Endoh designed the enemies that way since he figured that real fighter pilots wouldn't want to just collide with the enemy if it could all be avoided. But in Xevious, enemies will swoop in to fire a quick shot and then retreat away from you. Or in games like Galaxian and Galaga, the space bugs were constantly doing kamikaze dives, attempting to crash into your ship. Previously in fixed-screen shooters like Space Invaders, enemies marched in the same simplistic pattern. The aerial enemies that invade the screen had some rather intricate designs and impressively realistic attack patterns. The game was chock-full of quirky nuances that were rarely (if ever) seen in a scrolling shooter at the time. Xevious also brimmed with personality in an unprecedented way. As a result, players often found themselves having to choose the best course of action under the circumstances. As attacks from enemies increase, it may not always be advantageous to go after everything on the screen. Having separate weapons for aerial and ground enemies introduced a new layer of strategy. You also have the blaster- an unlimited supply of bombs used to take out ground targets with the help of a targeting reticle in front of your ship. First, there’s the zapper- dedicated to destroying aerial enemies. It went a step further than just blasting the same simplistic set of bug-like creatures off the screen. The core design elements of Xevious outpaced that of arguably every other shooter that came before it. It’s up to you to pilot the Solvalou ship and defend Earth against its would-be conquerors.
Thousands of years and one ice age later, the GAMPs return to Earth to enslave humans and take over the planet. So they rebelled, vacated Earth, and traveled to the planet Xevious where they hatched a plot against mankind. The GAMPs grew tired of humans using them for joyless slave labor. Basically, a war breaks out between humankind and the bio-computer GAMP (General Artificial Matrix Producer)- a machine capable of mass-producing human clones. If you’ve ever read the story elements of this game, then you already know that Xevious spins a tale rife with twists and turns. When it was released in arcades in 1983, Xevious went on to become the game that forever changed the landscape of 2D shooters. In a 1985 interview, the game’s designer, Masanobu Endo, said that he wanted to make “a consistent world and setting, create high-quality sprites”, and also “a story that wouldn’t just be some tacked-on extra, but could actually stand on its own merits”. It was well known by fans everywhere as one of the most innovative arcade games of its time. Over the years, after discovering websites dedicated to retro gaming, I was pretty happy to find out that Xevious was more than just a random title on an Atari system. I quickly fell in love with the unique enemy designs and mysterious land structures peppered throughout the game. It was probably the first game I had heard of that started with an “X”, and the name intrigued me. While rummaging through the cartridges, I came across the little oddity known as Xevious.
#Xevious nes review full#
So, in a move of what I think was out of pity, a friend of ours gave us her 7800 with a huge bag full of games.
Back then, our family couldn’t afford the Super NES or Sega Genesis. Every time I play Xevious on one of Namco’s "museum" compilations, I can’t help but reminisce about the time when I first discovered the game in 1992 on the Atari 7800 (a system which also familiarized me with other Namco classics outside of Pac-Man).
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