Xevious

Xevious (ゼビウス, Zebiusu) is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982. It was designed by Masanobu Endō. In North America, the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware. In Brazil the arcade cabinet was printed with the name 'COLUMBIA' for the game, while the software shows the original name 'Xevious'.

The player uses an 8-way joystick to pilot a combat aircraft called a Solvalou, which is armed with a forward-firing Zapper for aerial targets and a Blaster which fires an unlimited supply of air-to-surface bombs for ground targets. The game, presumably set in Peru, was noted for the varied terrain below, which included forests, airstrips, bases, and mysterious Nazca Line-like drawings on the ground.

There are various aerial enemy aircraft which shoot relatively slow bullets, as well as (presumably unpiloted) fast-moving projectiles and exploding black spheres. Ground enemies are a combination of stationary bases and moving vehicles, most of which also fire slow bullets. Giant floating Andor Genesis motherships appear in certain areas; these are killed by knocking out their cores. These are considered one of the first level-bosses to be incorporated into a video game.

Keywords: