Small Arms hits XBLA

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 November, 2006

Raises hand.

As promised yesterday, Gastronaut Studios' Small Arms is now up and about on Xbox Live Arcade for the price of 800 Microsoft points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.30).

It's half shooter, half Smash Brothers by the looks of it, and as an original title it's a welcome bit of flavour after the recent diet of stale arcade conversions.

As you'd expect, there's a trial version to help you work out whether you like it, and if you do take the plunge there's the usual array of leaderboards, achievements (12, for a total of 200 gamerpoints) and multiplayer modes to tackle.

Look out for our review of Small Arms in the coming days.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MrFlintBlackman #1 5 years ago

    Not only does this play good, it looks damn fine too.

  • rashes #2 5 years ago

    @MrFlintBlackman

    have you played it already? Worth getting?

    Anyone else played it?
    Edited by 1 at 22/11/06 @ 11:10

  • asphaltcowboy #3 5 years ago

    Cool, been looking forward to this since I heard about it on Major Nelson's show! Hope it's good!

  • lazygamer #4 5 years ago

    i've played the trial (no MS pts atm*), and it is rather good.

    *welcome to acronym hell

  • coojam #5 5 years ago

    The demo plays brilliantly...fun gameplay backed up by great presentation

  • Xerx3s #6 5 years ago

    \0/

  • Super_Zee #7 5 years ago

    Played trial and bought full game straight away - it's alot of fun and great to have a new IP on XBLA. Bargain!

  • Dizzy #8 5 years ago

    How is online?

  • hidden_asbestos #9 5 years ago

    Is this best played as a multiplayer game? or is the single player mode any good?

  • GordonJ@work #10 5 years ago

    It's not retro tat, so I think I have to buy this on principle :)

  • Scrumhalf #11 5 years ago

    I read somewhere this game has an achievement called 'Six Degrees of Seperation' where the developers play against someone and they get the achievement - and it continues. So you have to play someone, who has played someone etc. all the way back to Gastronaut themselves.

    Can anyone confirm this is in, as it is such a cool idea?

  • thebuzzard #12 5 years ago

    I got the six degrees achievement on my first online game!

  • Jontacular #13 5 years ago

    Regarding the Six Degrees thing - there's a 'Beat the Developer' achievement in Project 8 that works the same way. It is rather neat.

  • bloodflowers #14 5 years ago

    Smash Bros, with broken controls (seriously, does anyone find the bumper buttons comfortable for constant use?). We need some ports of slightly more modern arcade games instead. 4P Captain Commando? Yes please! How about some Raiden DX or Raiden Fighters 2?

  • L42yB #15 5 years ago

    Worms 2d ftw \0/

  • Balסּr #16 5 years ago

    I'd give this game 9/10!

    Single player mission modes offers up the easiest challenge and will be beat soon after you've got to grips with the games mechanics. You can unlock characters by completing this mode.

    Challenge mode, were you face a seemingly endless stream of enemies until you're lives are exhausted, is fun, difficult though, but a nice challenge.

    There's a shooting Gallery mode, kinda like a Space Invaders only targets scroll across the screen whilst you practice your aiming.

    Best of all is the multiplayer modes, very good fun, very hectic, very tactical, but very easy to play, albeit I'm sure difficult to master.

    Download the trail version!

    Six Degrees viral achievement is in. I know because I got it earlier. :D
    Edited by 1 at 22/11/06 @ 17:51

  • DrunKao #17 5 years ago

    If you liked Super Smash Brothers for the gamecube (I loved it) then you definitely have to get this game. It plays alot like SMB which is a good thing, and it might actually be more fun. To my surprise Small Arms actually looks better than SMB IMHO. This is a great addition to XBLA and I suggest everyone to atleast play the trial version. After all it's free!!

    Okay after playing Small Arms a bit more, I've come to the conclusion that it's the best looking XBLA title available. Does anyone else share this opinion? This game looks damn good and also plays damn good.
    Edited by 1 at 22/11/06 @ 19:37

  • DrunKao #18 5 years ago

    bloodflowers - "Smash Bros, with broken controls (seriously, does anyone find the bumper buttons comfortable for constant use?)."

    So bloodflowers, you are aware of the fact that the bumpers do exactly the same thing as the A button right? All three is for jump, so you don't even have to use the bumpers, only the A button if you want.

  • BartonFink #19 5 years ago

    Downloaded the trial version, looks great and plays very well. Definatitely like a cross between a scrolling shooter and SSBM. Think I might pick this up after a few more plays of the trial version.

  • JayPee #20 5 years ago

    Found the deo quite tricky, but the graphic style and obvious polish on the game is fantastic. A steal at 800 points if you often have mates round for a gaming sess.

  • geepersd #21 5 years ago

    gunstar heroes versus powerstone with shiny graphics... it's an essential live purchase I reckon

  • spookyzombie #22 5 years ago

    I really like the graphical style of the whole thing. The only downside is I never liked SSBM when that was out.

    I'd have prefered this kind of presentation, but with more Viewtiful Joe style gameplay.

    I think it's fair to say that it's the best looking XBLA game yet.