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The
Total Recall |
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| Artist touch: To be honest I actually like the artwork here. The action looks pretty intense unlike the game itself. Cover art rating: 7/10 |
Month
it won: January 2006
(Bandai/Namco, September 1988) |
Special note:
Xevious was one of the first video games to use rendered graphics.
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| Introduction and Story: |
| If you talk to anybody
who likes video games there is a good chance they also remember the
glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Who could forget
the legends of the industry like Legend
of Zelda, Metroid,
and Castlevania,
eh? Those mentioned games were even part of Nintendo's special re-releases
for the Gameboy Advance in 2004 along with a few others. Xevious
here was also a part of Nintendo's special 8-bit classic re-issue for
the GBA but will somebody please tell when did this NES junk here become
a classic? Blah Blah Blah! If you hear one story line about a shooter you heard them all and Xevious here is no different. In this game you pilot the Solvalou star ship in order to defend your people against an evil alien attack. Your enemies are everywhere and they are being lead by the deadly collective fortress collective known as the Xevious. Can you save your home planet by launching a counterattack on the enemy's home turf? |
| Controls and Game Play: |
| Xevious
is just a very simple 2D vertical scrolling shooter where you can shoot
enemies down from both the sky and the ground. Sadly, since Xevious
is based on a arcade game from the early 1980's then are no power ups
in the game at all so what you see is what you get and believe me there
isn't much. The game controls well for the most part. You can move around your ship easy enough in four directions and it's great you fire your main cannon and bombs at the same time too but why does everything move so slowly here? Because of this Xevious seriously lacks intensity especially compared to other superior NES shooters like Life Force, or Gun Nac. |
| Graphics and Sounds: |
 If
Xevious wasn't bad enough when it comes to game play but it also looks
and sounds horrible too. First off the background graphics just consist
of repeating flat green land scapes with boring grey enemies. I like
how the game uses shadows and the Xevious itself is a pretty big boss
but I still can't rate these bland looks above average. The game not
only has very basic graphics but it also comes with some of the WORST
and most annoying music you will ever hear as well.
The background track is nothing but the same 4 second looping buzzing
sound over and over that nearly drove me crazy. The crisp sound effects
are a bit better but who in the hell would leave the sound on after
listening to this highly annoying crap? |
| The Bottomline: |
| Xevious may have been impressive in the early 1980's (and that's a very big maybe) but when the game was released for the then powerful and market dominating NES in 1988 it really showed its age. This was especially appearant with far better and more complex NES shooting games like 1943, Zanac, and many more out there. The game is just way too slow and the fact it lacks power ups like most NES shooters have is unforgivable. Also the presentation here is weak at best with its bland graphics and highly annoying music, plus most importantly when you're just shooting down the same old enemies over and over again you struggle to have fun. I'm also upset at Nintendo for re-releasing this horrid game to North American while letting the better Star Soldier game stay in Japan for the both the Gameboy Advance in 2004 and the Nintendo Wii in 2007. As long has you turn down the crappy music Xevious is still playable for a bit but ultimately the game doesn't even deserve to be remembered yet alone played! |
| Conclusion: | |
|
XEVIOUS
overall rating: 45/100 Find this game on eBay here! For 1 or 2 players graphics: 4/10 sound: 1/10 gameplay: 3/10 replay: 2/10 -StarSoldier (Ryan Genno) 2006 See other Total Recall duds of the month |