Xevious Impressions

You might think that the mobile gaming market is already saturated with basic, top-down space shooters, but there's definitely room for a few more entries, such as a mobile port of Namco's Xevious. The classic arcade game was the first shooter to feature ground bombing, while it also made a mark on the consciousness of gamers with its enormous conflict "zones," which were filled with a multitude of airborne and ground targets. From what we've seen of the upcoming mobile Xevious, Namco's made every effort to put an arcade-perfect version of the game on the handset.

In Xevious, you are the pilot of the good ship Solvalou, a state-of-the-art, highly maneuverable fighter-bomber. You must progress through seven huge levels, and each has a specific graphical theme. The first zone is sort of a rivers-and-forest location that's defended by armored ground emplacements and waves of interceptors. If you get to the end of the level, you'll bump into a mother ship, which can take quite a bit more pounding than your average UFO. Namco's taken the liberty of enabling autofire to make your task easier on mobile, and attacking ground targets is as simple as maneuvering your bombsight over them.

At this stage in its development, Xevious' graphics look like they're straight from the cabinet, even if they run a little slower than in the arcade. Namco is getting this game ready for a winter release, so stay tuned for more details.