Xerons

The Good
At the 1997 World Peace Conference, president Eugene Minter made the bold claim that the solar system was no longer under threat by alien invaders. This contradiction couldn’t have come soon enough; two years later, an alien race known as the Xerons set their sights on Moon Base Alpha.

Xerons is a shooter from Supersoft for the Commodore 64. It is programmed by Andrew Trott, who worked on two other games after this one. It also bears a striking resemblance to Namco’s popular game Galaxian. You are supplied with the last remaining Laser Blaster which must kill as many Xerons as it can, while dodging left or right to avoid their projectiles as they swoop down at the ship. Kill all the aliens on the screen, and you progress onto the next wave. A life is lost when you are hit by an alien or a projectile; lose all of them and the game is over.

The Xerons themselves come in three flavors. The ones close to your ship are purple and are shaped like a cross. Above them are black-and-white ones that look like they came straight from an Apple ][ shooter. This is followed by some yellow invaders. All the aliens behave the same way, with the exception of the purple Xerons, which give you a warning they are going to swoop; they turn green before taking off, and then rotate their ships as they are swooping down at you. What’s common about them is that all of them are more aggressive the further you progress through the game.

Since this is a space-themed game, you will be fighting against a black background complete with stars. The good thing about the stars is that they actually twinkle, just like in Namco’s game. I think everything, including the Xerons and your blaster, is well designed. The surface of Moon Base Alpha changes color each wave; the way the Xerons sink into it is impressive. The sound effects are on par with Galaxian.

The Bad
The swooping sounds are out of sync with the swooping animations, and Xerons can only play one of these sounds at a time. There is also an unnecessary sound effect a few seconds after it plays. As for the graphics, I felt the planet’s surface could have had a lot more detail to it, not just a solid color.

The Bottom Line
Xerons is a very good shooter that has the same game mechanics as Galaxian: kill swooping aliens while dodging left or right to avoid their projectiles. The gameplay is good, but the sound effects are out of sync and the game can only play one sound at a time. Also, some of the graphics, like the planet's surface, could have been improved. But don't let these things stop you from trying this out, especially if you're a fan of shooters.