Title Update 9 Review: Minecraft (Xbox)

Title Update 9 was just released today, we just played it, and here's a review from us. Heehee, enjoy. 

Review

The first thing that you realise that is different when you go back into a Creative Mode world, is that they added Spawn Eggs. I love this feature, and I believe you do too! It gives a much easier way to spawn mobs in the Xbox 360 Edition and I am glad that they added it in this update.

The Xbox's simple and easy-to-use Creative interface makes spawn eggs easily found. All you need to do is to click LT while holding a spawn egg and the mob appears.

This is one of the highlights in the update that we love.

Another great feature available in TU9 is The End. I believe 4J Studios has put in a lot of effort into this, and the feel of The End is even better and darker on the TV Screen while playing on the Xbox.

You are on the edge of your seat when you try defeating the Ender Dragon. It shoots Ender Acid, a new feature only on the Xbox 360 Edition and it is a LOT more fun on the TV screen, it is purely amazing.

And instead of showing end credits after you kill the Ender Dragon and when you are about to head back to the Overworld, it shows you an amazingly long typed-out dialogue of two 'gods'. It is an awesome experience for first-timers like me, and that's The End for you Xbox players.

Even though there are these new amazing features, there is an outrageous set-back. There is a bug that does not allow you to go back to your previously saved worlds.

That makes the Xbox 360 Edition like Minecraft PE Lite, where you cannot even save worlds and look at your previous creations. 4J Studios should really do something about it within 2 weeks; it is a horrid bug indeed.

NOT THAT TYPE OF BUG YOU NOOB!!! LAGGING...CRASHING, THOSE BUGS!!!

That's all we will specifically cover on as they are the 2 most significant features and the one most significant bug in the update, but here are the other features:

Changes and Additions

- Added Climbable Vines.
- Added Fire Charge, Wooden Button, Item Frames, Sandstone Stairs, Spruce Stairs, Birch Stairs, Nether Bricks, Spruce Planks, Birch Planks, Nether Brick Slab, Spruce Slab and Birch Slab.
- Added new music for The End and The Nether from C418
- Made buckets and signs stackable.
- Sheep now re-grow their wool after shearing.
- New gravel texture.
- Can now smelt Netherrack into a Nether Brick in a Furnace.
- Blacksmith buildings in Villages now hold chests with loot of the same type as found in Strongholds.
- Crafting recipe change - Sign recipe gives three Signs.
- Crafting recipe change - Half Slab recipes give six Half Slabs.
- Crafting recipe change - Stone Button now requires one block of stone instead of two.
- Added smoother color transitions between biomes.
- Added beaches to terrain generation.
- Fence Gates can now be opened and closed with Redstone.
- Changed Nether Fortress to make Nether Wart rooms more likely.
- Made Nether Wart spawn randomly wherever Soul Sand is generated in the Nether.
- Nether Wart will now grow in the Overworld.
- Made Dispenser dispense mobs from Spawn Eggs, rather than the egg itself.
- Dispenser will dispense lava/water from a Bucket of Lava/Water.
- Dispenser will shoot Fire Charges.
- Trapdoors can be placed on half slabs and stairs
- Allow players to block with a sword when the ‘Can Build And Mine’ option is unchecked by the host.
- Moved six of the twelve music disc quests in the Tutorial World
- Changed the Tutorial world to add climbable Vines, and some of the new items, and removed/reduced the items in the Brewing, Farming and Breeding chests.
- Don't show the achievements warning when loading a creative map that has already been saved in creative mode.
- Reduced the volume of the Ghast sound effects.
- Increased the distance jukeboxes can be heard from.
- Improved lighting code performance.
- Improved the loading/saving time.
- Changed the display order in the Minecraft Store to show newest DLC first.
- Added How To Play for The End and Farming Animals
- Added HUD size options for both splitscreen and full screen modes.
- Added Reset Nether option to force regeneration of The Nether. This is helpful for older saves that didn't have a Nether Fortress.
- Added a toggle for Death Messages.
- Added a toggle to hide or display the animated character in the User Interface.
- Allow individual splitscreen users to have their own settings for HUD.

Fixes

- Fix for a Nether portal crash due to Ghast fireballs
- Fix for Cave Spider size.
- Fixed Experience Orb pickup sound not having pitch variance.
- Fixed a crash when attaching Glowstone to Pistons.
- Fixed a render update problem on the end of world chunks
- Fixed a crash with players throwing Enderpearls and leaving the game.
- Stop the player animation for eating happening in the Change Skin menu

So, in overall, TU9 is my favourite update in Minecraft (Xbox), which features The End, and Spawn Eggs! But it also has probably the worst bug in Minecraft XBLA history-you cannot open your previously saved worlds!

The next significant Minecraft update coming out is the 0.7.0 update for the Pocket Edition, which should feature online multiplayer (servers!) and buckets.