Vigilante 8 is a vehicular combat video game developed by Luxoflux and published by Activision for PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Although officially it has no connection to the Interstate '76 series, it features several of its themes (auto-vigilantes, the 1970s time frame, and specific fictional vehicle companies).
Gameplay
Home console versions
Players combat over a number of stages located over the western United States, whether in Story or Arcade Mode. Each stage has interactive features, such as ballistic missiles and launching Aurora planes for the Area 51 level. Every vehicle is equipped with a machine gun by default, but players can add up to three out of five available weapons - mines, auto-cannons, rocket pods, mortars, and homing missiles, plus a special weapon unique to the vehicle.
Three types of special attacks can be made using each of the five standard weapons, at a bigger cost in ammunition, by performing fighting game-style movements and button presses on the control pad. These attacks may be performed during normal play or to eliminate nearly-destroyed cars in a method called "Totaling." In line with the fighting-game style element, players can also score up to six combo hits called Whammies.
There are special icons scattered across the playing field; wrenches repair damage and yellow zigzag lines temporarily jam the opponent's homing-based weapons. Certain objectives in Story Mode must be completed to help unlock the game's secret characters and stages. The PlayStation version also offers players the option to play standard music CDs during a match.
The Nintendo 64 version includes a story mode for Y The Alien and a fantasy stage called Super Dreamland 64, as well as three multiplayer modes (two vs. two, three vs. one, and deathmatch) to take advantage of the system's four control ports, and a two-player Story Mode. A 480x360 hi-res mode is available from the pause menu if the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pack is installed. The Pack also enables a hidden 640x480 mode, available via password.
Game Boy Color version
The Game Boy Color (GBC) version features five levels, each one from the console versions: Casino City, Hoover Dam, Oil Fields, Ski Resort, and Valley Farms. The game also features five game modes, each one essentially identical, with only minor changes. The game's main story mode, Road Trip, takes the player through each level. The game features three difficulty levels. The player can choose from five different weapons, as well as a unique weapon assigned to each character. The game features digitized audio and voiceovers, as well as a two-player mode made possible with the use of a Game Link Cable. Unlike the console versions, environments in the GBC version are not destructible. The game features force feedback built into the cartridge.
Plot
Vigilante 8 is set in an alternate 1975. Australian terrorist Sid Burn is hired by OMAR to dispose of all competing oil companies in the U.S. so that OMAR can establish an oil monopoly in the country. After hearing reports of destruction by Sid Burn's gang, the Coyotes, a man named Convoy, a kind-hearted trucker, forms a group of his own, the Vigilantes, to combat the Coyotes and stop the tyranny of OMAR.
Characters
The game's protagonists are the Vigilantes, a group of residents from the Southwest who band together to preserve law and order in the light of chaos gripping the country. Their leader is Convoy, a rugged old cowboy driving a semi-trailer. He is accompanied in the fight by his rebellious niece Sheila; Las Vegas high-roller John Torque; Slick Clyde, whom Torque coerced into joining the Vigilantes; alien-obsessed hippie Dave, who somehow finds himself fighting with the Vigilantes; and FBI agent Chassey Blue, who was assigned to investigate reports of gun battles in the region.
The game's antagonists are the Coyotes, a group of hitmen recruited by OMAR to carry out their scheme by destroying commercial installations throughout the region using weaponry stolen from the top secret Site 4 military base in Nevada. Their founder is Sid Burn. His cohorts are disco-loving petty criminal Boogie; mentally-disturbed S4 test pilot Loki; Houston 3, a woman brainwashed by OMAR to become one of their assassins; beekeeper Beezwax, who was frustrated by the irradiation of his beehive; and juvenile delinquent Molo, who idolizes Sid Burn and is desperate to join the Coyotes.
An extraterrestrial being named Y The Alien appears in the game as a secret character.