Arcade Archives Xevious

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1-2 Alternating (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: The Nintendo Entertainment System version of this game is included in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1, along with the Nintendo Entertainment System versions of Dig Dug, Dragon Buster, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend, Galaxian, Mappy, Pac-Man, Pac-Man Championship Edition (8-Bit Demake), Sky Kid, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, and The Tower of Druaga. And the Nintendo Entertainment System version of this game is also included in the Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System App. Check out this page for a breakdown of which games can be found in multiple releases on Nintendo Switch.)

Releasing in Arcades in 1983 before being ported to various other platforms, Xevious is one of the formative games of the Shmup genre, setting the standard that vertically-scrolling Shmups would follow. Even then, it featured an innovative ground/air system that’s still uncommon to this day.

As far as the presentation goes, I think the best way to describe this game is “quaint”. The simple 2D pixel art visuals and chiptune sound are not going to impress anyone today, and while there’s just enough variety to keep this from being completely monotonous, it’s not exactly super-varied, either.

Unfortunately, while Xevious is extremely influential, it hasn’t held up well. The movement is torturously slow, the lack of power-ups and limited ability to fire is irritating, and just overall I cannot imagine that anyone would want to play this game when other modern Shmups are available to play instead.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to get as far as they can in one run. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

At $8, the Arcade Archives release of Xevious is terribly overpriced, and players looking for a better deal do have other options, sort of. As mentioned above, both Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 and the Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System App have a version of this game. Yes, it’s not arcade-perfect, but I think most players will find it to be an acceptable substitute, especially when it means not having to spend $8 on a boring, dated game.

With this being the case, the only people I can recommend to buy the Arcade Archives release of Xevious are arcade purists and collectors. For everyone else, it’s just not worth the price when you can play a perfectly decent version via Nintendo Switch Online’s NES App, or get a decent collection of games containing that version. Unless you demand arcade perfection from your crappy, outdated (but historically-important!) Shmups, skip this release.

tl;dr – Xevious is an incredibly influential game in the Shmup genre, with a creative air-to-air and air-to-surface combat system. It is also extremely archaic, with slow movement, a terrible lack of power-ups, and gameplay that has overall been far outpaced by countless other entries in the genre. If you want to see a piece of history, and demand an Arcade-accurate version, this game may be worth checking out. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time, especially at this price.

Grade: D-

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