This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on September 15th, 2018. It has been edited slightly for grammar and formatting.
Welcome back to the third issue of PlayStation Basement! I’m here every Saturday afternoon reviewing obscure, weird, and unknown games for the original PlayStation. My rating system is out of nine. 9-7 is Good, 6-4 is Neutral, and 3-1 is Bad.
Welcome back to the third issue of PlayStation Basement! I’m here every Saturday afternoon reviewing obscure, weird, and unknown games for the original PlayStation. My rating system is out of nine. 9-7 is Good, 6-4 is Neutral, and 3-1 is Bad.
For my third PlayStation Basement, I’ll be reviewing Xevious 3D/G+. What a name! Released to Japanese arcades in 1996 as Xevious 3D/G, Namco brought this to the PlayStation the next year in 1997 as a compilation. In addition to the arcade game, the PlayStation version includes three older games in the series – Xevious, Super Xevious, and Xevious Arrangement. It’s four tales of ancient alien battlin', spaceship flying shmuppin’.
The cover art of Xevious 3D/G+ is pretty cool, showing the heroic Solvalou engaged in battle. The image includes some nice blue colors and cool afterburners. The weakest point of this image is that it’s a combination of three images showing the Nazca Lines, a large metallic image, and the scene of the battle. I think it would have worked a bit better as one scene.
The graphics are pretty much what you’d expect. The three classic arcade games share a similar blocky style, Xevious and Super Xevious being the most primitive with basic levels and solid colors. Xevious Arrangement brings the graphics up a notch to a textured, 16-bit style, and Xevious 3D/G goes into the third dimension. The 3D graphics heavily utilize the same solid colors and blocky designs seen throughout the series with some nice shots thrown in that emphasize the 3D and don’t hamper gameplay, and they work here as a good example of early 3D graphics done right.
The Xevious series did not start with strong sound design. The first two games have a very basic soundtrack, just a few notes repeated over and over. The sound effects are particularly harsh in the first game as well. Xevious Arrangement goes for a much different, darker Metroid-style soundtrack and has some very nice spacey sounds with a nice degree of audible weightlessness. Xevious 3D/G has a very nice soundtrack as well, based more on techno and dance as was common in the mid-90s. The sound effects are enhanced versions that follow along the same lines as all the games here, but I actually like the design used in Xevious Arrangement the best.
Xevious is a vertical shmup with enemies appearing on two planes. All of the games here follow that design. The player’s ship Solvalou can fire a Zapper to hit aerial enemies and a Blaster for the ground-based units. It’s a system that was later used to great effect in RayForce, RayStorm, and RayCrisis. The earlier games in the Xevious series require precision, with a limited number of shots appearing on screen. Xevious Arrangement and Xevious 3D/G allow rapid fire and powerups. Xevious Arrangement allows the Zapper to be upgraded once. Xevious 3D/G, on the other hand, allows the player use of three different weapons – the standard rapid shot, a powerful laser, and a weak homing shot. It’s important to find the best weapon for your style and for the current level. Each weapon can be upgraded a number of times by collected additional icons, but you can only have one weapon equipped at one time. Finally, Xevious 3D/G also includes huge bosses, something that was barely seen in the earlier entries with their large motherships with central weak points. The bosses in Xevious 3D/G include a walker, aircraft carrier, an army of cubes, and more. The bosses are a very fun advancement to the Xevious series.
Xevious 3D/G+ is a great collection of four arcade shooters. From the early examples of Xevious and Super Xevious to the contemporary Xevious 3D/G and Xevious Arrangement, there’s a nice amount of content here that shows the progression of shooter games. While three of the games are pretty similar, the 3D action of Xevious 3D/G really shines through to make this a worthwhile collection. Unfortunately for most collectors, this collection is hard to come by, rarely appearing in the wild or online. Thankfully, it is not an expensive game when it does show itself to the wider world. I recommend trying it out if you enjoy shmups.
Xevious 3D/G+ receives a rating of 8 (Good).
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