Sega (64031) Spikeout Xbox
1 One of the best new games for old school beat them ups fan
By reading the diffrent reviews about Spikeout around the net, it seems that very few people knew about this Sega classic. I was fortunate enough to enjoy this game back in 1999 when I was living in Japan. Spikeout: Digital Battle and the updated Spikeout: Final Edition was such a huge hit there, that Sega arcades in Akihabra and Shinjuku have more then half of their basement floor area dedicated to Spikeout machines (and it is rare to find an empty machine to boot.)
Although the home port is several years late, I'm a happy camper that this game is finally made it to my living room. Although I do agree with all the diffrent reviews about this game (such as bad ai, outdated graphics and its difficulty level.) the fun factor, especially when playing with 3 other people is possibly the best in its genre.
Many people who dislike the game say that the gameplay is not deep and it is a pure botton masher. The reality is, you wont get very far in the game if you just mash bottons because this game has loads of combos, team combos and juggles. There is nothing more funny and satisfying to pull out 100 plus team combos on one poor boss together with your spikeout buddies.
Though I have to admit that despite of all the great new characters and content, the graphics seems to be watered down compared to the original arcade version. Also playing solo is a brutal and painful experience unless your a hardcore fan (then again, even in the arcade version, going solo is not a good idea). So solitary players might get fustrated going through the game in story mode.
All I can say is although the port lacks polish and somewhat flawed in its execution, the extras, the diffrent game paths, the great multiplayer support makes this one a good title to pick up especially for those who want oldschool Street of Rage/ Final Fight action.
