A remake/update of the classic car combat game Vigilante 8 just went live on Xbox Live.

At least, I think it's a classic. I was sure I'd played this, but as I was looking around for info, I realized I'd been confusing it with Interstate '82, Rogue Trip, and/or one of the many variations on the Twisted Metal games. It's entirely possible I've never even played Vigilante 8. After enough years and enough games, the ones that aren't spectacular tend to dissolve into memory soup. The only details I remember for sure were a runaway ferris wheel from one of the Twisted Metals and that you could stop your car for tourists to take pictures from great vantage points in Rogue Trip.

I'd be curious to check out this updated Vigilante 8, but car combat games don't age well. Superfast deathmatch with difficult controls, poor situational awareness, and dated graphics? No thanks. If I want to reinstall Doom, I'll just reinstall Doom. Besides, I already got bamboozled this year when Sony released Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition, a verbose repackaging of a PSP port with B-side material from a game that was never released for the Playstation 2. That'll put you off car combat games as sure as eating a bad hot dog will put you off hot dogs.

Still, Vigilante 8 has a single-player story mode, and in addition to online competitive games, it promises co-op games. Plus, there are almost certainly achievements. Finally, check out this bus going off a ski jump:

In other words, I'm downloading it right now while I type this.