Xevious Wiki
Xevious Poster

The promotional poster for Xevious.

Xevious is a 1983 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It was designed by Masanobu Endō. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on the Namco Galaga arcade system board.

Gameplay[]

The player moves the Solvalou with the joystick, and pressing the two buttons will fire the air zapper and blaster bomb. The Solvalou must destroy as many enemies across the repeating 16 areas of the game. There are two types of enemies; air and ground targets. The air enemies are defeated by the air zapper, while the ground targets are destroyed with the blaster bombs. The Solvalou will also encounter the Andor Genesis mothership, which has five weak points; firing at the gun points and destroying the core will give the most amount of points. The player can also bomb random areas to reveal Sol towers, which can be destroyed for bonus points, or a Special Flag which grants an extra life.

The game has 1 level, but the area changes after flying a certain distance. The Solvalou continually advances over varying terrain and the boundaries between areas are marked only by dense forests being overflown. If the player dies, the player normally resumes from the start of that area. If the player has completed at least 70% of the level before dying, the player will begin at the start of the next area instead. As the Solvalou constantly flies forward, it is theoretically possible to advance without killing any enemies.

History[]

Xevious was one of the earliest vertical scrolling shooters (it was preceded by at least the 1981 Atari 8-bit computer game Caverns of Mars) and greatly influenced games in this genre. The graphics were revolutionary for their time, and characters were rendered with remarkable clarity and effect through careful use of shades of gray and palette-shifting. It was one of the first games to have hidden bonuses that are not mentioned in the instructions but can be revealed by a secret maneuver. Among these was the 'special flag' which first appeared in Rally-X. In this game, the flag gave the player an extra life and this feature was carried over to numerous subsequent Namco games. In 1983, the original Xevious was the first arcade game to actually have a television commercial aired for it in the U.S. Atari promoted the game with the slogan "Are you devious enough to beat Xevious?" and closed the commercial with a tag line branding it "the arcade game you can't play at home."

While it saw limited popularity in the U.S., Xevious was a huge cult hit in Japan, and to this day is considered one of the greatest video-games of all time. Popular musicians Haruomi Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra) and Keisuke Kuwata (Southern All Stars) were known to be fans of the game, and the former produced an album of music from Namco video-games, with Xevious as its centerpiece. A follow-up 12" single featured in its liner notes an entire science-fiction short story by Endō, set in the world of Xevious, with even a rudimentary fictional language.

Enemies[]

This is a list of all enemies in the game. There are ground-based enemies to blast on, but there are also air-based enemies to shoot.

Air-Based Enemies[1][]

Bacura (Resistor Shield. code name: Flying Board)

Brag Spario (code name: Gemini)

Brag Zakato (Energy Blaster. code name: Cracker)

Bragza (Crystal. code name: Pineapple)

Garu Zakato (Energy Bomber. code name: Bullseye)

Giddo Spario (Energy Blast. code name: Long Range Zapper)

Jara (code name: Spinner)

Kapi (Deflector. code name: Rhombus)

Spario (code name: Zapper)

Terrazi (Destructor. code name: Limuloid)

Torkan (Scout Ship

Toroid (Fleet. code name: Coin)

Zakato (Energy Launcher. codename: Teleporter)

Zoshi (Death Squad. code name: Octopus)

Addor Guileness (Mother Ship. code name: Andor Genesis)

Ground-based Enemies[1][]

Barra (Energy Station. code name: Pyramid)

Boza Logram (Dome Network. code name: Dome Array)

Logram (Dome Station. code name: Roguramu)

Derota (Defense Site. code name: Rook)

Domogram (Rover. code name: Slider)

Garu Barra (Energy Base. code name: Big)

Garu Derota (Mega Site. code name: Daiza)

Grobda (Tank. code name: Stingray)

Sol (Citadel. code name: Tower)

Special (Bonus Flag. code name: Flag)

Zolbak (Detector Dome. code name: Skylight)

Series[]

There were several arcade sequels and a spin-off, though none achieved much popularity:

  • Super Xevious (1984) was practically the same game made significantly harder, and with a few rarely-seen new enemies.
  • Solvalou (video game) (1991) presented the same game with a pilot's eye view. The game used 3-D flat shaded polygon graphics. Released in Japan only.
  • Xevious 3D/G (1995) was an update on the classic with 3-D texture-mapped polygon graphics and a simultaneous two-player feature. Released in Japan only.
  • Xevious Arrangement (1995) was part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1, along with the original Xevious and Super Xevious. The arranged version had improved music and graphics and different levels.
  • Grobda (1984) was a spin-off starring an enemy character—the tank with corkscrew treads.

In Japan, three new versions were released for home systems:

  • Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo (1986) was released for the Family Computer and the Nintendo Vs. System arcade unit. You must solve riddles in each stage in order to progress. Unless you meet certain criteria the stage loops indefinitely, getting harder and harder in the process.
  • Xevious: Fardraut Saga (1988) was released for the MSX2 and developed by Compile. You can select between two modes at the title screen, Recon (port of the original Arcade Xevious) and Scramble, which is a new 16 area game with new enemies and 4 different ships to play with (Solvalou, Solgrado, Zeodalley and Gampmission).
  • Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu (1990) was released for the PC Engine and also developed by Compile This is the sequel to Fardraut Saga and it features two modes which can be selected from the title screen, Original (port of the original Arcade Xevious) and Fardraut, which is a 4 stage story mode with cut-scenes, power-ups and a different ship on each level.
  • An unreleased RTS game titled New Space Order, made only in Japan by Namco Bandai Entertainment, contains elements from the Xevious video game series. In the game there is an interplanetary nation called the "Military Empire," in which the population speaks the Xevi language, the same language spoken by the dwellers of planet Xevious. Their theme song, sung in Xevi, can be downloaded from the game's homepage.
  • Xevious Resurrection was the ninth and last game in the series and was released on the PS3 game title collection Namco Museum Essentials. As of March 15, 2018, Namco Museum Essentials was de-listed off of the PlayStation Network. With it, Xevious Resurrection was also de-listed.

Ports[]

The game has been ported to other systems, including the Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, NEC PC Engine, Nintendo Entertainment System game consoles, also the MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Apple II and Atari ST home computers. In 2005 Namco released the game on the mobile platform for cellphones. Other handheld ports include Game Boy Advance The game has also been included in a number of classic arcade game compilations for consoles and PC, including Namco Museum Volume 2 for the original PlayStation in 1996, Microsoft Revenge of Arcade for PC in 1998, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection for Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and PC, as well as Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PlayStation Portable in 2005.

The NES-version of the game was released for Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Classic NES Series and again on the Virtual Console on January 15, 2007. The game is also on the Ms. Pac Man Plug 'n Play game made by HotGen Studios. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade on May 23, 2007. This as well as Super Xevious were on Namco Museum DS and Xevious 3D/G+ for the PlayStation.

References in other games[]

  • In StarFox: Assault, which was co-developed by Namco, the Special Flags are hidden secrets in the game's stages. The pickup sound for the flag is exactly the same as that in Xevious. Additionally, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Xevious is unlockable if the player earns every silver medal in the game.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, which was developed by Namco, there is an enemy called "Bacura," which is one of the invincible flying panels from Xevious. It only appears at one point in the game and has a very high defense, making it hard to defeat.
  • In both Mario Kart Arcade GP and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, arcade versions (co-developed by Namco) of Nintendo's popular Mario Kart series of games, Pac-Man appears as a playable character. One of his selectable karts is the Solvalou spacecraft.
  • In EarthBound, music from Xevious can be heard in the background noise at the Onett arcade.

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