Xevious (Arcade, Atari 7800, & Famicom) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 550
13The legendary Japanese shooter that flopped in the west
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Xevious
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xevious
Xevious[a] is a 1983 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was published by Atari, Inc.. Controlling the Solvalou starship, the player is tasked with wiping out the Xevious forces before they destroy all of mankind. The Solvalou has two weapons at its disposal: an air zapper to destroy flying enemies, and a blaster bomb to destroy ground-stationed enemies. It ran on the Namco Galaga arcade system.
The game was designed by Masanobu Endō and a small team. Created to rival the success of Scramble, it was originally themed around the Vietnam War and titled Cheyenne in early versions. Endō wanted the game to have a detailed, integral storyline and a comprehensive world, and to be welcoming for newer players. Several enemies and characters were made to pay homage to other popular science fiction works, including Star Wars, UFO, Alien and Battlestar Galactica. It was originally named Zevious, the "X" being added to make it sound exotic and mysterious.
Xevious was critically acclaimed, being praised for its detailed graphics, addictive nature, challenge and originality. It became an unprecedented success for Namco in Japan, with record-breaking sales figures that aligned with Space Invaders in its first few weeks of release. It was a commercial failure in North America by comparison, selling 5,295 arcade units by the end of 1983. It has retrospectively been listed among the greatest video games of all time and one of the most influential games in the shoot'em up genre, serving as inspiration for games such as TwinBee and RayForce. It was met with several sequels and spin-offs, alongside a number of home console ports. Xevious is also included in many Namco compilations.
Xevious was designed by Masanobu Endō, who joined Namco in April 1981 as a planner.[4] He and a small team of others were assigned by Namco's marketing department to create a two-button scrolling shooter that could rival the success of Konami's arcade game Scramble (1981).[4] Early versions of the game were named Cheyenne and took place during the Vietnam War, with the player controlling a helicopter to shoot down enemies.[4] After the development team was reshuffled and the project planner quit altogether, Endō became the head designer for the game.[4] He learned programming on the job during production.[4]
Endō wanted the game to have a consistent, detailed world with a story that didn't feel like a "tacked-on extra", instead being an integral part of the game.[4] The goal of the project was for the game to be inviting for newer players, and to become gradually more difficult as they became better at the game.[4] Influenced by ray-tracing, Endō wanted the game's sprites to be high-quality and detailed, while also making sure they fit the limitations of the arcade board it ran on.[4] The team used a method that involved giving each sprite different shades of gray, allowing sprites to display additional colors.[4] Many of the sprites were designed by Endō himself, although some were done by Hiroshi "Mr. Dotman" Ono, including the player and the background designs.
Many of the game's characters and structures were designed and refined by Shigeki Toyama, who previously worked on many of Namco's robotics for their amusement centers in the early 1980s.[5] The player's ship, the Solvalou, is based on the Nostromo space tug from Alien, while several of the enemies are homages to starships from popular science fiction works, including Star Wars, UFO and Battlestar Galactica.