While games like Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Centipede are icons from the golden age of arcade game (so iconic in fact, a person who knows little about video games— past or present— would likely recognize those titles), few in the present day would recognize the name Xevious. Xevious (1982) was the first ever vertical-scrolling shooter, developed by Japanese company Namco and published in the United States by Atari. In this title, the player sees everything from a top-down perspective and controls an aircraft known as a Solvalou. The Solvalou is capable of shooting bullets straight ahead to knock out flying enemies. It can also drop bombs to destroy ground enemies. The Solvalou must be positioned so the crosshairs in front of the plane overlap with the target in order to destroy the it. Many of the enemies (both flying and grounded) release indestructible bombs that the player must avoid. As was the case with most arcade games of the early ‘80s, racking up as many points as possible was the goal. Points in this title are granted as the player destroys enemies. Beyond Xevious’s advanced technical capabilities, which manifested in detailed sprites and its ability to make each play-through unique through introducing barrages of enemies at random moments throughout the player’s progression, the game was truly revolutionary in its attention to world-building.
Some have claimed that Xevious was revolutionary, not necessarily for its attention to world-building, but for being the first game to introduce storytelling to video games. I disagree with this claim for two reasons: The first problem with this argument is that simple stories already existed in some arcade games; for example, Ms Pacman (1981). The story is Pacman and Ms Pacman meet, fall in love, and have a baby together. This game even has cutscenes to convey this story. (Watch the cutscenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8VhbxKpIo). The second issue with the claim that Xevious was the first game to introduce storytelling to video games is that Xevious has no story. Arcade versions of the game (or at least this is the case with the Xevious cabinet at the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield) toggle between the scoreboard and short demos of gameplay while the machine sits idle. After pressing the start button the player sees the Solvalou flying over a forest and hears a 5-second musical cue signifying the game is beginning. The only text that appears is “Player One Ready! 2 Solvalou Left.” So far, the game has set up no story. The player flies over forests, fields, dirt roads, airplane landings, rivers, large bodies of water, and deserts destroying enemies and surviving attacks until the player runs out of lives. Theoretically, one could play this game endlessly. There are 16 zones that loop after the player has passed through them all, so Xevious has no ending. Ultimately, it would be inaccurate to say this game has a narrative. Nonetheless, this game was revolutionary in that the creators put unprecedented effort into world-building— an aspect of game design that has become increasingly important to video games since Xevious’s release.
According to lead designer Masanobu Endou, Xevious was Namco’s response to Konami’s popular horizontal-scrolling shooter, Scramble (1981). (Watch gameplay of Scramble here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vc-RIkpk40.) In Scramble, the player controls a spaceship that can shoot bullets to hit flying enemies and drop bombs to hit ground enemies. Its interstellar environment and color palette are evocative of Namco’s 1979 hit game, Galaxian. While Xevious clearly took inspiration from Scramble’s mechanics, Xevious scrapped the outer space environment, which had been a longstanding element of aircraft shooters. After Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxian, and then Scramble, outer space in video games, especially aircraft shooters, had become commonplace and cliche. Xevious, from the beginning, strived to do something different.
Early in development, players would assume the role of a soldier flying a helicopter during the Vietnam War. (See Endou’s 2003 interview: http://shmuplations.com/xevious/). Players can see remnants of this original concept in the jungle-like areas the Solvalou occasionally flies over. But when Endou took over as lead designer, he decided to add sci-fi elements to the setting, resulting in a unique mixture of familiar Earth features and alien fictional ones. Endou took this further— he created a backstory for how this juxtaposed environment came into being. The game does not explicitly convey this backstory but it was explained in Xevious’s U.S. advertising campaign. (Watch the promotional video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRN6HSlSM7I.) The story follows:
“Many thousands of years ago, there was a technologically advanced civilization that lived here on Earth— the Xevious. Their powerful computers made a terrible prediction. An ice age was about to descend that would be so extreme that human life could not survive, and so the entire population left the Earth in their spacecraft to seek a new home in deep space. But now the Xevious have come back to reclaim the planet.”
Expanding upon this backstory, Endou and his team created the Xevious’ aesthetic style. This style was based heavily on remnants from ancient South American civilizations. Although they are hard to notice from the top-down view, the landscape is littered with step-stone style pyramids typical of the Mayans and Aztecs. Furthermore, approximately 10 minutes into the game, the player can see what appear to be Nazca Lines in the sand. Nazca Lines are ancient grooves in South America that people carved into the land. From above, they create geometrical pictures. In Xevious, there are lines that create geometrical structures but do not resemble anything, as well as lines that form pictures, such as a representation of a condor.
Endou went beyond landscape features to convey the culture of the Xevious.
The team created several enemy types with different appearances and behaviors. One example of such enemy is a mothership or “floating fortress,” a flying saucer-like entity far greater in size than the Solvalou, and something that did not exist during the Vietnam War. The team created a roster of at least a dozen enemy types. The booklet that came with the NES port of the game lists 11 enemy types, but after going through the list I realize they neglected to list at least a couple enemy types that appear in the game. (See a scanned PDF of the book here: https://www.nesfiles.com/NES/Xevious/Xevious.pdf). While each enemy type looks different from one another, they all share a regular geometric structure and appear to be made out of the same metal type. Several enemy types have spots that glow orange. Furthermore, each enemy type has a name in the language that Endou and the team created for the Xevious civilization. For example, the aforementioned mothership is called Ando Ageanesis, which translates to “floating fortress.” (See NES port booklet.) The name of the aircraft the player controls— Solvalou— means “sun bird.” To my knowledge, no game up to this point, unless based on an existing book or movie, had such a rich and thought-out world behind it.
Although it is true that the original Xevious game hints subtly at the Xevious civilization Endou and team created, in sequels and spinoffs Xevious culture and lore continued to come closer to the forefront. In 1991 Namco released Solvalou, a 3D shooter. From this point of view, the architecture and technology of the Xevious is easier to see, although technical limitations allowed for few textures or extra decorative elements. Xevious 3D/G, was a two-and-a-half dimensional game that came out in 1997. This 2.5 D view allows the player to see just how alien yet familiar the Xevious’ structures and technologies are from both up close and far away. Textures and rendering had improved by this time, as well.
Personally, I have always considered Xevious a unique and compelling game. Since I started playing this game as a seven year-old, I knew there was something about it that went beyond gameplay. I realized early on I was not playing to get as many points as possible— rather I kept playing so I could see more of the fascinating mixture of familiar, alien, ancient, and futuristic that the world of Xevious encompasses. Although many no longer recognize this title, we have all played games that walk in its footsteps. They are compelling to us because they transport us to a world unlike our own.
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