"Well worth the money, oh wait..."

For being a free game, Aegis Wing is definitely worth giving a try. Smooth game play, awesome arcade style coop action and the single player experience isn't half bad either. Compared to some of the other games on XBLA that you have to shell out 800 MS Points for, this game easily beats out most of them in the fun department. Not only that, the game stays challenging, even when you have four players together, the Insane difficulty will keep you on your toes if you want to beat the game, especially towards the end.

One area where this game lacks a little though is in length, it's a little on the short side. With four people in coop mode, you could easily beat it in an hour and a half on Insane and less than an hour on Normal. However, because it is an arcade experience, it actually is short enough that when you finish it for the first few times, you might find yourself wanting to give it another go just for fun. The only other negative point I have to make about this game would be the sound track. It isn't overly bad or anything, but it just doesn't seem to fit the game's mood a lot of the time. Then again, you can always use your own custom soundtracks.

Graphics wise, this game is up there with the best of what XBLA has to offer, and that comes from one unlucky guy who still plays on an SDTV. The graphics and animations are smooth and unlike certain XBLA coop games that use Xbox Live, there are absolutely glitches or lag in the online game.

As with every arcade game for XBLA, this one also has achievements, and I have to say, they can be pretty hard. The Ace achievement basically requires you to run through the game on Insane by yourself in order to get enough points to get it, and the mix of other achievements that very from pretty easy to hard also give this game good replay value.

The bottom line: Download this game! It's free and if nothing else, it will give you some solid entertainment with your friends for a few afternoons, more achievement points, and something even more valuable these days, a purely fun gaming experience that won't cost you a dime.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/17/07