Vigilante 8: Arcade coming to XBLA

by Scott Jon Siegel { Feb 15th 2008 at 8:00AM }

Activision will breathe new life into the vehicular combat series Vigilante 8, when Vigilante 8: Arcade lands on Xbox Live Arcade this spring. The game will incorporate content from the first two Vigilante 8 titles, as well as introduce new features, and feature online multiplayer for up to six players.

Vigilante 8: Arcade is being developed by Isopod Labs, a studio founded by members of the original Vigilante 8 team from Luxoflux. The new title will feature eight vehicles, local split-screen multiplayer, voice support for online matches, and the inevitable promise of future downloadable content.

The original Vigilante 8 was released for Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 back in 1998, with the sequel arriving on Dreamcast, N64 and PS1 in 1999. As the original games were developed in direct competition with the Twisted Metal series, it's likely that Vigilante 8: Arcade is planned to compete with the secretly announced Twisted Metal title on PS3. We'll have to see which car battler will come out on top.

Tags: activision, isopod, isopod-labs, vigilante-8, vigilante-8-arcade, xbla

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paul @ Feb 15th 2008 8:16AM

I'm hoping to see the return of Team Fast myself.

Tiptup300 @ Feb 15th 2008 10:40AM

GET TO THE BACK OF MUH BUS!

HAHA!

McWeen @ Feb 15th 2008 8:19AM

I really liked the Vigilante games. I wonder if they will include the N64 exclusive level.

Co @ Feb 15th 2008 8:26AM

I wonder if they'll put the N64 version on the VC. Hell, I wonder if ANY 3rd party N64 game will ever show up on the VC.

(Sin & Punishment published by Nintendo)

Jtenma @ Feb 15th 2008 8:32AM

In b4 vigilante 8 is now better than Twisted Metal

*sigh

Personally, I would love to see a true sequel though, and this is likely testing grounds to see if they should do just that.

Draken Stark @ Feb 15th 2008 8:32AM

I thought the original had 13 cars

Draken Stark @ Feb 15th 2008 8:44AM

In the original there are 8 cars, but 5 were unlockable. Maybe they dont want noobs to know that, or do I smell gimped downloadble content?

Ahh Dreamland 64, how your music is so catchy. I miss you...

What?

FidliousWong @ Feb 15th 2008 8:38AM

Four player local split or fuck this game....

Jtenma @ Feb 15th 2008 8:46AM

I agree...sir Fidlious

Travis @ Feb 15th 2008 8:39AM

i used to love these car games...the genre just seemed to have died...bring it back!

RobLink @ Feb 15th 2008 8:45AM

Never played the Vigilante 8 games back in the days of the old 64. They looked good though, so I'll definitely be giving this a go when it comes out.

capt_carl @ Feb 15th 2008 8:57AM

I wanted Interstate '76 so bad when I was a kid, but my computer couldn't run it. D:

mikeypop @ Feb 15th 2008 9:35AM

Same here, man that's a game I wish they would update. Wasn't Vigilante 8 the console spinoff of Interstate 76? (a quick trip to wikipedia confirms it was)

LaughingTarget @ Feb 15th 2008 3:12PM

I76 was a freaking awesome game for its time. It was one of those games that showed off the whole GLide thing when 3dfx was still the shit. If anything, Twisted Metal copied I76 (the Vigilante 8 precursor).

Phranctoast @ Feb 15th 2008 9:05AM

vigilante 8 was is one of the reasons twisted metal 3 and 4 were so bad (and of course jaffe having nothing to do with them being the other). V8 had more realistic physics that TM tried to replicate in those two games. Made the game more cumbersome than fun. lost the feel of the 1 and 2

JayVe @ Feb 15th 2008 9:30AM

Sorry, but David Jaffe is a talentless hack with a big mouth. His idea of a great game involves more explosions and boobies. Jaffe is the Michael Bay of game developers. Some people like 'em both, but they aren't great by any stretch of the imagination.

FidliousWong @ Feb 15th 2008 9:53AM

Methinks you buy into the Jaffe-hate much too quickly. Jaffe is not an A level designer by any means. In fact, he's stated multiple times he's a B level designer. So there goes that ego knock. Second, how can a man responsible for Mickey Mania be a "big tits and explosions" guy? Especially since, of his career, the only game which even fit that description was God of War. I mean, even when Twisted Metal gave us a bigger idea of the personalities in the cars, they were all suprisingly well dressed and about average in the cleavage department.

The part which is abrasive for most about Jaffe is he really doesn't have a mouthpiece. He's unfiltered. Essentially he's that guy who got a job as a game tester, had a ton of great ideas, got promoted to game design, but never really outgrew his "that's fucking awesome" stage. Which is good because as I've stated several times, he's one of the few prominent designers who would readily get drunk with you playing pool and talking about game design philosophy.

Now if we were talking about Itagaki... that's a whole other matter. I mean, really... what other designer drives his motorcycle through Akihabara anytime his game launches?

Ryan Henson Creighton @ Feb 15th 2008 9:59AM

i stopped reading EGM when it became Electronic Jaffe Monthly. Every bloody issue had at least one interview with him or story about him. Jaffe and CliffyB became two names i could stand to never hear for the rest of my life.

Phranctoast @ Feb 15th 2008 10:00AM

you may not like him because of his big mouth, but if you think he's talentless, you are retarded.

Twisted Metal 1, 2, Black and God of War are some of the finest games. Metacritic them. Im not the only one who believes this.

zero2dash @ Feb 15th 2008 10:02AM

^^^ amen to that

Poisoned Al @ Feb 15th 2008 10:06AM

Aw screw Vigilante 8! It was just Interstate '76 dumbed down for the console 'tards. Which is amazing becuase there wasn't much to dumb down in the first place.

Make a new Interstate game dammit!

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 15th 2008 10:16AM

i am honestly jealous of the strategy that XBLA takes when they release old games. for me, the nostalgia factor doesnt last too long and i always end up thinking "this isnt as fun as i remembered" but XBLA takes the old games and adds new elements to them and makes them more up to date while preserving what you liked about the game in the first place. updated graphics and online multiplayer would be enough to get to me to actually buy some of the PSOne Classics and VC titles. most of the time, if there is a game that i liked back in the day, i already owned it, so rebuying the exact same game doesnt really appeal to me especially when i have the actual game and the console in working condition. i wont buy a 360 just for the arcade stuff though so here is hoping that Nintendo and Sony wise up and spruce up their old games before they release them.

btw, me and my brother used to play the hell out of Vigilante 8. i might actually go boot it up in the old PSTriple when i get home today.

Jtenma @ Feb 15th 2008 10:23AM

Vigilante 8 and Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense were excellent...I liked the former better though..for some reason.

t_m @ Feb 15th 2008 10:22AM

Make interstate 76 2!!!! Vigilante 8 was always just a dumbed down i76.

i76 rocked.

dsub @ Feb 15th 2008 10:27AM

Well, given that Twisted Metal sounds like it's a full, on-disc game and Vigilante will be tied down by file size restrictions of XBLA (even though MS can offer original XBOX games that are 2-4GB in size) I'd say my money's on Twisted Metal. Although, I will say that I thought Vigilante 8 was the superior game back in the day.

Organic_Shadow @ Feb 15th 2008 10:53AM

Luxoflux exchanged some emails with me when I asked them about V8 coming to the PSN as a PS1 downloadable. They just kept feeding me these "you need to get a 360" lines. They seemed to be trying to make it very clear that this won't see the light of day on PS3. Hopefully Luxoflux maintains it's independence from buyouts and the next true V8 is multiplatform.

umm....hello??? @ Feb 15th 2008 11:20AM

I have Vigilante8....the game sucks in comparison to TM1 and TM2. am hoping that the new TM's are decent--anything after TM2 has not been all that great--and I have the complete TM series up to Black.

deaftly @ Feb 15th 2008 11:23AM

I remember this series kicking so much ass, like it more then the twisted metal games. Ill buy it on day 1

mundox @ Feb 15th 2008 11:57AM

I loved V8, imo it was way better than twisted metal. It would be so cool if they made a true "next-gen" sequel.

alu @ Feb 15th 2008 2:01PM

anyone remember the name of the game that was similar to twisted metal on ps1.. started with an 'R'. i wanna say rouge something.

Phranctoast @ Feb 15th 2008 2:14PM

rougue trip. It was sort of a calling all cars without the birds eye view.

There was also a game called critial depth ( i think) that was a sub fighting game. Had to much difficulty getting into that one though.

Johnny Socko @ Feb 15th 2008 2:59PM

Critical Depth and Rogue Trip were developed by Singletrac, the Utah studio that developed Twisted Metal 1 and 2. I owned all of those games, PLUS Vigilante 8 and V8/Second Offense on PS1.

Hmm, since it seems like vehicular combat is my favorite genre, and I don't own a PS3 or PSP, that must explain why I'm freakin' STOKED over this announcement!