It's a frenzy blast'em up thick with aliens of all shapes and sizes. You move from room to room
in space stations, moonbases etc. whiley they shove you, push you, grip you, catch you, try to strangle you,
drain your energy in anyway, while you can shoot in multiple directions, even pointing at the ceiling or at the floor, walking, ducking, ducking and walking at the same time, or jumping like a demented kangaroo.
It's very well done, but the gameplay is a bit samey.
3,5/5
1989 Micro Style (UK)
by Barry Leitch, Mick Hanrahan, Martin Hooley and Leslie Long
This a conversion of an arcade coin-op unknown to me. Never heard of it on the Spectrum. The game reminds me a lot of the Electric Dreams Software Aliens, with similar creatures, also sweet looking and cuddly. It's more a shoot 'em up than Aliens was which may be a good thing for some, packs more action and requires more alertness than the hipnotic Aliens, which by the way is an amazing game. The game seems another side viewed shooter which is not the case althogheter, there is more to it than just moving forward and blasting anything that moves, here you move both ways, left or right and up or down, you even get transported to other parts of a big ship and continue from there. There are 4 levels of play, in each you have to clear it from any Xeno creature then you'll be beamed back to mothership and move to the next level. There is a choise of different weapons and the possibility of a two player mode which will divide the screen in two, something I usually dislike when I cant play with anyone else, because the 1 player mode means you only have a small part of the screen to play.
Besides a bit shallow, Xenophone is still a fun addictive game but maybe not for hours of play.
