Reviews

Not a bad shmup here. Looks, feels and plays a little too similar to Elite's 1942 perhaps but its still a fun little shmup nonetheless.

A bland rendition of the coin-op which wasn't exactly the most exciting shoot-em-up in its own time to begin with. Fly over sparse green backdrops shooting wave after wave of cookie-cutter enemies. No power-ups, no special enemies, no bosses...

As such kind of games are quite easy to find, they should have something special to make them stand out. Unfortunately Xevious just doesn't cut it; it's not awful, but it's simply a nondescript shooter without "personality".

A quite accurate conversion of what was always a mediocre shooter. Like the arcade version there's nothing special in it and has little variety. At least it's accurate, just not a lot of fun.

This shooter is more than just good ... with many ingredients that make it satisfying and exciting for the player .

If you like Terra Cresta you will like this one too ... !!!

What does a good shmup need? Certainly not power ups and bosses as these often make a game worse, not better.

A good 8 bit era schmup needs first and foremost a balanced challenge, interesting attack waves, visible bullets and good collision detection. Xevious scores in these departments. At least the balanced challenge lasts until 'the deadly indestructable spiralling planks of wood' come at you at random, somtimes in unavoidable patterns and the collision detection seems a bit off very occasionally, though often in your favour.

I've seen much worse, that's for sure.

The bad? There's not enough variety - in terms of enemies, attack patterns or scenary. The samey scenary means you get little impression of progress, and not even a cheery jingle on completing a level.

Its a shame because this is a game where you'll make a bit more progress each go, so the gameplay has classic 'one more go' appeal whilst the look of the game fails to reward industry with any surprises.
I was torn between 3+4/5 on this one but have gone for 'good' as there are so many truly average vertical shmups on the Spectrum.

Xevious [U.S. Gold]
by Probe Software (Nick Bruty)

This is another vertical shooter converted from a coin op by Nick Bruty, the same programmer of Slap Fight - but it doesn't show. The graphics are gre5enish, but at least you can see the bullets clearly, and the it's far easier than Slap Fight. There are no power up's and it's not particularly exciting. Still, it's decent enough. The sound effects and jingles reminds of 1942, converted by Dominic Wood. Very nice loading screen.
3/5