Xenon (Game)

Xenon

GAME » on 1988

Amiga (Platform)Amstrad CPC (Platform)Arcade (Platform)Atari ST (Platform)Commodore 64 (Platform)MSX (Platform)PC (Platform)ZX Spectrum (Platform)

A shoot 'em up spanning four diverse levels. Players control a ship that can morph between a ground based tank and air attack ship.

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Overview

Xenon is a vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up loosely inspired by Xevious (Franchise) in which the player, as the futuristic pilot Darrian, must make their way through four sectors to save humanity from the Xenite alien race. The game was the first to be developed by The Bitmap Brothers, who would become renowned for their presentations. It was developed for the Atari ST in 1988 and soon ported to various other home computers. Xenon was followed by a sequel: Xenon 2: Megablast. Megablast dropped the shapeshifting aspect to the player's craft but expanded the number of power-ups on offer.

Gameplay

The goal of Xenon is to simply reach the top of the "sector" and defeat two bosses along the way: one midway through the sector and one right at the end. While not available in every sector, the player could transform their craft into a tank that was capable of moving and shooting in eight directions. The standard jet plane variant could only point and fire upwards. Both forms were often necessary to avoid enemies and collect power-ups: taking damage from shots was considerably less dangerous than colliding into enemies or walls. The boss of each stage is the Sentinel, a face-like robot that needs to be destroyed by removing its front-facing shielding and firing at its core. Each time the Sentinel is met, it adopts a movement pattern that is harder to elude/predict.

Power-Ups

The game uses a letter-based power-up system also seen in Arkanoid (Game) or Contra (Game), where each letter represents what the power-up provides.

A - Armor. Provides a glowing shield that makes Darrian invulnerable to harm, but expires after fifteen seconds.
F - Fuel. Taking damage drops the shields, which in turn drains fuel. By restoring fuel Darrian can increase his shield power and take more shots. Essentially acts as a health restore, and has two strength levels: small health boost and full health boost.
H - Homing Missile. Allows Darrian to fire eight shots that spread out in every direction from the craft. Shots will home in on enemies after being fired. Will only last for fifteen seconds, like the armor.
L - Laser. Replaces the main weapon with a powerful laser. It doesn't fire quite as quickly, however.
G - Gun. Restores the craft's weapon with the standard gun if the player replaced it with the laser.
P - Power. Boosts the distance Darrian's bullets travel.
R - Rate. Increases the craft's speed in both forms.
S - Side. Allows the craft to fire lasers horizontally on either side.
W - Wings. Adds options on either side of the Darrian's craft, effectively tripling their firepower.
Z - Zap. Acts as an instant smart bomb, eliminating all enemies on the screen.
Options - Spherical objects that closely follow behind the craft and fire when it does. The player can collect up to three.

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