Game:

Xardion (1992)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:00:00

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Here is the full playthrough of Xardion done live on IGTV. Ive edited out all the hours of grinding (mainly stage 1) to make it a less dull watch.

Follow me on instagram @CabinSNES_fever to join me live or via my reviews and uploads to witness me take down all the games currently in my SNES colleciton, following on from having already beaten all 234 licenced UK releases for the NES. I only use original carts, no cheats & no save states.

REVIEW:
-Never heard of it? neither had I till recently. However the reasonable price, striking name & promising artwork of giant fighting mechs proved to tempting to resist. I wish I could say gameplay lived up to expectations, alas the 'wow factor' ended the moment it changed hands!

Xardion is a action platformer with a heavy lean toward RPG elements via levelling up to improve stats & discovering new arsenal upgrades. The gameplay ultimately allows travel between 4 different planets when all is unlocked. Each planet has 2 very linear and often very short stages, which offer 'exploration' by its most basic definition! Much like nearly every aspect of the game, little care seems to have been taken to provide much in way of longevity. The fairly uninspiring story is told through simple text scroll that changes too fast, offers no indication who's speaking & uses a horrid font style & colour usually clashing with the backgrounds leaving it difficult to read.

Unfortunately gameplay isnt much better. Tho you can switch between 3 characters on the fly, each has a lumbering sluggishness to their control & offers little excitement in attack. Despite the cover art only 1 character is a fighting Mech, the others being a mechanical panther (not remotely as fun as it sounds), & some form of magician. A 2nd Ultimate mech (who plays exactly like the first) is unlocked late on after the (spoiler!) very emotionless death of Panther-Mech, I certainly didnt shed a tear!

Until levelled up sufficiently, the later stages & bosses may pose a concern, but after equally uninspiring repeated grinding (for each character) of, predominantly the 1st stage (where the most EXP is), the game becomes incredibly easy. Later special attacks grant invincibility shields at little ammo cost, rendering stage difficulty almost utterly pointless.

Given the additional production cost, the inclusion of a cartridge battery save is surprising, especially as a password system could easily have sufficed at the expense of exact EXP numbers. Perhaps preconceptions were of this being a hit? After playing greats like Super Metroid & Cybernator, it's hard to imply this whilst keeping a straight face!