Eurogamer writes: It should, in theory, be fantastic. Or at least very good. Xbox Live Arcade is surprisingly short of no-frills spaceship blast-em-ups, and the dormant Wing Commander franchise would seem to be fairly solid source material for just such a fragfest. After all, the thrill of a decent dogfight against a multitude of human opponents is hard to mess up.
Yet mess it up they have. Wing Commander Arena boasts a veritable feast of gameplay options, but can only offer anaemic gameplay with which to fill them. Basic gameplay can be a blessing where this sort of game is concerned, but here it's not so much the simplicity of the fly-and-shoot action that's at fault but some of the frankly awful design decisions that have gone into it.
