Xenon

Title		Xenon
Company		Bitmap Brothers
Game Type	Shoot-em-up
Players		1
Compatibility	Not AGA
Submission	Angus Manwaring Profiled Reviewer

Review
Xenon was one of the first Amiga shoot-em-ups I remember seeing that had a
clearly defined visual style. It was basically the tried and tested
vertically scrolling shooter concept, but the Bitmaps, as might be
expected, added a fair amount of style to this well known formula. The
first level, I didn't say I was good at it, had a nice metallic feel to it
with armoured turrets and various vehicles that would plod towards you
spitting death. A pale blue panelled background sporting the fashionable
bas relief effect added to the stylish visuals. You might have noticed the
word "plodded" being used just now, well, that's not necessarily a bad
thing. Games like Goldrunner were simply too fast and frustrating for the
likes of me, so the measured, deliberate pace of Xenon was actually quite
refreshing. You could, with a touch of the space bar, transform your
vehicle from a ponderous, ground-based tank to a only slightly less
ponderous, airbourne fighter. This was actually necessary from time to
time, if for no other reason than because the buildings in front of you
would sometimes block the way, and by taking to flight you could simply
pass over them. Despite not being particuarly fast though, Xenon offered
good gameplay, by making you continually struggle to move your machine out
of the way of the impending bullets fired by the baddies, and you really
needed to play for position when taking on the end of level bosses. Also
with it's hitherto unseen (atleast by me) use of power-ups, a fair amount
of depth was available to the player.

On the whole then, a pretty good game with a lot of attention to detail
and style. I'd have to say that Xenon 2: Megablast was the better choice
for me, if only for being completely over the top. In fairness though I was
never good at these games as much as I enjoy them.

Alphabetical list.