Arenas include the site of a car crash, the ceiling of a bathroom, a plaza, the space underneath a Christmas Tree, an oil pipeline, a heavily fortified front yard, a space station, a toy pirate ship in an electrified bathtub, an arena with spiked walls, the tops of skyscrapers, the back of a pickup truck during a police chase, and a kitchen sink.

As of the game's release, battle mode could be played through split screen, system link, or Xbox Live.

While the contestants compete, Van Tastic speaks to his boss over the phone, reassuring him that it's impossible to win and that there is no prize.

After the player's character wins the game, Van Tastic's boss calls him again and cancels the show.

was first conceived in the mid-1990s as a casual multiplayer game to compete against Mario Kart 64, with a similar low barrier to entry and mechanisms to rubber band players between first and last place.

During development, testers would regularly test different variations of each in-game element individually before allowing the art team to give it a design.

It was also tested without artificial intelligence to prioritize the multiplayer experience and players to adjust to changes in real time without updates to AI.

Development was held to a strict schedule, allowing the game to ship three weeks early.

[7] Critic Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot praised the game's style and voice acting, but criticized the gameplay and soundtrack, saying that "The single-player mode is plain and simple, and the multiplayer mode, once you get over the novelty of shooting people over the Internet, really lacks depth.

"[13] Hilary Goldstein of IGN criticized the drawn-out gameplay and the inconsistency of the gameshow dynamic.