeding Frenzy" is somewhat easy to complete, offering two different modes -- a basic 'career' mode and then a 'timed' mode. The controls are decent, requiring twitchy thumb movements because your "fish" never actually stops floating in the play area. "Zuma" is addictive -- it gets very fast-paced and hectic and you'll find your heart racing at times just trying to stay ahead of the increasingly challenging levels. The music is extremely entertaining and addictive. "Bejeweled" comes in as my third favorite, and is a very simple game to understand and play. If you've played Hexix HD, and you can find patterns in colors, you can play "Bejeweled". "Astropop" made the least impression on me, and is not the type of game I enjoy playing. It involves building groups of like-colored blocks in order to "pop" them, as they descend from the top of the screen, with the goal to clear the screen. It's not a difficult game, but after a short while I did not find it very entertaining.

What is odd about the collection is the way it runs from the Xbox 360 console. When you insert the disc, the game disc will load, and then deposit you back on the 360's dashboard, in your list of Arcade titles where the games will be listed. When you select a game from the list, the disc spins-up, and the game starts. I probably would have preferred an on-disc menu -- in other words, if you start the disc, you can select one of the four games from a "game" menu. The game disc runs/spins the entire time you are playing, so your console ends up being much louder than if you purchased the downloadable content versions from the Marketplace. This is unfortunate since the games are very small in size.

The games include the same achievements that are available in the downloadable versions, so there is a total of 800 achievement points available. The achievements are somewhat challenging, which gives this collection excellent replay value, depending upon how much you like each of the individual titles.

Overall, a good collection for the money, with decent replay value, and potentially good future resale value as well.

PopCap Aracade Hits Vol. 1 is a collection of games that were playable through Xbox Live. Now, if you missed out on any of these games, now is your chance to play them!

Bejeweled: Probably the best game of the bunch. A modern-like Tetris involving jems instead of blocks, and they don't come free-falling so you have time to make a match. Match three identical jems in a pattern to blast them off the board. There are four different modes to play, and I would recommend first-timers play endless mode to pratice before you start problem solving mode or building a score in the normal mode. This game is truly addictive!

Astro Pop: It's like a classic arcade game, grab blocks and blast them away. For me, I didn't prefer this game much.

Feeding Frenzy: Fun for any age! Eat fish that are smaller than you to grow bigger and advance through the different stages to become top of the food chain. The last floor is the most challenging, and it might drive you nuts after awhile!

Zuma: Problem-solving game. Shoot balls to make a combo and keep the balls from falling into the golden skull. The further you advance in the game, the faster the balls move. You've gotta' be quick fingers to do this game!

Overall: A nice set of arcade games that are hours of non-stop fun! Custom soundtracks are available for all these games if you want to play by your own tunes. Recommended for all ages!

My sister and I are addicted to these games and I've gotten my girlfriend wanting to play now too :)

I don't have this compilation disc, though i would of preferred it cuz i love zuma. My disc consists of Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Uno, Pac-Man, and Boom Boom Rocket.

I bought it for feeding frenzy. i have been playing the pc demo and the 360 demo continuously. I don't have xbox live, so i bought the game instead.

All these games are so simple yet very addicting. You can be any age to play them. I'm 30 and i play feeding frenzy. I love the game. It took me a very long time to find it for sale locally and i finally just got it yesterday. Usually these simple games you can find at an Office Max or Office Depot for like $5-$10, but I haven't seen Feeding Frenzy at all anywhere. No one would even do a special order for me, because I guess it's been discontinued for 360 (since you can just buy it for PC anyways).

if you have a console, buy it for 360. It's so much cheaper. Popcap will charge you $20 to download it for PC. Yes, it will work w/ Vista (even though it says for XP an earlier. I have Vista, worked fine for me. If anything, it was faster.)

Demos are free to try, and I suggest getting the demo from Popcap. They're the only site that is so far, trusted. I got it from them first, but i also tried from Gamestop.com and Gamestop's had a Trojan Horse in theirs, so don't go to Gamestop, their demo download is infected. Thankfully, my antivirus caught it.

Feeding Frenzy alone is def worth the $20, but i didn't want to spend anymore then $10. I ended up spending $5

This game has 4 games in one; what more could you ask for the price you pay? It is true that these games are a bit basic, and none are a full length RPG or anything, but they are very fun anyway no matter how old you are.

These games are probably a little better for children because they are simple enough that a child can play them, yet puzzling enough to challenge them.

Overall, these games are fun to play if you have a few minutes to kill and just want some quick fun.

I bought this game thinking that Bejeweled would be the most sought after by my family. Boy was I wrong, Zuma has been the winner on this disc. Bejeweled still gets played when we get frustrated with Zuma. AstroPop is interesting but not very fun, good for achievements if you are into that kind of thing. Feeding Frenzy is fun for about 5 minutes every now and again. Overall I have gotten my moneys worth out of it, hope you enjoy it too.

These are great puzzle type games! When I need to relax and unwind, I just pop this in and have a great time. The best value for a game so far. Thanks!

bought this for myself since these are the games I play online. but then my wife took over & I'm even lucky to play it at all. the controls are different from playing on my computer, but with a little time easy to master on my 360. would recommend this game for a good past time.

This is a really fun game. There are several games on there that will appeal to kids and adults of all ages. I highly recommend it.

At first I couldn't figure out how to open it it wouldn't play the disk you have to go into your game folder and pick an individual game. Kinda lame. Also I love Zuma but this version sucks. Very hard to control. Half of the games play well.