In a time when space combat sims were more than a mere niche in gaming, the Wing Commander series was frequently regarded as one of the best. It quickly established itself as a classic and, to this day, has many fans who fondly recall its existence. It's this history that makes you wonder what EA was thinking when they announced a new Wing Commander game for Xbox Live Arcade. With such a high standard to live up to, the odds were stacked against the product from the get-go. Now that the game is released, it seems that the previous skepticism was warranted. Not only does Wing Commander Arena fail to live up to the quality of the series, but it's a barely passable game in its own right.

Wing Commander Arena is a psuedo-3D space shooter, in which you control various spacecraft from a third-person perspective. While the game is rendered in three dimensions, you can only travel on the horizontal axis; so there's no flying up or down. The game features a variety of modes for both single player and multiplayer. These include free-for-all battles where you simply fly around and shoot everything that moves, team battles, duels, a capital ship mode, where two teams try to blow up each other's capital ships, an asteroid shoot-em-up, and more. You can also choose from several different unlockable ship classes which all differ in terms of weapon layouts, hull integrity, and overall speed. On top of that, there are power-ups you can acquire during matches which provide temporary boosts to some of your ships attributes, as well as provide a few extra bonuses like wingmen or invulnerability.

Even the 16-player matches can't relieve the tedium.

While it may seem like there's a ton of variety in Wing Commander Arena, the core gameplay doesn't differ enough from mode to mode to make an interesting enough difference. The shooting action isn't terribly complex, and since it's the basis for all of the available modes, the game quickly becomes repetitive. This is especially true with the single player, which is really only useful for familiarizing yourself with the mechanics prior to going online. The human element in multiplayer does improve upon the game slightly, especially with sixteen players going at it at once, but it's still not enough to prevent the monotony from ruining the experience.

In terms of presentation, Arena has its ups and downs. The 3D visuals look quite good for an Xbox Live Arcade title, and since there are only so many ways you can make space look nice, this is an impressive feat for a game that barely exceeds forty megabytes. The sound, however, is the complete opposite. While the sound effects aren't that bad, the music is pretty horrible, and it doesn't help that it loops as frequently as it does. For some reason there is only one track that's utilized in all of the single player modes, and if you somehow don't immediately hate it, just wait until it repeats for the three-hundredth time.

All in all, Wing Commander Arena fails to deliver an enjoyable arcade shooter experience. The gameplay is way too simplistic for there to be any lasting value, and extended sessions of play become so monotonous that it's almost headache-inducing. For 800 Microsoft Points ($10), there are far better games available on Xbox Live Arcade. Unless you must own everything that bears the Wing Commander name, you should definitely avoid this one.