Reviews

Exolon was a shoot'em up game with push-level screens. Once you reached the other side of the screen it went onto the next screen.

The game was very colourful and the graphics for the Spectrum were fantastic. The gameplay however was a bit slow.

You could fire bullets or hold down the fire button to fire a larger rocket which blew up bigger objects.

Fairly addictive. A good game overall.

Exolon is an arcade shooter. For each screen, you start at the left, and need to fight your way rightwards until you get to the next screen. Your fire button can launch two types of weapon - a normal gun and a grenade (or at least, an RPG). The gun is to shoot the general nasties that are trying to finish you off, and the grenades are for destroying things that are in your way.

The nasties you come across are quite varied, from the stationary (like mines) to the captured (the small jittery balls captured in the globes you occasionally need to blow up to complete a level), to the downright nasty (the high speed missiles you can't shoot and the planes that speed right up before going for you). There are also some traps, like big rams that suddenly come up from the ground...and kill you. There are also teleporters to help you get around levels.

The game itself is technically excellent - large numbers of sprites, some of which move at high speed, spectacular grenade explosions, and lots of colour. Visually, it's one of the best arcade shooters around. However, what makes it a 4 rather than a 5 at least for me is the game play lets it down a little - the game play is good, but there are certain annoyances, such as situations where you don't seem to be able to avoid losing a life (there's a rocket launcher on one level, and if it starts firing, you're done for). The game play also seems slightly slow for the genre. However, none of these things are fatal to the game - it's still a very good game.

A superb platform/shooter, coded by master Raffaele Cecco, Exolon is a great example of its genre. As a futuristic super-soldier (called Vitorc in the Crash and Sinclair User reviews, but not in the game instructions), you must negotiate 125 screens divided into 5 levels full of enemies and traps, jumping over platforms and using teleports. The backpack rocket launcher will help you overcome the obstacles barring your way. If you find the exoskeleton you may double your firepower and trample over mines without harm, but you won't be awarded the special 10,000 points bonus each time you reach the end of a level.

Every aspect of the game is flawless: graphics, sound, playability, progressive difficulty, you name it. Exolon can deceive the casual player by appearing either somewhat slow or sometimes too difficult, on the brink of impossibility. But this is one of those rare games where the ability to think about the best route to take must be paired with sharp reflexes in order not to be overwhelmed by the ever-present dangers. A true classic. 5/5

I remember seeing Exolon in Crash for the first time. What colour! Even better, when I loaded it up and saw the beautiful explosions!

At heart a simple run and gunner, Exolon may have too basic gameplay for some, but I will always think it's a great game!

One of the Spectrum's greatest games with the finest graphics you can find. Lovely!

Brilliant in almost every aspect !!

My favourite Cecco game. Brilliant graphics combined with a simple yet enjoyable shooter.

A fine piece if work from a Spectrum master, others have said what I would say about Exolon, especially the one by Alessandro Grussu. Its a true landamrk Spectrum Game.

One of the classics form Hewson.

A shooter with a lineal concept and no scroll is not supposed to be good, but this is the appeal of this game, facing a new challenge screen by screen, with very good graphics, colours and a great animation. The 128K version has well-made sounds and it's one of those Spectrum games that stands the test of time.

Looks fantastic and it's great, it doesn't grab me much, though.
4/5

Exolon...Cecco's gush fest...

You know after all these years I decided this game isn't that great.

Think about it, you walk along and shoot bubbles for about 9 hours, and what is not bubbles, are very generic enemies. Unfair deaths await you at the edge of the screen, and the game is actually pretty fucking slow.

So I'm gonna keep the review short, me and a good friend of mine played through this game from start to finish back in the day, and it's really not that great. You walk along shoot, walk along shoot, teleport, and walk along shoot, and you get a bonus if you don't use the exo-skeleton.

Really that's it, it goes on for hours like this, and lordy forbid you accidentally shoot off one of your rockets, better get ready to reset the game if you do, because if you can't blow up the weird looking thingies you're stuck......OK Excellent game!

3.5/5 as it's slightly above average, and I don't want to get assassinated in my sleep for saying it's crap, but take a good look at it, it's got all the flaws of a bad game, but since it was a Cecco, people seem to think it's amazing, and other than looking nice after all these years I'm not afraid to point out it's terrible flaws.

I used to be in the camp that this was an excellent game, but really it's not at all. It's OK, and it looks nice, but that's about it really.

Colourful yes but the gameplay just didn't do it for me.