THQ offered us a peek at a playable version of its downloadable Red Faction spin-off, the four-player vehicular combat action game Red Faction: Battlegrounds, at this week's Tokyo Game Show. What did we learn?

Well, not too much more beyond what was featured in the downloadable game's debut trailer. Red Faction: Battlegrounds is a frantic, competitive arcade action game, a top-down perspective take on Twisted Metal-style car combat. Vehicles, mechs, tanks and weapons lifted from the Red Faction franchise will make an appearance in the game, like the mini-black hole spawning singularity gun.

But some Red Faction standbys—and some of the series' not so common weapons—won't be making an appearance in Battlegrounds. Here's a quick rundown of what won't be available in the game's arsenal. Believe me, I asked.

1. Cars with hammers attached to them
2. A gun that shoots hammers
3. A giant ostrich mech

Fortunately, the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network game doesn't appear to suffer for those absences. The hands-off demo we saw at TGS looked like a fun arcade experience, one on par with the planned $5 to $10 USD price THQ is expecting for Red Faction: Battlegrounds. With persistent rankings, leaderboards and planned downloadable content post-launch, this spin-off title might make the wait for the next fully-fledged Red Faction game a bit easier.

The game is expected to ship "a couple months" before Red Faction: Armageddon arrives in May 2011. Battlegrounds is planned to includes tie-ins to that title that THQ is still yet to detail.