Review by Bobo The Clown
"Kicked Butt Back In The Day When It Worked"
The X-Band modem was a special modem device that for the Super Nintendo. You plugged it into the cartridge slot of your SNES and then put a game on top of the prongs of the X-Band.
After that, you would hook up a phone line, and voila! You were hooked up to the X-Band network. You could now play such classic games as Street Fighter and NBA Jam online with people from all over the United States. Also available was the ability to ''type'' with a cursor, thus allowing trash talk, albeit slow.
X-Band had it's own little community. There was player rankings for each game, showing you the top dawgs, a news page for the latest news, and many other uber-cool features. It even had it's own little operating system and a hidden mini-game.
The games were amazingly smooth, considering that the Internet wasn't really around when the service was launched. You receieved service on a credit system. Around 20 bucks monthly was the standard fare for 30 to 40 connects, plus long distance fees to whatever local access number you needed to call. If you got disconnected in the middle of a game, it would hold the game for you until you got back.
In case you didn't notice, this entire review has been in the past tense, unfortunately. Catapault, the provider's of the X-Band modem, closed down the service. It was canceled due to waning support and the soon-to-be arrival of the advanced generation Saturn and Playstation games.
So why write this review? Well, a lot of people are still under the false guise that the X-Band still exists ;) Hopefully, I'm dissuading some people from buying one and expecting service. The only purpose that the X-Band serves is as a momento of the glory days of gaming, or if you want to play the hidden minigame. If you want multiplayer online console gaming, you'll have to wait for SegaNet to launch.
Because the X-Band has no real practical value and enjoyment in present times, I'm a bit forced to give it a low score. This is a ''collector's only'' item, forced to be sat next to BOB, the Virtual Boy, and the Power Pad.
Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/00, Updated 08/02/00
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