Postby Davidizer13 » Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:52 pm
So, I, uh, acquired a copy of XEXEX, Konami's classic arcade shooter, and I've been messing with it. (It fell off the back of a truck, really! I mean, you wouldn't pass up an arcade cab just sitting in the street, would you? Yeah, exactly!)
Anyway, this game is beautiful. Not just "beautiful for its time (1991)," but just plain beautiful. Every scene of the game is pure eye candy, and things like this remind me why I prefer sprites to polygonal models - there's an style to it that you can't put into polygons (though TF2 has come close). Plot? Who needs plot when you're saving a blue-haired princess from a girlyman? What other motivation do you need from a shmup, some ruminations about the nature of war expressed by FMVs? This is the arcade era, yo.
It's the Japanese version, because apparently they stripped a lot of stuff out of the international version (which I've played before), like the weapons and checkpoint system, making it play quite a bit differently. The Japanese version is definitely the way to go.
The game is Konami's answer to R-Type, and they put every ounce of effort into making it so - every concievable component oozes quality, with tons of little touches and animations that make this game awesome. It's still borrowing from that platform of charged super attacks and shields, but it builds on it and makes its own game from it. It's a classic of the highest order; definitely worth a few...uh, quarters.
We are loved even though we suck.
Psalms 37:37 (NHEB)
Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.