Missile Command - Xbox Live Arcade review

Few videogames these days are as gut-wrenchingly demoralizing, as nerve-shreddingly difficult, or as mind-dominatingly compelling as the 1980 classic Missile Command, which just hit Xbox LIVE Arcade for a mere 400 points. The most violent game of connect-the-dots ever, it puts you in charge of defending a row of six cities from a never-ending, zig-zagging deluge of missiles, smart bombs, and enemy aircraft that rain from the sky like dollar bills at a Vegas strip club.

Luckily, you’ve got the tools to get the job done: three missile silos, placed left, right, and center, each with ten missiles that will zoom to wherever you’ve placed your cursor and then explode in a circular cloud of death that will wipe out any enemy warhead or plane it touches. Each silo also has a separate fire button, which is important because the shorter distance a missile has to travel to get to its target, the more quickly it will get there. The center launcher’s missiles travel faster, too.