XenoRaptor

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in The Pew Pew Bundle Vol. 1, along with Black Paradox and Bleed 2.)

XenoRaptor is a 2-Stick Shooter released on the PC in 2014 and ported to multiple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, in 2019. This game has you playing as a dragon shooting buzzsaw flying saucers in space which… doesn’t really make much sense, but it sure sounds cool, right?

The presentation in Xenoraptor is mostly good in theory, but runs into some serious problems in execution. Along with an energetic soundtrack and some good weapon and explosion sounds, XenoRaptor uses some pretty nice 3D visuals for the spaceships, debris, and scenery in its 2D gameplay. Your dragon has a cool alien look to it, the alien spaceships look cool, and the space they travel through looks interesting.

However, the problems here are numerous. Firstly, the game’s framerates seem to suffer far more than they should under this very modest show of visual power. Secondly, the fact that there’s often nothing static to compare your location to makes it very difficult to gauge your location and movement relevant to other objects. And thirdly, spacecraft and munitions travel so far and fast compared to the speed of your own ship and the range of your field of view that in many cases you’re better off keeping your eyes glued to the radar and shooting at enemies offscreen, as they’ll be far more difficult to dodge once you can actually see them. That is of course if you see them – asteroids and other debris is often the same rust color as enemies, meaning it’s easy to mistake one for the other.

The gameplay itself seems to run into similar issues of ambitious designs that fall prey to problems with execution. The ships in XenoRaptor actually have a good feeling of physicality to them, not only affected by inertia, but clearly physically connecting with any object they touch, and ships can fall prey to friendly fire or even bash into the scenery. This can potentially make for some good strategy where you weave through enemies to get them to take each other out with friendly fire or duck into an asteroid belt to see them get dashed on an asteroid trying to follow you, which is pretty satisfying until you learn this game’s unfortunate secret.

The AI in XenoRaptor is really, really dumb.

You know how I said that these enemies sometimes dash themselves on asteroids in their attempts to get at you? Replace “sometimes” with “frequently”. Often, enemies don’t even seem to realize these objects are even there, opting to try to fly through them to get to you on the other side, only to smash themselves to pieces in the attempt. When you realize this, you’ll find yourself staking out a spot behind a sufficiently large one of these asteroids, which will not only shield you from attacks but take out a large portion of the enemies stalking you as well.

The game is glitchy at times as well. Multiple times I’ve seen fiery rocket trails suddenly appear or disappear with no apparent source. One time, after clearing all of the enemies in the current wave save for one, I found myself looking in vain for the last remaining enemy, with no telltale red dot on the radar. After 5 minutes or so of fruitless searching, I gave up and turned the game off.

However, even when the game is working as it should, it can get pretty repetitive. Players unlock different options for their loadout after every boss fight, but cannot change it until they die and exit to the menu. In-game, you’re stuck with the exact same weapons with no variation, often fighting the same half-dozen or so types of ships between boss fights, which only happen every 5 waves or so.

It’s a shame that XenoRaptor has such a multitude of problems, because there’s some good 2-Stick Shooter gameplay hidden under this mess of issues. And while no single one of these issues is all that horrible on its own, together they combine to make a game that’s frustrating or dull about as often as it’s fun and exciting. Fans of 2-Stick Shooters may find something of value here, but there are so many good entries in this genre on the Nintendo Switch that I can’t really recommend it.

tl;dr – XenoRaptor is a 2-Stick Shooter that has you fighting buzzsaw flying saucers in space as an alien dragon. It’s a cool concept, and it even has some fun physics that have the potential to make for a unique spin on the genre. Unfortunately, this game is absolutely loaded with problems that make it hard to appreciate what it does right, such as bad framerates, terrible AI, and a visual presentation that’s not very conducive to the gameplay.

Grade: C

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