Xevious
| Xevious | |
|---|---|
| The arcade version of Xevious' title screen. The Solvalou is the grey ship at the lower right. | |
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Atari Games |
| Designer(s) | Masanobu Endoh |
| Release | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Vertical scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Arcade system | Namco Galaga |
Xevious is an 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 Games. It is included as a bonus game in Star Fox: Assault, jointly developed by Namco and Nintendo. 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 an unlimited supply of air-to-surface bombs that fire ahead 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 televison 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 tagline 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 videogames 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 videogames, 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.
There were several arcade sequels and a spinoff, 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 wire. The game used 3-D flat shaded polygon graphics.
- Xevious 3D/G (1995) was an update on the classic with 3-D texture mapped polygon graphics and a simultaneous two-player feature.
- Xevious Arrangement (1995) was part of the Namco Classics Collection Volume 1 game collection (along with the original Xevious and Super Xevious). The arranged version had improved musics and (2d) graphics and different levels.
- Grobda (1984) was a spinoff starring an enemy character -- the tank with corkscrew treads.
- "Xevious the Avenger" (2004) was re-released on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as part of the first Classic NES Series.
Tricks and trivia
- 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.
- 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.
- The names appearing by default in the Japanese version's high-score list are pseudonyms of the game designers, music composers, etc. (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.
- It was rumored that the black shields could be destroyed by shooting them 256 times, but this is impossible as they would scroll off the screen long before that.
- At one point in the game, the Solvalou flies over the Nazca Lines.
- In Ridge Racer, two bonus cars have this game as a sponsor. There is 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. The team is named "RT Solvalou", and they are an "expert" team.
- This game can be unlocked in Star Fox: Assault, by collecting all silver medals.