If you spent the better part of your youth hanging around in dank arcades then you may already be familiar with Virtual On and its crazy twin stick controls. That arcade feeling wasn’t quite re-created when the updated version was released for the Dreamcast in 2002 titled Virtual-on Oratorio Tangram, whilst it was a quality port, it lacked the magical feeling you got from duking it out in the arcades, and it is this port that Sega have brought to XBLA.

Steel Battalion on the original Xbox with its massively overboard controller was the only game in recent memory that managed to hit the nail on the head when it comes to controlling mechs on home consoles, and unfortunately VO:OT doesn’t change that.  Sega have tried to adapt the controls the Xbox 360 but it just doesn’t quite seem to work.  You move the mechs using a combination of the 2 sticks and at first this will be infuriating  and within 10 minutes you will want to throw your controller at the wall thanks to the fast pace of the game, but stick with it and eventually the controls begin to make sense and your endless retrying of the first level will be at an end.  The triggers control your weapons while the standard buttons control boosting and jumping.  Luckily there is the option to remap the control to, so you can set the controls up in whichever way is most comfortable for you.

VO:OT offers both online & offline multiplayer in addition to the 10 round single player mode, but sadly despite the game having only been available for a short time the online multiplayer mode is pretty much dead and the ones that are still playing tend to be the ones that must have devoted their youth to the game and have carried those skills over to the console versions, which makes for some very one sided battles.

Graphically the game looks quite good considering that it is heading for 10 years old, it has certainly stood the test of time compared to some of the titles we have seen re-released on XBLA. The mechs themselves look crisp and well animated, but by contrast the battle area and backgrounds seem to be quite barren which is slightly disappointing.

The sound is a different story however, as it has seemingly been left unchanged from the Dreamcast version and it shows.  Sega could have easily remedied this with a few new remixes of the songs, just enough to make them sound fresh again.  As for sound effects, these too seem unchanged, so while that explosion might look pretty it certainly won’t sound it!

While it is possible to overlook some of these flaws there is one almighty stumbling block, the price.  At 1200, that’s £10 in real money, VO:OT is simply overpriced for what is essentially just a port of a Dreamcast game, even Soul Calibur was only 800 when it was released, and that seems the right price point for DC games.

Lacking any kind of truly significant update, carrying that hefty price tag and the fact the online multiplayer was dead before it began I would have to say that Virtual On is only a worthwhile investment if you are a fan after a nostalgic hark-back to times gone by, if you are new to the franchise and are trying to work out if this is worth getting then the answer would be no, your £10 would be better spent finding an arcade that still has the old twinstick cabinet and playing a few rounds there before pushing the game to the back of your memory and moving on to the next title.

5/10

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