Vigilante 8 (GBC)

The readers post their own reviews.
Zack Burner
Posts: 1209
Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Vigilante 8 (GBC)

Postby Zack Burner » March 30th, 2020, 7:14 am

After a hiatus, I'm back with another review based on actual play through emulation. Who would have thought that a vehicular combat game could be ported to portable? Don't get too excited though as it's missing some key ingredients to make it a winner. For one thing you get an almost full roster of characters from the first game including the ones you had to unlock in the console versions. The only character that isn't in this game is Y the Alien (Let the invasion begin!), but that's a minor setback. You get several modes of play ranging from road trip (story mode, lacking endings), arcade (you pick your opponent), survival (survive until you run out of lives), progressive (like survival except afterwards you go to a new stage), time attack, and 2 player mode (link cable required). Now for the real meat and potatoes the gameplay, the action is viewed from an overhead perspective as you drive your car and shoot enemy cars. The movement feels a little stiff and you can destroy crates for powerups but not much else like in the console versions. Special attacks are different for each character, for example Houston 3's death ray is a straightforward shot at the foe provided they don't get out of the way, but John Torque's Bass Quake homes in on an opponent, same as Beezwax's swarm attack. The graphics are so-so do the job for the GBC, but the sound is where this game shines, you hear the theme song and each character voices "You ready to roll the dice bro?" "Yee-haw! Here I come ya hick!" "Gonna sting ya real good!" "Get in the back of my bus! Haw Haw Haw!" Overall, worthy of an occasional play, but not something you'd want to pop into the GBC everyday.

Return to “Reader Reviews”