Wing Commander for XBLA

By Kristan Reed Published 23 February, 2007

Space action in summer.

Wing Commander Arena is coming to Xbox 360 Live Arcade this summer, Electronic Arts has confirmed, following yesterday's ESRB outing of the game.

The Gaia Industries-developed 3D space combat title will sport a 16-player online multiplayer mode, and is being described as "an arcade-style experience" - whatever that means these days.

"Players can propel their customized ship through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly gravity bombs as they try to climb the leader board. Online players will compete for frag count, high score and duelling stats," the fact sheet revealed.

Encouragingly, Chip Lange, EA Vice President claimed: "The design for Wing Commander will appeal to both long-time fans of the franchise and immediately engage anyone who wants the melee style action of an arcade shooter." Those who fancy "longer more immersive game" style will be well catered for, so don't fret.

The game will include four gameplay modes: single player, multi-team, multiplayer free for all and multiplayer duel, and will be available with eight multiplayer maps that cover the various modes.

Set across nine environments, we can also expect: "Two Races with 18 ships for light fighters, medium fighter, bombers. Cloaking devices, energy sucking torpedoes, mines, homing missiles, energy weapons and a myriad of other guns, weapons and devices." Lots of shooting, basically.

Readers in the know will note that this is EA's second foray into the world of Xbox Live Arcade - the other being Bizarre Creation's hugely anticipated Boom Boom Rocket, which is on track for release this Spring, and a title we hope to bring you a more details on shortly.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • quantumsheep #1 5 years ago

    :o

  • in5ane #2 5 years ago

    "The design for Wing Commander will appeal to both long-time fans of the franchise and immediately engage anyone who wants the melee style action of an arcade shooter."

    Anyone who claims their game (i.e. every publisher ever) will satisfy both fans and newcomers is always talking out of their arse. I know it's PR and they have to talk a certain degree of shit, but why do publishers feel it necessary to appeal to absolutely everyone, which in practice usually backfires and alienates a big chunk of the market.

    A small point, but this one point has dampened my enthusiasm for the game already.

  • ccfb #3 5 years ago

    Agreed. Will appeal to newcomers usually means will *only* appeal to newcomers.

  • Scurrminator #4 5 years ago

    they haven't included the bit where it says you're stuck on one fucking plane, that's right, no attacking from above or below! retards.

  • Waldo #5 5 years ago

    Most likely it's some cheapo space game they had sitting around, not knowing what to do with it until someone got the bright idea to slap the WC name on it.

    I'm sure the "kids" will like it though.

  • MaxiSleep #6 5 years ago

    Disappointed they are not doing a "real" wing commander. WC1 on my amiga 1200 was only barely playable, but the story kept me coming back. And WCIII on the PC was a real landmark game. Good plot twists and a suitably apocalyptic ending.

  • Weezer #7 5 years ago

    Wing Commander: the Red Herring of videogames.

  • GamesConnoisseur #8 5 years ago

    Damning based on just a blurb, without having seen any photo, video or even better a trial demo would be hasty!

    I loved WC series and prepared to give them the benefit of doubt to see if they can translate sufficent WC contents to appeal to fans and be fun enough to newkies.

    Just porting the WC1-2 across would be a grave mistake, as too many straight port with little make up as it is, we need more ground up development for XBLA and less of 50 MB cap crap!

  • QJ #9 5 years ago

    Would be good if they had a co-op mode where someone was actually the "wing commander" and other peeps could be wingmen, going up against AI foes in a campaign.

  • Eldritch #10 5 years ago

    Expect a shit WC Armada port.

  • Xerx3s #11 5 years ago

    WC III and IV where such brilliant games for their time. This will be shit though, EA lawsuits saw to that.

  • chupachups #12 5 years ago

    It was mainly the cinematic story that made the original so popular and different from other games of the same genre, and as soon as you take that out you end up with a bit of a dull shoot-em-up.


    "we need more ground up development for XBLA and less of 50 MB cap crap!"

    Surely that's what the DVD games are for?
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/07 @ 13:29

  • Rodster #13 5 years ago

    Hopefully Sony will get the hint and re-release Colony Wars on the PS Store. :D

  • Xerx3s #14 5 years ago

    EDIT: Or was it Freescape? I can never remember.. the totally awesome Volition space-em-up that rocked.

    Yes, volition made the best space game ever, freespace (1&2).

  • chupachups #15 5 years ago

    Freescape was the first 3D game engine to allow filled-in 3D games on 8-bit computers. It was used on popular Spectrum games like Driller and Total Eclipse. It was also used on the 16-bit versions of the same games. The engine editor eventually got released under the name 3D Construction Kit.

    There, that made your day, didn't it? :-)

  • Whizzo #16 5 years ago

    Gamevideos.com has a trailer for it.

    Anyone who believes that old hands at Wing Commander are going to like this are out of their fucking minds.

    Total and utter shite.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/07 @ 14:48

  • Pac #17 5 years ago

    Why doesn't someone make a mutiplayer game like thrust/oids/gravity force where people fight each other in some kind of maze.

    This is shit - thery're using the wrong axis - idiots.

  • Phreedh #18 5 years ago

    What the fuck, Whizzo! =( I'll hold you responsible for my anticipation being all dead and gone...

    That looks horrible. Fuck EA in it's stupid arse! =(

  • Whizzo #19 5 years ago

    What the fuck, Whizzo! =( I'll hold you responsible for my anticipation being all dead and gone...

    My apologies, I couldn't believe what I was seeing either.

    That's not Wing Commander.

  • thegouldfish #20 5 years ago

    I remember WC 1 on the amiga, amazng they managed to port it at all, but far too slow.

    What the hell did they do to wing commander, if that video is what EA thing wing commader is then this is just another in a very very long list of reasons to hate them.

  • Eldritch #21 5 years ago

    "Gamevideos.com has a trailer for it. "

    /sees video

    Is that some sort of a joke? What's next? Ultima?

  • Fiach #22 5 years ago

    I was sure a long time ago that Wing Commander would never return. Now that I've seen the footage for Arena I'm sure of it :(

    Poxy bog standard 2D shoot-em up. If it was a stand alone game I could acceot as a bit of fun but this is just an afront to the WC legacy :(

  • QJ #23 5 years ago

    / Watches video...
    / Dies a little inside....

  • Wendelius #24 5 years ago

    Wow. This is so not Wing Commander. Way to slap a known franchise name on a random 2D shooter.

    That is so sad.

    /hopes dashed
    /not interested anymore

  • MaxiSleep #25 5 years ago

    Dear god. Having seen the trailer I can only ask - what sort of retarded muppets in EA approved this?

    Seriously this actually beats sony's news today for the "HA HA HA we have contempt for gamers" awards.

  • Eldritch #26 5 years ago

    Finally, EA have found a way to disgrace Origin's legacy for good. Expect WC and Ultima mobile games and ringtones shortly.

  • chupachups #27 5 years ago

    "Dear god. Having seen the trailer I can only ask - what sort of retarded muppets in EA approved this? "

    EA keep doing this to retired franchises, bring them back as games that are pretty awful and in-name-only sequels.

    They don't seem to be interested in the merits of the original games, just the brand name recognition they bring from older gamers.

    It seems that in EA, marketing is everything.
    Edited by 1 at 23/02/07 @ 19:14

  • souljah #28 5 years ago

    Some screenshots


    Looks good.

  • hjarg #29 5 years ago

    *cries*
    Dammit, want ye goode olde Wing Commander, not this crap!

    *wanders off to find his Kilrathi Saga" collection*

  • Lovemoose #30 5 years ago

    Having seen the video, I can't begin to express how little I'm looking forward to this now. I got kind of excited at he first news, but the gameplay looks incredibly poor.

  • Freek #31 5 years ago

    It was mainly the cinematic story that made the original so popular and different from other games of the same genre, and as soon as you take that out you end up with a bit of a dull shoot-em-up.


    "we need more ground up development for XBLA and less of 50 MB cap crap!"

    Surely that's what the DVD games are for?

    Only if you are a big developer/publisher can you go for a DVD release.
    Xbox Live Arcade was supossed to be for the smaller teams doing original content. But there's less of it these days and those games would also benifit from being able to be bigger then just 50MB.

  • Biggles #32 5 years ago

    Oh god, that truly is an appaling way to treat a licence. The game doesn't look too bad for a mildly diverting arcade offering. Not fantastic, but ok. But it's really got sweet FA to do with wing commander, and I can only see this as weakenning a potentially strong brand name. I guess whoever made the decision to greenlight this severely underestimates the potential strength of a new proper wing commander game. The genre's wide open for any half decent team's pickings, if you ask me.

  • DocTep #33 5 years ago

    Just watched the trailer... Oh dear, you have got to be kidding. Blatantly a game which started out as something else and someone at EA came up with the 'brilliant' idea of slapping the Wing Commander name on it.

    Oh, and although i know it's simply a part of the game design, making a game set in space locked on a 2D plane with 3D graphics just makes everything look silly when the ship is constantly crashing back and forth into things like a pinball. I know the simple answer to that is that "...it's just a game", but it doesn't stop your brain from registering how illogical what you're seeing is.

  • effinwooly #34 5 years ago

    dont like it then dont download it......everyones happy, no ?

  • bloodflowers #35 5 years ago

    Looks like a garbage attempt at a pseudo 3d shooter. Probably not even as playable as the overhead parts of Thunderforce II, and those weren't great to begin with.

  • NegativeZero #36 5 years ago

    Piss this shit off and give me a remake / port of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, MS.