Namco 1988

Shoot 'em Up

NES

1 Player | 2 Players Alternating

 

Xevious

Mission: Seek and destroy XEVIOUS enemy aircraft and bases.

Equipment: Fighter plane with laser-pulse anti-aircraft missiles and bombs. Skillfully maneuver your fighter through treacherous air space to gain the strike advantage.

Your Solvalou fighter is armed with anti-aircraft missiles and surface bombs. Missiles [B Button] can be fired rapidly, but bombs [A Button] can only be used one at a time. Enemy forces are both in the air and on the ground, meaning you will need to switch rapidly between weapon systems. Knowing what targets to prioritize can quickly become the difference between life and death. If you happen to miss your bombing run on a ground target don't worry — there's no threat of collision for any Xevious enemies that aren't flying in through the air. There are 4 hidden 1-Up flags to find in the game's 16 different regions. Their vertical location will always be the same but the horizontal positioning will be random. You can also find hidden Sol Towers that can be detected when your bomb sights light up over 'empty' space. Bomb once to make them appear and then once again to destroy them. The Ando Ageanesis flying fortress is armed with relentless missile swarms and defended by Zkarts that will put an end to any bombing run. Take out the 4 gun ports to neutralize its attacks, or destroy the central core to take the fortress down for good. If you watch closely, each enemy type follows a distinct pattern. Learning them will allow you to be in the right place at the right time to land every missile and bomb on target. The further you advance, the more hostile the enemy becomes. Destroying their information systems, the Solbak, will dampen their fighting capabilities and may provide a vital opening. While it definitely pays to be cautious, you should still aggressively take enemies down when you can. Scores of 20,000 and every 60,000 after will award you another Solvalou Fighter.

The Xevious enemy forces are numerous and are split evenly between land and air: Torroid Circular drones that glide in and begin their attack patterns when you are close Talken Fast moving ships that swoop in to fire a single shot and then retreat immediately Bacura Indestructible rotating walls that fly through the area in a straight line Zkart Cloaked units that will move towards you and self destruct while firing a missile Jiara Like the Torroid but much faster, it glides in with large numbers firing a single shot Zoshee Slow moving but their maneuverability allows them to position behind you if not destroyed Kapi Like the Talken, it drops in to attack and then zooms away Terrazi Even more aggressive than the Kapi, they will attack and flip around to retreat quickly Ground Forces: Barla Defenseless power storage stations for nearby enemy structures Logram Anti-air defense platforms that fire missiles one at a time Solbak Enemy information systems that reduce enemy aggression when destroyed Globder Defenseless ground vehicle that will change its speed while in your bombing sights Domogram Mostly found patrolling on roads, they are like a mobile Logram firing single missiles Deloda Stationary weapons platform that fires a large barrage of missiles all at once Boza Logram Five weapons platforms that can all be destroyed at once by taking out the center

Game Genie Codes

SZLNZY	Unlimited Lives	Game Genie
PAZYOG	Start With 1 Life	Game Genie
TAZYOG	Start With 6 Lives	Game Genie
PAZYOK	Start With 9 Lives	Game Genie
SEKYKISZ	Invincibility	Game Genie

Xevious
What really sets Xevious apart from other scrolling shooters is its bombing mechanism. Both missiles and bombs are used to hit different types of targets on both land and in air, with switching between the two weapon systems as simple as pressing a different button. Not only that, most ground objects can be safely flown over, giving you plenty of options when it comes to prioritizing targets. Because the bombing sights distance never changes, the openings in attack patterns for ground targets is designed to be very precise. The positioning of enemies is also partially random throughout each stage, meaning that two passes won't be exactly the same. This can really throw you for a loop when really tough enemies are grouped together!

The stages repeat endlessly, making the main objective of the game to achieve a high score. Although Xevious brought a lot of new ideas to the table, it's important to remember it's still one of the earliest entries to the genre. This ambitious game really expanded on the basic ideas found in Galaga and set a new standard going forward. In many ways, Xevious feels like a bridge between the purist shoot 'em up experience found in Galaga or Space Invaders and the more advanced Shooters that would follow years later.