However many years have elapsed since his official “death” in 1997, Mega Drive is still alive in our hearts and in those studios that, from time to time, release video games for her today, currently being KickStarter one of its great windows thanks to the pull of nostalgia.
Xeno Crisis was one of the last to be funded for the SEGA console in January 2018, seeing how the Bitmap Bureau published their work both on said 16-bit machine and on current systems and other retro-themed systems (Dreamcast, Neo Geo and even Evercade) more than a year later. And of course, he had several pending games since his incorporation into Xbox Game Pass in August.
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Mega Drive still has a lot to offer us
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The truth is that when he joined the Game Pass service I played a couple of quick games, but I couldn’t get the point and I left it at stand-by until a few days ago, where I played him straight away and with much more care, being surprised how much he wins as we complete his phases. Because the initial feeling is that it seems very simple, partly because stick to the power of Mega Drive.
Inspired by the revolutionary Smash TV from 1990, which in turn was the natural evolution of the Robotron: 2084 from 1982, also by Eugene Jarvis, Xeno Crisis is a manual twin-shooter, but with a differentiating feature for the games that were released for the SEGA console at that time: their rooms are generated procedurally, only the theme of the phases is preserved.
It was a success by the Bitmap Bureau studio, because it gives it a touch of replayability and that it is not easy to memorize the game. Although it is also true that the progression is not as complex as the roguelike shift, in this case following a logic with the rooms, such as, for example, that the final boss will always be on top, which helps us insure survivors first.
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It can be played both alone and accompanied by another person (only locally, there is no online game, unfortunately), being quite hard in either of the two ways (even if we go from Hard to Easy mode) by the number of enemies that can be joined and the ammo shortage.
This forces us to be in constant motion, watching how many bullets we have left to pay close attention to when a magazine appears on the screen to replenish the ammunition, or make the most of the special weapons that will appear randomly, with a very limited duration but a superior offensive power: flamethrower, shotgun, laser, rocket launcher … A blessing.
One of the aspects that have not convinced me, on the other hand, has to do with the use of the shot, since when aiming we shoot automatically, because the right trigger is used to roll, a very useful dodging movement, yes.
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Xeno Crisis, a purebred arcade against aliens
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With an aesthetic that has powerfully reminded me of The Chaos Engine (it is not by chance seeing what its influences have been, what is the name of the Bitmap Bureau studio and what are the creators of that Amiga classic, The Bitmap Brothers), it also shares that progression idea for upgrade either of the two characters, increasing the number of lives, the power of the weapon or enjoying a magazine with more bullets, exchanging badges for coins.
These badges are released by the enemies and if we do not pick them up soon, they disappear, hence the obligation not to stop still at any moment, where it will also be mandatory to clean a new room of enemies to move on to the next.
The design of all of them varies, but the size will always be the same, so that we can see everything at a stroke and are clear about the points by which enemies can surprise us, having to pay special attention to those that release a poisonous goo, already Either by throwing or after killing them, since the screen of dangers can be filled in the blink of an eye in advanced areas.
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Not as harsh as Smash TV, but it does get to be quite bloody in certain sections, either because of the ambushes that they can tend to us, that we run out of ammunition at the worst possible moment or because of how difficult to control the close-range blow, which takes the “short distance” to the letter.
And is that any impact against the enemy is certain death, seeing how in some rooms three lives can be lost at a stroke in the blink of an eye. Luckily when it comes to continuing, the game is generous, leaving us in the same room. Although it will not be easy to get the best scores (the only one I got an S was in the first one, which I also passed without being hit) or unlock true ending, which is seen playing only on hard.
It’s not a long game, due to its arcade spirit (there’s no lack of a Boss Rush, of course), but it’s very commendable what Bitmap Bureau has achieved in this work created expressly with the power of Mega Drive, later adapting it to current systems and to two other historical ones such as Dreamcast and Neo Geo, with a price in the latter of 199 pounds. Lucky that its price in digital format does not exceed 19.99 euros and it is also on Xbox Game Pass, being recommended to recall a magical time that brought us joys … and frustrations.
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:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/83e8634a-379e-11eb-9c8f-02c309bc01c1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Road death on A2 near Wessem | Inland")
