Review: Vigilante 8 (XBLA)

Rewind to the 1970s and you’ll find yourself in the midst of funk music, tricked out vans with shag carpeting and an array of people who felt being cool was the most important thing in life. This is the feeling you get from the retro-title Vigilante 8 on the Xbox Live Arcade. A clear remake of the original Playstation title of the same name, this game is treated to a high definition update for the current generation Xbox 360. Unfortunately the era of gaming where vehicular combat is still cool went the way of disco music.

Gameplay

Getting into the game is as simple as selecting a quick match, custom match or quest match. Career is where you’ll go if you want to unlock different versions of the standard cars available. Entering combat will feel instantly familiar to anyone who played the original title on the Sony Playstation. You begin as whatever car you choose armed with nothing more than a machine gun mounted somewhere on the vehicle. It becomes apparent quickly that you must race towards the many mines, mortars and missiles scattered around the playing field. In Quest mode you’ll never be up against three opponents at once which is a bit disheartening as the original game pitted eight opponents on the field at a time causing mass destruction. With three, there are never really those moments where you’re surrounded by utter chaos. For that, you’ll have to launch a custom match.

One aspect of the game that has changed and comes off as refreshing over the original is the addition of salvage points. If you kill your opponent in flashy ways, you earn salvage points which actually add to your current hit points and allow you to purchase add-ons to your vehicles. The unfortunate part is these add-ons seem contrived at best and never make you feel like they’re worth their weight. It is fun, however to completely demolish your opponents and see scads of these iconic nuts and bolts fly from their burning carcass.

I can easily see how the meat of the game is in the multiplayer, it’s just unfortunate that no one on XBLA has this game and makes themselves available for online play. Loading up the multiplayer screen will have you searching endlessly for an opponent.

Graphics

Getting a high definition update is a welcomed improvement over the original graphics and they look sharp. The sparkle effects on the weapons look great and they managed to keep the original look and feel of the game, however the graphics are not perfect. There were quite a few times where I noticed stuttering camera angles as the game tried to right it’s orientation to your position on the map. It doesn’t take away from the look of the game, but it does distract your own immersion when everything seems fine only to be met with stuttering.

Sound

A game set in the 70s wouldn’t be complete without its own funkadelic set of background music tracks. Vigilante 8 doesn’t try and hide its roots by delivering period correct music and keeps the groove going while you’re pounding rockets at a Volkswagen Baja Bug or Panel Van. The music does get a bit repetitive, but its fitting to the overall feel of the game, so its never intrusive. As far as the weapons, they sound as they should. Mortars whistle as they reign down from the heavens, rockets propel with thrust and the machine gun sounds as if it should.

Controls

Driving around the map will leave you with a floating feeling as the cars don’t really handle all that well, which is fine since you’re not technically racing. Selecting weapons are as simple as hitting the appropriate face button which prominently stares you in the face on the screen. Everything flows pretty well control wise if you can get over the feeling of driving on a cushion of air.

Conclusion

Vigilante 8 is a nice throwback to the original game that came out on the Playstation, but ultimately ends up feeling like it should have been left in that era. The time when vehicular combat was king has long since passed and this game should be purchased if you’re looking for an updated nostalgic game. While the single player is fun, it feels half realized and although multiplayer is where the game would shine, finding partners is a test in patience in itself.