Considering Minecraft is all about blocks, it really makes sense to own the game in a box.
Above: Minecraft: Wii U Edition’s box.
Image Credit: Nintendo
Nintendo revealed today that Minecraft: Wii U Edition is now available as a retail release. It came out digitally last December. Minecraft is one of the biggest games in the world, having sold over 100 copies across all of its platforms (which is pretty much all of them, including PC, consoles, and mobile).
The boxed version comes with content that is downloadable for digital version, including the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, which adds models and textures based on Nintendo’s famous series. It also comes with:
Battle & Beasts Skin Pack
Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack
Natural Texture Packs
City Texture Packs
Fantasy Texture Pack
Festive Mash-up
The retail version costs $30, same as the digital one.
The Wii U is nearing the end of its life. Its replacement, the mysterious NX, comes out in March 2017. The Wii U doesn’t have many more games on the horizon (even its most anticipated release, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is also coming out for the NX), so this physical version of Minecraft for the struggling system comes at an opportune time.
The newly-launched Minecraft Battle mini game (free on consoles) is Mojang’s latest attempt to recapture some of the massive market that plays on independent servers on third-party maps. The Battle mini game is pretty simple—it’s a big free-for-all with up to eight players, where you try to kill, hide, and survive, hoping to be the last player standing.
The mini game takes place on a variety of familiar set pieces—an evil lair full of lava, a pirate cove, an ancient temple—and the game spawns weapons, armor, potions, and food in chests around the arena for players to find and fight over.
If this sounds a lot like The Hunger Games to you, then you’ve got the right idea—it’s pretty much exactly like that. The players start in positions around a center platform that is full of chests, usually the ones with the best gear, and then have to race to get there first and get equipped before the brief grace period ends.
Things get pretty savage from then on. If you don’t manage to find any equipment, you’re at the mercy of the better equipped players, who will hunt you down with flaming arrows, exploding potions, diamond swords, or some combination of the above. If you’re clever and quick, you can sometimes escape and find one of the more secretive chests, but just like in The Hunger Games, if you overextend and fail, you’re going to die.
If you’re terrible like me, you might try hiding and waiting for the other players to kill each other off first. That way, you can pick up the gear that gets left behind. Unfortunately, because all of the items that slain players are carrying get dropped on the ground, the best loot tends to accumulate in the hands of one or two players. I found that it only took a minute of match time, generally speaking, to get an idea of who the victor would be.
Winning in this arena relies on a lot of the same instincts that were necessary in older arena games like Quake or Unreal Tournament—it pays to know the map and know the timing on power-ups and items. The more familiar you are with the arena, the more successful you’ll be.
At the end of a match, you are presented with a scorecard that highlights players for their performance, along with fun statistics that tell you how badly you did. Players who die mid-match aren’t forced to languish on a “You Died” type screen, however — they’re allowed to fly around the map as bats and squeak obnoxiously at the players who are still fighting.
The Minecraft Battle mini game definitely has its moments, but the thing is, that Minecraft arenas have been around for years now. Independent arenas tend to have more players, more maps, more features, and more options. Though there is some appeal for console players here, this me-too effort needs to be a lot more compelling to draw players away from the popular and well-established network of PvP servers that already exist.
The main issue for players who aren’t already involved with Minecraft PvP is that the combat here is still incredibly clunky and non-intuitive. Melee combat at its most sophisticated consists of jumping and holding down your attack button and firing a bow is an exercise in frustration at the best of times. There are many people who appear to like Minecraft PvP, but when compared to almost any other competitive combat game, it falls short.
Right now the Minecraft Battle mini game only has a few maps, though it seems that Mojang intends to monetize the mode by selling map packs. It’s too early to comment on the value provided in any meaningful way, but the maps I played were definitely fun and well designed. At $2.99 for three more maps, the pack seems reasonable enough. Given that the Battle mini game is free, it’s definitely worth trying out.
Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.
I am a huge Minecraft fan. So great a fan, in fact, that before last Friday I hadn’t played in about a year. That’s because Minecraft is a bit like the Bat-Signal, and should be fired up only in times of greatest need. Usually it’s the need to escape from something without leaving my spare bedroom. That could be the sudden descent of family upon my abode, unprecedented mountains of laundry, Brexit—anything that I just can’t face right now.
Each time such a crisis arises, I start a new world. Great cities and blocky wonders have been lost to the Recycle Bin or in hardware upgrades, but it doesn’t matter, because I’m not interested in the finished project. Finishing means I’ll have to face up to the fact that my country just voted itself into political oblivion. No, the real escapism lies in the first few days and nights, when you’re alone and unequipped in an infinite, empty world.
Loading into a new world—after a few experiments with seeds, of course—is like the first sip of icy water on a blazing summer’s day. Everything around you is clear, simple and refreshing, both in the literal sense of the signature aesthetic and in the ritual I must perform.
The sacred Building Of The First Hut (or Digging Of The First Hole, depending on how long I’ve spent placidly wandering) is the first opportunity to collect my thoughts. My brain disconnects as my muscle memory carries me through the task of punching trees, getting wood, making a table, crafting a pick, gathering stone and cobbling it into an appalling hovel.
Architectural concerns are secondary. Later, depending on the magnitude of the real-world problem that forced me to seek refuge, huts become halls and fields turn to fortifications. Right now we’re looking at a 1:1 reimagining of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
It’s really about lasting the first few nights, though. Minecraft sparked the survival fashion, so despite its rudimentary mechanics it that regard, it’s still the quintessential wilderness. That is, until I can afford to build a real log cabin deep in British Columbia and live as a hermit with only a faithful hound for company.
Played like this, Minecraft is an infinite source of solitude. The thought of its many bustling multiplayer servers is horrifying. Sometimes it’s good to be antisocial for the sake of your sanity, and on those occasions, Minecraft has just the empty expanse for you.
Last month I posted about the contents of the “beta” Mine Chest. If this is the first you’ve heard of it, the basic idea is the same as all those other swag box subscriptions. $29.99 a month gets you a shipment of Minecraft swag, about every 30 days, and it’s filled with some exclusive stuff you can only get via this service. This month was pretty similar to last month, in that there was a shirt, a sticker, a stamp, and other little trinkets.
The outside of the box itself looks the same, last month’s box looked like a wood block when you opened it up, and we’ve got a new material this time around, but the same basic load out of a t-shirt and a post card on top. This month’s post card has a neat 3D lenticular effect:
Here’s the back of the post card:
And the full shirt:
Getting deeper into the box yields this month’s stamp and ink pad:
The sticker (which got a little messed up in packaging):
A Hotwheels mine cart:
Two of these mystery figures:
Inside they come wrapped in a black bag so you can’t see what they are, here’s the two I got:
Last, but not least is the IRL crafting recipe:
Aaaaand here’s the instructions to make the Ghast Kite:
So, yeah, that’s this month’s Mine Chest. As an adult without kids, it’s real hard to gauge the value propositions of these boxes. Last month had a coffee cup which was pretty cool, but aside from maybe wearing the shirt, there’s nothing here for me. Maybe if I had kids they’d be super into these mini figures? Either way, if this stuff looks cool and you want a Mine Chest of your own you can sign up over on their site.
Scottish videogame entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl came to Perth on Thursday this week to launch an exciting new interactive exhibition at Perth Museum and Art Gallery celebrating the evolution of videogames.
The chairman of Dundee based 4J Studios, the developers of Minecraft: Console Edition, took the opportunity to play classic games on computers and consoles from the 80s to the present day.
He said: “To see the history of console gaming in one room is incredibly exciting for anyone involved in this industry – like many I grew up playing with many of the consoles featured.
“The fact that gamers of all ages will have a chance to play on these consoles is even more fun. It’s a definite summer holiday destination for all the family.”
The exhibition features a catalogue of consoles for visitors, from passionate gamers to videogame novices, and will run until September 18.
Entry to the exhibition is £3 for adults, £2 for concessions and £10 for a family ticket (two adults, two children). To find out more about the exhibition visit
