Minecraft:360
Platform: Xbox 360
Overall Score: 7/10
Graphics Score: 8/10
Game play Score: 4/10
Minecraft for the Xbox 360 is, and is not, made by Mojang. The core Minecraft game we all know and love is made by Mojang, but the 360 port was not. It was done by a third party company, with instructions and help from Mojang as needed. Because of this, it does have some flaws that are apparent compared to the PC version of Minecraft.
First off, you can't play with your PC friends, as Minecraft on the 360 uses your Live gamer tag and does not auth against the Minecraft.net servers. So it is console only, but I have yet to really try the MP of Minecraft:360 as I do not have anyone to try it with.
Controlling your character in Minecraft, is well the same as any game on any console. It works, but you cannot use a keyboard and mouse. I've tried it and it failed as it is not an input option.
Crafting is a big thing in Minecraft, and while I like mods like CraftBook to help you out with the recipes, in the PC version you still have to craft it yourself. On the other hand, in the 360 version it becomes: you have supplies, select the item and it will auto craft for you. I could not figure out a way to perform 'normal' crafting as you do on the PC in the 360 version.
A benefit of the 360 that is not yet seen on the PC, is that the client and server are combined. You no longer play SP, you play SMP. This makes it very easy to open your world to friends on the fly and continue playing.
One very noticeable down side on the 360 is that it is at least 4 major versions behind the PC counter part. Hunger wasn't an option in my game, and you could still shear sheep by hitting them with your hand. These would put this version of Minecraft around the 1.7-1.8 time line, which is to be expected, since that is about the time when Mojang announced it being ported to the 360. If you are used to the 1.0+ features of the game, they sadly are not there, nor are most of the additional world biomes. In addition to it being an earlier version, it also lacks creative mode, from what I experienced.
The last major issue I experienced with the 360 version is the torch lighting. Even above ground, it only has a dim light up to 3 blocks in distance, as opposed to the fade out distance of up to 8 blocks seen in the PC version. This causes you to use more torches per area to light.
Overall, at 113-120 MB in size, I would suggest a Pass on this version of Minecraft. There is no need to go out and spend the 1600 MS Points the game itself costs. If you have the extra points doing nothing as I did, I'd get it. But it isn't the first choice in what games to purchase in the Arcade.
Proof read by El-Destructo