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Xevious

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Xevious
The arcade version of Xevious' title screen. The Solvalou is the grey ship at the lower right.
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Atari
Designer(s)Masanobu Endoh
Platform(s)Arcade, Virtual Console, Xbox 360
Release1982
Genre(s)Vertical scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Arcade systemNamco Galaga

Xevious is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982. It was designed by Masanobu Endoh. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware.

Game play

The player uses an 8-way joystick to pilot a combat aircraft called a Solvalou, which is armed with a forward-firing "zapper" for aerial targets and a "blaster" which fires an unlimited supply of air-to-surface bombs for ground targets.

There are various aerial enemy aircraft which shoot relatively slow bullets, as well as (presumably unpiloted) fast-moving projectiles and exploding black spheres. Ground enemies are a combination of stationary bases and moving vehicles, most of which also fire slow bullets. Giant floating motherships appear in certain areas; these are killed by knocking out their cores.

There are no discrete levels, rather the Solvalou continually advances over varying terrain. However, if the player dies, play continues from a set point. (i.e., there are levels but they merge into each other with areas of forest.) Nor are there "level-end boss enemies" that must be defeated to progress. As the Solvalou constantly flies forward, it is theoretically possible to advance without killing any enemies.

History

Xevious was one of the earliest vertical scrolling shooters, and greatly influenced games in this genre. The graphics were revolutionary for their time, and characters were rendered with remarkable clarity and effect through careful use of shades of gray and palette-shifting. It was one of the first games to have hidden bonuses which are not mentioned in the instructions but can be revealed by a secret maneuver. Among these was the 'special flag' which first appeared in Rally-X. In this game the flag gave the player an extra life and this feature was carried over to numerous subsequent Namco games. In 1983, the original Xevious was the first arcade game to actually have a television commercial aired for it in the U.S. Atari promoted the game with the slogan "Are you devious enough to beat Xevious?" and closed the commercial with a tag line branding it "the arcade game you can't play at home."

While it saw limited popularity in the U.S., Xevious was a huge cult hit in Japan, and to this day is considered one of the greatest video-games of all time. Popular musicians Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra) and Keisuke Kuwata (Southern All Stars) were known to be fans of the game, and the former produced an album of music from Namco video-games, with Xevious as its centerpiece. A follow-up 12" single featured in its liner notes an entire science-fiction short story by Endoh, set in the world of Xevious, with even a rudimentary fictional language.

Series

There were several arcade sequels and a spin-off, though none achieved much popularity:

  • Super Xevious (1984) was practically the same game made significantly harder, and with a few rarely-seen new enemies.
  • Solvalou (1991) presented the same game with a pilot's-eye view. The game used 3-D flat shaded polygon graphics. Released in Japan only.
  • Xevious 3D/G (1995) was an update on the classic with 3-D texture mapped polygon graphics and a simultaneous two-player feature. Released in Japan only.
  • Xevious Arrangement (1995) was part of the Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 game collection (along with the original Xevious and Super Xevious). The arranged version had improved music and graphics and different levels.
  • Grobda (1984) was a spin-off starring an enemy character -- the tank with corkscrew treads.

In Japan, three new versions were released for home systems:

  • Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo (1986) was released for the Nintendo Famicom and the Nintendo Vs. series on the Arcades. You must solve riddles in each stage in order to progress. Unless you meet certain criteria the stage loops indefinitely, getting harder and harder in the process.
  • Xevious: Fardraut Saga (1988) was released for the MSX2 computers and developed by Compile. You can select between two modes at the title screen, Recon (port of the original Arcade Xevious) and Scramble, which is a new 16 area game with new enemies and 4 different ships to play with (Solvalu, Solgrado, Zeodalley and Gampmission).
  • Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu (1990) was released for the PC Engine and also developed by Compile. This is the sequel to Fardraut Saga and it features two modes of play selectable from the title screen, Original (port of the original Arcade Xevious) and Fardraut, which is a 4 stage story mode with cut-scenes, power-ups and a different ship on each level.

Ports

The game has been ported to other systems, including the Atari 7800, NEC PC Engine, Nintendo Entertainment System game consoles, also the MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Apple II and Atari ST home computers. In 2005 Namco released the game on the mobile platform for cellphones. Other handheld ports include Game Boy Advance The game has also been included in a number of classic arcade game compilations for consoles and PC, including Namco Museum Volume 2 for the original PlayStation in 1996, Microsoft Revenge of Arcade for PC in 1998, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection for Microsoft Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and PC, as well as Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. (The game did not appear in the scaled-down Game Boy Advance version of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection.) The NES-version of the game was released on the Virtual Console on January 15, 2007. The game is also on the Ms. Pac Man Plug 'n Play game made by HotGen Studios. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade on May 23, 2007.

In Star Fox Assault, you can unlock Xevious by collecting all of the silver medals.

Tricks

Several hidden towers in the game called Sol Citadels can be identified when your bomb crosshairs hover over one (they turn red). Drop a bomb to expose it, and another to destroy it for a bonus. The first ones are before the first river running horizontally, appearing in a cluster of 4, on the left side. There are many more of these throughout the game, including around the 3rd Nazca bird's wings. The Sol Citadels give you big bonus points.

Also in the game are hidden 1up flags (extra lives). These do not turn your crosshairs red, but you don't need to bomb them twice; just once, then fly over them to collect them. The flags (four in total) are located along certain horizontal lines, but the precise location along the line varies. The first one is along a horizontally running river that divides a dirt road. A square tower and a dome that shoots at you will be visible.

A designer credit can be revealed at the beginning of the game by immediately moving to the lower right corner of the screen and firing the blaster continuously. This feature is absent from unauthorized copy versions. "Evezoo" is a pseudonym of designer Masanobu Endoh.

It was rumored that the black shields "Bacura" could be destroyed by shooting them 256 times, but this is impossible as they would scroll off the screen long before that. A large-sized "Bacura" pictured on an official Namco Tee-shirt actually bears a small "256" sign in one corner.

The highest score possible is 9,999,990, at which point the game terminates abnormally and resets. Some time before this score is reached, the game starts to award extra lives on every blaster shot fired.

Differences between Japanese and U.S. version

The names appearing by default in the Japanese version's high-score list are pseudonyms of the game designers, music composers, the U.S. version only allowed three characters for high-score names.

The zapper and blaster buttons were reversed between the Japanese and U.S. arcade versions.

References in Ridge Racer

There are several references to Xevious in Ridge Racer. Two bonus cars have this game as a sponsor, a red car, "RT Xevious Red" and a green car, "RT Xevious Green". They were used in Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer 2, Rave Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution, and Ridge Racer 64. In R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, a racing team has this game as a sponsor, donning a silver with blue stripes paint scheme, as well as their racing number, 02. The team is named "RT Solvalou", and they are a "hard" team. Ridge Racer 7, for the Playstation 3, features a playable version of this game during the opening sequence. Players are given two lives in order to reach a pre-set high score. The full Xevious game is unlockable through completing part of the single player, offline Ridge Racer grand prix and UFRA circuits.

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