One of the many pleasant surprises of CES was the low down on the addition of a Game Room to the Xbox 360. The Game Room is an interactive online arcade where avatars can mingle and play classic arcade games. Game Room will launch in the Spring and will initially feature 30 games, with over 1,000 additional retro titles over the next 3 years.

The initial batch of games are arcade, Atari 2600 and Intellivision titles:

1. Centipede (arcade)

2. Asteroids Deluxe (arcade)

3. Tempest (arcade)

4. Crystal Castles (arcade)

5. Lunar Lander (arcade)

6. Jungler (arcade)

7. Road Fighter (arcade)

8. Scramble (arcade)

9. Finalizer (arcade)

10. Tutankham (arcade)

11. Shao-Lin’s Road (arcade)

12. Super Cobra (arcade)

13. Red Baron (arcade)

14. Gravitar (arcade)

15. Battlantlis (arcade)

16. Astrosmash (Intellivision)

17. Mountain Madness Super Pro Skiing (Intellivision)

18. Armor Battle (Intellivision)

19. Space Hawk (Intellivision)

20. Sub Hunt (Intellivision)

21. Sea Battle (Intellivision)
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22. Space Armada (Intellivision)

23. Astrosmash (Intellivision)

24. Star Raiders (Atari 2600)

25. Outlaw (Atari 2600)

26. Yar’s Revenge (Atari 2600)

27. Millipede (Atari 2600)

28. Football (Atari 2600)

29. RealSports Tennis (Atari 2600)

30. Combat (Atari 2600)

Don’t get too excited though, Microsoft’s not just going to let you play in their Game Room for free. That would be preposterous! And so out of character for them! We wouldn’t want you guys to start thinking they’re like Sony and just handing things out for free. Nope they’re going to stick with their tired and true ways by nickel-and-diming you all the way to poor house.

All kidding aside, the pricing seems pretty fair. $5 gets you the arcade cabinet of your choice playable on both your Xbox 360 and PC. $3 will get you the same, with the exception of PC compatibility. And if you want to kick it old school, it’s .50 per play.

My problem with the Game Room is that it seems to be a mini version of Playstation’s Home, where mini-games are aplenty and free. Microsoft charges an annual fee to play online and participate in its community, so charging for features like the Game Room seem a bit ridiculous. I can see charging users who are not already Gold Members, but all of us who are should have complete access to the area, for free. If Sony can do it, Microsoft most certainly can as well, they are just choosing not to.

In complete honesty the majority of these titles are not even worth their .50 pay-per-play fee. Until games from systems like the NES, SNES, and Sega start to appear I don’t see much appeal to modern gamers (the former, will never happen). Maybe it’s just me but I have a hard time shelling out $5 for Centipede, when updated/remixed versions of the game already exist on the Xbox Marketplace for the same price.

What are your feelings towards the new Game Room? Are you dying to get a few cabinets for your personal collection or are you appalled that they are charging for a service that should be free to Gold Members?