Missile Command Trial Impressions

The classic 1980 arcade game by Atari Missile Command has been released onto Xbox Live Arcade today. The full version is 33.56MB to download and will set you back 400 Microsoft Points.

The premise of the game is pretty straightforward, you must prevent the destruction of your six cities from wave after wave of missiles. To help, you have three missile batteries with ten missiles each. The player must try and make the most efficient use of the limited supplies by targeting the best places to intercept the incoming warheads.

The game has been "remastered" for Xbox Live and has both an Evolved mode with re-stylised graphics and the original Classic mode. Also the game introduces the new Throttle Monkey difficulty level which is pretty insane.

The enhanced graphics are nice with some pretty backdrops and serve there purpose well. I doubt many players would prefer to play the original unless it's just for nostalgia value. The controls are very easy, with the left joystick used to guide your crosshairs and "X", "A" and "B" used to fire missiles from the left, middle or right batteries respectively.

The trial version allows you to play the the game for a limited number of waves (2 or 3), and this is sufficient to allow you to decide whether to buy the game or not. The full version gives you access to the usual set of leaderboards and 12 achievements totalling 200 Gamerscore points.

Although a nice job has been done on the update, and it's fun to play in small doses, for me the game doesn't really hold any lasting appeal. I'm sure however that fans of the original will like the version on offer here.