Xexyz (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
322A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1990 action/adventure game for the NES, Xexyz.
Pronounced "zek-zis." Not to be confused with Xexex, the Konami arcade shoot 'em up.
Xexyz is one of those rare games you occasionally stumble across that you'd try on a whim with no expectations, only to be completely taken in by it. Nobody talks about it, but that doesn't mean much in this case. It's an excellent game that easily fits into the category of "buried treasure." And it was made by Atlus, whose Friday the 13th game was released just a scant six months after Xexyz. Just don't let that turn you off - they were firing on all cylinders here.
Xexyz is a mishmash of several different gameplay types. Each area starts in a town/platforming action area, like you'd find in Keith Courage on the TG16. You speak to NPCs for story info, gamble for money, shop for weapons, and save girls that just trying to bathe in peace. Once you've got your bearings, you look for a hidden door so that you can fight the boss and unlock the castle area. The castles are similar to the towns (they have shops, NPCs, etc.), but here you must find the launch platform for your fighter jet/mech thing. Upon takeoff, the game temporarily becomes a shoot 'em up. Eventually you run into an old guy that gives you a "flying saucer" and sends you off to fight a boss that, like Darius, always seems to be a robot that resembles an ocean creature. Beating him, you save the queen of the land, and she gives you here (aquatically themed) fighter craft that you use to shmup to the next major area.This cycle then continues through the end of the game.
The variety is fantastic and prevents anything from ever feeling stale, and the many dialogue scenes do a great job of fleshing out the plot and establishing the setting. The graphics and sound pull their weight, too, in reflecting the theme of each world with tons of details and catchy (though not entirely upbeat) songs. The game plays well, too: the controls are solid and dependable. Apollo can easily get out of his own way, and precision jumping is never a problem. The game gets quite difficult later on with swarms of enemies, but it's always a challenge that can be overcome with some patience and practice. And lots of power-ups, can't forget those. It's not perfect, especially the game's tendency to spawn enemies unreasonably close to you when going through doors, but it remains largely fair and demanding throughout.
If you're looking for something different and more obscure, I can't recommend Xexyz highly enough. It's better than many of the far better known action games on the NES, and the sheer personality that it exudes makes it super memorable. Even if they did cut half of the cinematics out from the original Japanese version.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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