If you're thinking of playing this on the
PC, don't bother
(but have a look at the bottom...).
It's quite incredible how they managed to get 256-
color VGA to look worse than the 16-
color displays of the
atari and
amiga. Top this off with the
pc speaker sound, and you've got
the game that technology forgot. For the
masochist, it can still be bought in the '
bitmap brothers compilation', along with
gods,
cadaver,
magic pockets and
speedball 2. I'd urge anyone playing these on an
emulator to go out and buy this, not because the
native versions are better (far from it, actually), but to give them their due.
Xenon 2's
master-system and
gameboy versions are similarly bad, the
gameboy in particular, with it's complete
gameplay removal, and lack of
eye-candy.
The
68000 versions have near-
identical gameplay and graphics (I
suspect that they also have the same
game engine). The
megadrive/
genesis version is the easiest to get running, having been written for a
console. Sound on the megadrive is nothing spectacular. Recommended
emulator -
Genecyst (no sound, but perfect graphics),
KGEN does sound, but the
title-screen is
messed up
The
atari version is not particlarly well
emulated (come to think of it, neither is the
atari). If you can grapple with the
atari's
foibles, the sound is better than the megadrive, and the game is the same.
The
amiga is much better emulated, and getting the game to run is much less
hassle. The amiga has the only version to have
samples instead of
chip-music, but the
soundtrack samples stop playing to give way to the
sound-effects. I never owned an amiga, so I don't know if it does this on a real one.
Gameplay
Xenon 2 is a
classic button-hammering
shootemup, in the same vein as
r-type. Xenon 2 differs in a few ways:
Options/
satellites don't hurt anything, or block shots.
Pulling back at the bottom of the screen causes the scrolling to reverse for a while.
The walls don't hurt, in fact you can ram your ship into them in order to move back down the
screen.
While holding the
fire-button down, you can control certain powerups (
mine,
electro-ball).
Autofire powerups increase the speed your ship fires with the button held down, but by
tapping the button it can fire fast enough to make a constant
stream of shots. Except on the
gameboy, where there can only be two on screen at once.
Weapons
Buying a
weapon more than once increases its
power level, to a maximum of three.
Satellites don't do this, unless you have all four spaces filled.
Powerup capsules increase the level of your lowest-powered weapon, so upgrade weapons cheaper than the cost of a
powerup by buying them again.
Projectiles:
Double-shot - 3000 - Converts the front
gun to fire two
projectiles. Buy this as soon as its offered.
Upgradable.
Side shot - 1000 - Fires to each side of your
ship.
Upgradable.
Flamer - 4000 - Ship fires a large stream of flames. Replaces doubleshot. Upgradable.
Rear Waepons:
You can only have one rear weapon at a time. Any new one will replace the
previous one.
Rear shot - 1000 - Fires backwards. You can't have sideshot and rearshot at the same time.
Upgradable.
Electro Ball - 1200 - Moves about when the
fire button is held down, at three times the rate of your ship. Hurts things on contact.
Mine - 1000,2000 (
small,
large) - Moves about when the
fire button is held down, at three times the rate of your ship. Lays mines, eventually runs out of ammo.
Drone - 4000 - Scatters lots of little pellets. Very useful, but can leave you vulnerable from the rear.
Upgradable.
Satellites:
Cannon - 4000 - Fires a
harpoon that goes through enemies.
Laser - 4000 - Fires an enourmous laser bolt that does the same.
Upgradable.
Missile - 4000 - Fires wide, but
slow-moving projectiles.
Miscellaneous:
Advice - 200 - Cryptic advice about the level ahead.
Ignore it and
shoot the eyes!
Speedup - 400 - Makes your ship faster, but you should have picked up both of them at the start of the game.
Health - 500, 1000 - adds approximately 30% and 80% to your health.
Autofire - 400 - Increases the rate of fire when the
fire button is held down. Useful in conjunction with electroball, but expensive, as you lose it when you die.
Super Nashwan Power - 600 - Gives you level 3 Doubleshot, sideshot, 2 lasers, 2 cannons and a drone, for 10 seconds.
Powerup - 2000 - Increases the power of your
wimpiest weapon by 1.
Extra life - 6000
Dive - 4000 - Your ship dives into the screen, making it invulnerable and able to pass through walls for a limited time. Each Dive can be used three times.
Xened
There is a level editor for the PC version called Xened. It can edit the prices of items, the layout of the levels, and can mess around the waves of enemies to make the game new again.
Xened's
homepage is http://cip.uni-trier.de/thielen/xened/ .
Whenever you encounter a boss,
shoot it in the eye(s)!