Vigilante 8: Arcade

Each vehicle has a custom special weapon to use once you pick up special weapon ammo within the stage. These special weapons may be the deciding factor toward which vehicles will become your car of choice. With weapons ranging from a giant car speaker sending sonic boom sound waves to a satellite dish summon miniature flying saucers; you will appreciate and make heavy use of these specialized attacks.

Something negative must be said about the controls. They are best described as annoyingly floaty. The vehicles have the physics of a balloon filled with just enough helium to bounce loftily but not enough to ascend. Your vehicle will constantly be tipping over or thrown off course by the slightest bump like crossing railroad tracks. This can be remedied by quickly tapping the control stick to one side to attempt to jerk your vehicle upright.

This adds another level of unwanted challenge because you are constantly fighting to just control your car. Without momentum, turning will also be your enemy. If you stop alongside a vehicle you will most likely enter an epic turning battle where both sides are unable to turn away from each other due to each others wide angle turn preventing each other to move apart.

Mode of play options involves a Quest mode to destroy vehicles on 3 separate arenas with a boss (armored bus) fight in the final arena. Completing the Quest mode with each character will unlock their vehicle model from original Vigilante 8 game from 1998.

There is also the addition of Quick Battle and Custom Battle modes that let you go head to head with friends online or split-screen. The three difficulty settings add more opponents to face off against in an arena. Although with Custom Battles, you have the option to place in bots to add for more hectic but fun arena battles.

For 800 Microsoft Points you get exactly enough game for what you’re paying for. Here is a vehicular combat game that does not go beyond but sticks to what it was trying to accomplish.

If you were a fan of the original series or the old Twisted Metal games, “Arcade” will definitely entertain you for a while.

The four player local split-screen does make for at least one fun game night with friends.

There is a demo available on Xbox LIVE to try out before you decide to finalize your purchase. It makes for decent mindless diversion while waiting for other bigger games during this holiday season.