Xbox Critic Reviews

The online and System Link support is the real draw as it comes off without a hitch.

Look, kids- if Spikeout were a movie, the year would be 1987, Michael Dudikoff and Caroline Munro would star in it, Richard Lynch or Henry Silva would be the main bad guy, it would run on cable six times a month, and you'd be glued to the tube every single time it came on just for the action scenes and ridiculous ending.

The Live play is done much better than it has any right to, especially when one considers the likely shoestring budget given for this.

Ultimately Spikeout: Battle Street is a decent and mildly refreshing old school beat-em-up, but it could be better.

7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - 28 [Vol 851]

If you've beaten "Streets of Rage" twenty times and need a modern-day equivalent, look no further, because this is an amazingly fun multiplayer game that brings back that old-school feeling with 3D class.

At its core, Spikeout is what "The Bouncer" always wanted to be, but never was, a fast, action-packed brawler with little pretense to being anything else.

Only truly hardcore fans will need to own their own copy; as competent and polished as it is for the genre, it's also a throwback.

The gameplay remains somewhat fun as you mix up combos and techniques, alone or with a friend, but the difficulty level is questionable and some parts of the game came up lacking.

The four-player Xbox Live mode may offer some thrills for devoted brawler fans, but everyone else will want to stay away from this stale relic. [June 2005, p.132]