Xyanide

[Sega Ages]

This was announced for PSP now. Is the Xbox version still coming out?

[charlesr]

Super bump. This is out if anyone cares. I've ordered it so I'll let you know if it works on a PAL xbox. Fingers crossed.

http://www.videogamesplus.ca/product_info.php?products_id=11334

Mention us if you order please.

[charlesr]

Good news peeps. This is REGION FREE! Well, the US version I got from VG+ plays fine on my pal xbox. I'll see if I can have a quick go at lunchtime to give you some impressions.

[Oh_Mutants]

Cheers, i'd be interested in some impressions on this.

[charlesr]

Finally got around to giving this a quick go tonight. A quick go turned into an hour.... so it's now a quarter to 1... oops.
Control is like geometry wars, so if you are comfortable with that, you will find this a breeze.

There are two fire modes: organic (spread fire, with lock on bullets and lock on missiles) and mechanical (thin fire, with straight bullets and point in space missile targetting). You can switch between the 2 types at any point. Whichever one you are on when you pick up powerups gets the upgrade.

I keep forgetting to use the missiles (left trigger).

Optional items can be collected that give you a cool effect, like a freeze or a smart bomb thingy. Temporary powerups are occassionaly floating around too which really kick ass.

Action is all 2D but with enemies dropping and raising in and out of the plane. You can target them outside of your immediate plane, so it seems a bit weird at first.

Graphically very dark 3D swirling background on the first couple of levels that I've been playing. I've not really played geometry wars, so the controls took a while getting used to.

Enemies and your ship are pretty much lost in a sea of excessive single colour lighting effects, which all look in-keeping apart from the trail on your ship which just looks out of place.

I'm having fun so far. I'll keep at it, but I've a feeling it won't have the same pull for me as normal vertical or horizontal shooters. That's not to say it's bad though - it's just different. It's admirable that it's even been released at all in this day and age and on the xbox too....

It's so cheap, I'd say if you want something a little different and like shooters, get this and try it out, especially since it works on a pal xbox.

[anephric]

Wooo, Charles finally got it! I've been thinking of popping my load on this since it's so cheap. Think I will now.

[charlesr]

Rah! Custom playlist in a shooter. I have some banging fierceness queued up.

[charlesr]

Oh and xbox live scoreboards. I'm 73rd in the world. Probably because only 73 people own it.

[charlesr]

When your bullets hit stuff, if you have a sub it will shake the house constantly. Funny.

[Sane]

Nice little game, can't help to think it would've been better if they'd have released it on live arcade though. And it doesn't support 480p sadly, which is a crime for an xbox game, even an indie title like this.

[charlesr]

I don't have Live Arcade or HD, so I'm happy
Playing this through now. Worked my way up to a massive 22nd in the world...... er heheh. It has 6 levels. The first 2 take about 30 minutes, so if it carries on like that it's an hour and a half, which is quite (very) long for a shooter. Waves aren't too hectic though. The enemies move faster than the bullets.

Playing this is a bit like playing Rez, but without the music element. Although the music is better cos I'm playing my own. There's similar huge rotating bosses and swooping around on rails stuff. Loads of colours everywhere and lights. Lots of lights.

Your power-ups persist throughout the game, regardless of deaths. They must be pretty impressive by the end.

Getting there.

[charlesr]

End of stage 2 boss is just completely beautiful. I thought my retinas were going to have permanent burns on them! Lightning effects-tastic.

I'm finding this better and better as I play more. It's eaten away huge chunks of time.

It makes such a welcome change in pace compared to the normal manic style shooters I've been playing recently. You can really think about when to fire up your time decay powerups and when to just keep firing.

I love the way you can't shoot while locking on with missiles but can still move around to avoid enemy action. Superb.

Why is no one else playing this?

Review soon, but just buy it. It's great (as long as you have the time).

[edit - check out this review - it's saying all the right things imo]

[dvdx2]

I've been playing this and TBH as a shooter, its pretty dreadful. Really grainy, bland colours, no 480p support (which i guess justifies the later on an lcd), endless tunnels and waves of samey enemies and such a weak level of fire power from the ship; boss battles seem to take for ever. I havent put hours into this so most of this is based on a fairly short playtest. TBH though i cant see it changing much.

[charlesr]

Your ship starts off very weak, but after 10 mins or so, it should be hard as nails, dispatching huge craft in seconds and waves of smaller craft almost before they make it on to the screen.

The first couple of boss battles are 4 minutes long, but can be dispatched in a couple of minutes for a time bonus.

edit: Sorry, my mistake. The first boss battle gives you 6min30secs to complete and it can be done in 2 mins.

I agree on the endless tunnels and samey enemies. On the first level, the enemies are pretty slow and easy. But from level 2 onwards, they hunt you down in packs, making the pheremone attack important, so they attack each other. Some of them run right up to you, so sitting still is impossible, with you constantly running away shooting backwards, whilst trying to avoid the other types that are just doing their normal on rails thing.

Perhaps the time thing is the biggest problem. You can't play the game through in 15 minutes like you would with gigawing and get a quick fix. You have to sit down and play for an hour at least. Therefore most people will never figure out even how to play it properly, because they will give up after 30 minutes.

If you have a mod, there's a hack to force 480p. Even without that, I'm not seeing the graininess, but am seeing the bland colours (superimposed with lots of lighting effects which is where all the colours have gone to).