Xevious

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Description

A hundred thousand years ago, an ancient civilization prospered on our Earth, their product being GAMP (General Artificial Matrix Producer). In order to survive the Ice Age, most of the Earth's inhabitants have decided to leave it, finally settling on a planet called Xevious. A group of humans remained, becoming our own ancestors. Many years have passed, and the Xevians are now planning a massive comeback to their long-lost homeland. The pilot Mu, his android companion Eve, and Mio, a Xevian who opposes the GAMP regime, are back from a space travel just in time to warn the Earth of the upcoming invasion. The prototype fighter craft Solvalou is going to be used as the main weapon against the Xevian attack.

Xevious is a vertically-scrolling shooter which is notable for being the first game of that type to feature an aircraft flying over the Earth (as opposed to the outer space in other games), displaying views of South American nature. It also introduced, for the first time, two types of enemies to fight: aerial and ground-based (the menacing SOL towers invoked by GAMP to aid their planes). The player-controlled ship, Solvalou, is equipped with two weapons, each assigned to a button: the Zapper for air enemies, and the Blaster, which drops bombs on ground targets with the aid of a lock-on. The aerial enemies are divided into sub-categories distinguished by their attack and behavior patterns. Certain enemy types are immune to Solvalou's weapons, and must be avoided.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "Xevious: The Avenger" -- NES/GBA title
• "Tiny Xevious" -- PC-6001 title
• "Cheyenne" -- working title
• "Arcade Archives: Xevious" -- PS4 / Switch title
• "3D Classics: Xevious" -- Nintendo 3DS title
• "アーケードアーカイブス ゼビウス" -- Japanese PS4 / Switch spelling
• "ゼビウス" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Arcade Archives series
• Classic NES / Famicom Mini / NES Classics releases
• Genre: Scrolling shoot 'em up
• Xevious series

User Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Game Informer Magazine	NES	May, 2003	8.5 out of 10	85
Your Sinclair	ZX Spectrum	Feb, 1987	8 out of 10	80
The Video Game Critic	NES	Aug 11, 2004	B	75
Pocket-lint.com	Game Boy Advance	Aug 15, 2004		70
Nintendo Life	Nintendo 3DS	Jul 25, 2011	7 out of 10	70
GameSpot	Xbox 360	May 23, 2007	6.5 out of 10	65
Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library	NES	2016		60
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Xbox 360	May 26, 2007	4 out of 10	40
ST Action	Atari ST	May, 1988	36 out of 100	36
Jeuxvideo.com	Game Boy Advance	Jul 15, 2004	5 out of 20	25

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Xevious appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Atari 7800 launch

Xevious was one of the "Fabulous Eleven" launch games for the Atari 7800.

Cancelled ports

Atari were doing ports to its 2600 and 5200 consoles which reached a mature state but were abandoned. Prototypes have surfaced and have been made available as dumps on the net.

Bootleg version

A bootleg version of the game was released on the Sega Master System in South Korea under the name "The Micro Xevious".

Awards

• TeleMatch
  • Issue 04/1984 – #2 Arcade Game of the Year 1983 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Игги Друге and FatherJack

Related Web Sites

• Classic NES Series for the Game Boy Advance (Covers the line-up of the new Game Boy Advance series of NES Classics.)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for Xevious.)