Xevious

Arcade version screenshot.

Xevious is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game. The player controls a starship known as the Solvalou to destroy the Xevious forces, who plot to take over Earth.[1] The Solvalou has two weapons for combating enemies - an "air zapper" that fires projectiles at flying enemies,[2] and a "blaster bomb" for destroying enemies stationed on the ground.[2] The Solvalou also has a blaster receptacle which will determine where the bombs will go to, used to destroy ground targets.[2]

Certain areas of the game will have a fight against the Andor Genesis mothership, which will launch an endless stream of projectiles and explosive black spheres known as "Zakatos".[2] The player can either destroy all four blaster receptacles or simply destroy the core in the center to defeat it.[2] Some parts of the game will have hidden towers known as "Sol Citadels", which can be found by bombing specific parts of an area[1] - these areas will cause the Solvalou's receptacle to flash red when flown over.[1] Yellow "Special Flags" from Namco's own Rally-X are also found in a random section of the area - collecting it will award the player an extra life.[1]

The game has a total of 16 stages, known as "areas" in-game, which will loop back to the first after completing them all.[1] Dying about 70% through an area will allow the player to start at the beginning of the next.[3] These areas have large geographical features, such as forests, sand roads, rivers and mechanical structures - certain areas will also have Nazca lines placed on the ground, notably the "condor" design.[3] The game becomes progressively more difficult as the player becomes more skilled - once the player does well at destroying a certain enemy type, a more advanced enemy type will replace it;[3] this can be reverted by destroying flashing-red "Zolback" radars found on the ground, which will cause the more advanced enemies to instead be replaced with easier ones.[3][1]

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.[5] Concept art for the Andor Genesis mothership depicted it with a more circular design, nicknamed "Gofuru" due to it bearing resemblance to Gofuru cookies.[5] The design was changed to instead be the shape of an octagon as the hardware had difficulty displaying round objects, while still keeping much of its key features such as the central core and blaster receptacles.[5] Endō created a fictional language during development called "Xevian" that he used to name each of the enemies.[4]

The blaster target for the Solvalou was added to make it easier to destroy ground targets, which flashes red when over an enemy to signal the player to fire a bomb at it.[4] While programming it, Endō thought it would be interesting to have the blaster target flash over a blank space where an enemy wasn't present, leading to the addition of the Sol citadels.[4] Namco executives expressed displeasure towards the idea, with Endō instead claiming they were simply a bug in the program and leaving them in the code.[4] The Special Flag icons from Rally-X were added due to Endō being a fan of the game.[4] The game was originally named Zevious, the "X" being added to make it sound more exotic and mysterious, with the metallic logo paying homage to the pinball table Xenon.[4] Location testing for Xevious was conducted in December 1982, and was released in Japan in January 1983.[3] In the months following, Atari, Inc. acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute it in North America, advertising it as "the Atari game you can't play at home".[3]

Reception
Review scores Publication Score AllGame [22] IGN 6/10[23] Your Sinclair 8/10[7] Nintendojo 7.5/10[24]

Xevious was an unprecedented success for Namco in Japan, said to have sold as many arcade units as Space Invaders in its first few weeks of release.[25] The game was commercially-successful and was among the top-selling arcade games of the year.[26] The Famicom version became the console's first killer app with over 1.26 million copies sold,[27] jumping system sales by nearly 2 million units.[28] The game's immense popularity lead to high score tournaments being set up across the country, alongside the creation of guidebooks that documented much of its secrets and hidden items.[29] The arcade version under-performed in North America, selling a combined total of only 5,295 units by the end of 1983 and grossing around $11.1 million in revenue.[30]

Computer & Video Games magazine praised the game's thrilling action and impressive graphics, recommending it to players fond of titles such as Zaxxon and Scramble,[31] while Electronic Games found that the realistic graphics and intense action made Xevious an easy recommendation to fans of the genre. Joystik stated that the game was superior to titles Zaxxon and Tron, specifically in its graphics and gameplay.[32] Amusement Life praised its detailed backgrounds, fast-paced gameplay and sense of mystery, labeling it a masterpiece and one of the best games of 1983.[33] In 1998, Allgame called it one of the more "polite" shoot'em ups for its detailed visuals, challenge and unique enemy designs, finding it to have a "charm" unmatched by other games of the genre.[22]

Home versions of Xevious received praise for their faithfulness to the original. Your Sinclair commended the ZX Spectrum version's accurate conversion of the arcade original, while also praising its fast-paced gameplay and "enthralling" experience.[7] GameSpot applauded the Xbox 360 digital version's emulation quality and usage of online leaderboards.[34] Nintendojo greatly praised the Classic NES Series version for its gameplay and multiplayer mode, favorably comparing it to games such as Gradius.[24] They felt that its responsive controls and "chaotic" difficulty made it one of the best titles released under the label.[24] Some home releases were met with a more mixed reception for their overall quality and lack of bonus features. Reviewing the Nintendo Entertainment System release, German publication Power Play found the game to be "too old", suggesting that readers instead try out titles such as Gradius.[35] They also disliked the game's lack of power-ups and for areas being too long.[35] IGN and GameSpot disliked the Xbox 360 version's lack of improvements made over previous home releases and bonus content.[23][34]

Retrospectively, Xevious has been seen as the "father" of vertical-scrolling shooters and one of the most influential and important games of the genre. In 1996, Next Generation ranked it at #90 in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", praising its art direction, intense gameplay and layer of strategy.[36] Gamest magazine ranked it the second greatest arcade game of all time in 1997 based on reader vote, applauding its pre-rendered visuals, addictive nature and historical significance.[37] Japanese publication Yuge found the Famicom home port to be one of the system's best and most memorable titles for its faithful portrayal of the original.[28] Hardcore Gaming 101 applauded the game for setting up the template for future games of the genre, namely TwinBee, RayForce and Raiden DX.[3] They also praised the game's detailed graphics, difficulty and impressive enemy intelligence for the time.[3] IGN labeled it the 9th greatest Atari 7800 game of all time for its gameplay and overall quality.[38] The Killer List of Videogames listed it at #48 in their "Top 100 Coin-Operated Videogames of All Time".[39] Bubble Bobble creator Fukio Mitsuji and Rez producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi cite Xevious as having a profound influence on their careers.[40][41] Xevious is credited as one of the first video games to have a boss fight,[37][3] pre-rendered graphics[36] and a storyline.[37]

The success of Xevious would lead to a number of sequels and spin-offs being produced. The first of these, Super Xevious, was released in 1984 - the difficulty was increased to appeal to more advanced players, alongside new enemy types and characters that will reset the player's score when shot.[3] A similarly titled game was released in 1986 for the Family Computer, Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo, which intermixed puzzle elements with the standard Xevious gameplay.[42] An arcade version of this game was also released, known as Vs. Super Xevious, running on the Nintendo Vs. arcade system.[43] An arcade spin-off title starring one of the enemies from Xevious, Grobda, was released in 1984.[44]

Two games for the MSX2 and PC-Engine were released in 1988 and 1990 respectively - Xevious Fardraut Saga and Xevious Fardraut Densetsu,[45] both of which include a remade port of the original alongside a brand-new story mode with new enemies, boss fights and power-up items.[46] A 3D rail-shooter spin-off, Solvalou, was published in 1991.[47] In 1995, two arcade sequels were released - Xevious Arrangement, a remake of the original with two-player co-op,[48] and Xevious 3D/G, a 3D game with 2D gameplay - both of these titles were soon released in 1997 for the PlayStation, compiled into Xevious 3D/G+, alongside the original Xevious and Super Xevious.[49] A final follow-up title was released in 2009, Xevious Resurrection, exclusively as part of the compilation title Namco Museum Essentials, which includes two-player simultaneous co-op alongside a number of other features.[50]

In 1991, a three-part Xevious novel was published, titled Fardraut - the books documented the lore of the Xevious video game series, including its characters, backstory and events. The books would be republished fifteen years later in 2005.[3] A 2002 CGI film adaptation was released in Japan, produced during a collaboration between Namco and Japanese company Groove Corporation.[51] A Xevious-themed soundtrack album was produced by Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1984, titled Video Game Music. Compiled with music from other Namco video games, such as Mappy and Pole Position, it is credited as the first video game soundtrack album.[52] Xevious would also spawn the first gameplay recording for a video game[52] and the first television commercial for an arcade game.[53] Music from the game was used during the video game-themed television series Starcade.[53]

• Xevious at the Killer List of Videogames