Time Pilot is definitely one of the few games that didn't get screwed up on the Xbox Live Arcade.
The graphics actually look great with all the redone explosions, planes, and environments. Though if you don't like the new school look you can always just switch it back to the original graphics which is nice. Everything looks great in the enhanced grpahics and everything appears to match the original graphics when you switch it back to the old school.
The sound effects and music sound great. Though I don't know for sure if the sound effects match the original, but they sound good whether it be your ship shooting, enemies shooting, or whatever it may be it all sounds good. The opening music and other music thats around sounds nice though I'm not totally sure if they're the same as the original. This is an update on the sound as I just found out that in the main menu that you can change the sound effects to original, but you can't change them in the pause menu like you can the graphics.
Time Pilot is game that you'll probably play plenty of whether it be in small doses or big doses. Therefore it has plenty of replay value with the leaderboards and multiplayer. The achievements tend to be a little on the easy side, but one of them is going to prove to be a challenge. The four hundred microsoft points or five dollars may seem like a steep price for this game, but its worth every penny.
The gameplay is pretty simple, as you control a ship on a 2-D plane that can move and shoot in all directions. The 2-D plane goes on infinitely in all directions, so you'll never run out of room as your ship is always in the center of the screen. There are different time periods you'll come across featuring different enemies in each. Your enemies are enemy aircraft associated with the time period. In the last stage however it will be spacecraft. The time periods are 1910, 1940, 1970, 1982, and 2001, and its really quite funny to see what they predicted 2001 to be like. To finish each level you must shoot down enough aircraft to get to the boss which is basically the mothership of the time period. Bosses are basically the same as other ships only bigger and take longer to destroy. The controls are really simple and work quite well which really is a surprise. I thought this game wouldn't control very well as a lot of the games on xbox live arcade are either too sensitive or not responsive enough.
The multiplayer in Time Pilot is quite enjoyable over xbox live and hasn't lagged a second in any match I've gotten into. Its the same gameplay as the paragraph above, and you and your opponent or ally's screens are side by side. There are two game modes vs. in which you must outlast your adversary. Then there is co-op in which you must play the best you can to get the best score possible as both scores will be combined. The multiplayer whether it be on or offline makes this game well worth five bucks.
Time Pilot on the Xbox Live Arcade is a great game that shouldn't disappoint fans of the game. The mulitiplayer is quite enjoyable and won't disappoint. The online leaderboards and achievements for Time Pilot help make the experience well worth the wait and five dollar price tag.