Aegis Wing is of a dying breed; shoot-em-up side-scrollers...but, as a free XBLA download with 4-player co-op, why not?
The best way to play Aegis Wing is in co-op, where up to four players can blast endlessly at the oncoming enemies, inanimate blockades, and the stage boss; a large claw-shaped mechanism with certain vulnerable points, which increase with level.
Think Star Fox, only with one boss whose appearance, for the most part, remains the same, while the boss' attacks grow stronger with each level.
The story is all done in text, which appears at the bottom of the screen at the start of a level, and if you expect to read it try Single Player first since patience is a limited virtue on XBox Live, especially for players who've already read the story, which appears at the start of every level; to ensure, however, that noone misses out on the story if they don't want to, players are returned to the lobby inbetween levels and must set themselves back to Ready.
Upon entering a local or XBox Live Multiplayer lobby, you move Up/Down on your joystick to choose the color of your ship, which corresponds to the color of the beam it fires.
Controls are default-only, A & RT are used to fire the main weapon, while B & LT is used to fire the Super Weapon.
The only adjustable options are Sound/Music Volumes, and the choice of Normal or Insane difficulty (completion of Insane will unlock the ability to choose a particular mission to replay)
In Multiplayer, the X button can be used to attach yourself to a ship.
That ship is then the pilot, while you fire, using your joystick to aim the shots.
All four ships can be attached at once, and the more ships are attached, the more powerful the Super Weapons are.
The powerups are known as "Super Weapons";
The "Arcus Missile", when used, releases a stream of missiles with heat-seeking capabilities.
The "Lambda Shield" is an orb that surrounds your entire ship and ricochets enemy fire.
The "Hades Beam" is a powerful blast that takes down most foes with one shot.
The "Gorgon Burst" is an electrical charge that harms close-range foes.
Though the number of harder-to-destroy foes increases as the levels go on, the Normal difficulty is rather easy, especially on Co-Op.
Most of the achievements are easy enough to earn; the gameplay can get slightly repetitive at times, but it is interesting to see how different players pilot their ship once you're attached to them; and the power-ups keep the game interesting; particularly a well-timed Lambda Shield to protect yourself and your attatched allies. The background graphics change with every level, and are pretty nice for an XBLA game.
The bottom line is, Aegis may not be the best XBLA game out there, but it's free, so you don't have to worry about sending a hundred messages to your friend asking if he has enough MSP to download it yet, and in spite of side-scrolling in-flight games being a very unpopular genre; the multiplayer, achievements, and leaderboards make up for the repetitive gameplay.
Blessed Be