"A game that ate money and gained respect"

Okay, I was at Pier 39 with a friend and we spend all of our time at the arcade. But the game that ate the most money for us was LA Machine Guns, the best FPS I've played in an arcade. On to the review!

---Graphics (9/10)
From the gunshots to the enemies, it looks pretty good, even if it is a bit blocky. Fog, glitches, and other graphic-ruiners were not present, yep, not present, YEP! Bright, good, okay, I'm done here

---Music/Sound (7/10)
It wasn't memorable for me, but the arcade was kind of loud, so I couldn't here very well anyway. Music and sound weren't so crappy they induced kicking the machine (that part's later :)

--Control/Feel (10/10)
It's pretty easy to control the machine gun, and it's nice and big, so your arm doesn't get tired. The constant rumbling of the guns didn't affect the playability of the game.

---Gameplay (10/10)
I like the system of letter grading in this game (lets me show my better abilities than my friend) just because it is a nice extra to know how cheap you were. Really, shooting things with that big cross hair while shooting at missiles and stuff is very fun and can take precious time away from your life (okay, 45 minutes or so). You choose your level and go to places from Las Vegas to the seas of Alcatraz, where enemies abound, along with bosses that are troublesome. The fact that you have unlimited ammo gets rid of the annoying RELOAD thing that always kills me in other FPS in the arcade. Three packages of health is a good number for this game too, as well as 4 levels and a surprise after the four (well, it surprised us anyway!) And finally, it's 2-player. There, that's why I liked this so much

---Story (8/10)
I don't know if there was a story, but being a good guy with a machine gun in LA and this mean guy and some actual MEANING to the missions, like saving the president and helping hostages.

---Challenge (10/10)
Here we go, the reason this gets a 9. THIS GAME IS HARD! The relentless onslaught of enemies is bad enough, and the bosses are hard too! The underground level ate up a whole lot of money! Really hard, but we still beat it!

THE GOOD STUFF
Pretty nice graphics
Nice controls
The machine guns' rumblings are cool
The gameplay is terrific
The levels had a reason for being played
UNLIMITED AMMO!!!!!!

THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF
No memorable music and sound
Very, very hard

---Overall (9/10)
This game is a great waste of time in any arcade, as long as you have another person and $20-$100 worth of quarters (my friend had lots of money, lucky for me). Otherwise, stick with the Whack-A-Mole machine or something else without any real challenge.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/02, Updated 02/07/02