The concept of releasing an Xbox Live Arcade title to coincide with a new retail title is nothing new, as done most recently with the re-imagined Bionic Commando. Yet, Peter Molyneux has never been satisfied with just doing what has been done before. Molyneux reaches for new ground again with Fable 2 tie-in, Pub Games, with the first XBLA title to feed data into the new retail game to give you a bonus for playing it. The three casino-type games are all re-imagined takes on existing games, but fresh enough to earn them their unique names.
Spinnerbox is easily the worst of the three. It is about as productive and interactive as sitting at a slot machine in real-life. The game provides a triangular wooden box with three slots on it for various pictures to land. As you progress through the game, additional spinnerboxes are unlocked to give you more slots, but you are unlikely to stick around on this one that long. Though you only need to match two slots to win, it is just as cruel and difficult as a real slot machine. While the other two modes offer some logic, Spinnerbox becomes a constant stream of pressing 'A' to spin again. You might want to vary your bet from time to time, just to keep yourself awake.
What Spinnerbox lacks in terms of control and interactivity, Keystone provides. In a clever combination of craps and roulette, Keystone provides you with the most opportunities to bet. The game begins with you placing 'outside' bets on the sixteen half-circle worth of stones on the table. Your initial bets are that these stones will not be around at the end of the game. After that round of betting, players begin placing 'inside' bets based on the outcome of the next roll. Similar to a roulette table, they allow you to bet on individual numbers, number ranges, odd versus even, and specific rolls of the three dice. When the dice is rolled, the stone matching the total of the three is removed from the board. This continues, with a round of 'inside' betting for each roll, until either the three or eighteen stone, or both the ten and eleven stones (considered the 'keystones') are gone. If the stone for the corresponding dice roll is already gone, the game removes the stone next to it instead. All this betting and rolling makes Keystone the most active, and potentially productive, of the games offered.
Fortune's Tower is the best of the bunch, leaving you in a constant state of second-guessing yourself, like a solid gambling experience should. It is laid out like pyramid solitaire, but in reverse. Rather than working your way up to the top, the game begins with only the upper three cards. Your winnings tie directly to the numerical total across the row. After each successful row, you have the option to continue down to the next row or take the money and run. With only two cards, the first row score is almost never worth grabbing, but the game's offer to continue down the rows to the bottom comes with risk. If a card in the bottom row touches a card of the same value above it, the game could end quickly.
There are two occasions where the game can continue. First, if the top card is still available, which begins the game facing down, it will replace the 'burnt' card. Assuming there are no other 'burnt' cards in the row, and the card is not the same number it is replacing, the game can continue. The other way is if a 'hero' card is in the same row. The knight-shaped face card prevents any burnt cards in that row from ending the game. Bets for those who reach the bottom of the tower are based on the entire total of the eight rows rather than just the row you normally stop on.
Each of the three offers tournaments against computer opponents. The on-screen display of each other players' score is a nice touch that never leaves you guessing as to your standing. In the event that you run out of chips, you can always borrow from the 'bank'. The game does keep track of exactly how much gold you owe back to them, so with only six characters to build up debt on you might want to play smart. Whether or not you get hand smashed by a ball-peen hammer for not paying off your debt remains to one of a few open questions as to the interactivity with Fable 2.
Though the presentation is solid, with a fantastically light fantasy theme with a medieval undercurrent and great art design, it lacks personality. You have six characters to choose from, with an additional six slots for your eventual heroes from the game, but you rarely even seen the sketch of the one you choose. They really serve as six generic accounts to store your winnings or debt. It all feels a little dry in the end, likely leaving those not already sold on the game a little under whelmed. The lack of Live support is unfortunate, as it would be a blast to play through online tournaments against real opponents. With Fable 2 not yet released, it is hard to tell how much gold to shoot for, or whether the unlockable items are worth the trouble.
Pub Games is a nice bonus to those pre-ordering Fable 2, but is far from worthy of your $10 otherwise. It is a great concept, but it ultimately feels as though they missed the mark; and more importantly, may have blown a chance to get unsure gamers sold on their upcoming game.
