Wexew Mexem

WEXEW MEXEM

Wexew Mexem is a 2D vertical Scrolling shmup, developed by zakichi, also known as Kigeki Yahonpo. It is a homage to and parody of Capcom's Exed Exes. Wexew Mexem presents fast paced gameplay, with high-scoring play focused heavily on chaining and a "Hi-Point" hyper mode mechanic. The game was published to https://itch.io on June 10th, 2023, and general reception by players was very positive.

Shot
The player's Shot is partially dependant on the Hi-Point meter. The shot starts out weak, but becomes more powerful and gains more projectiles (and wider range) as the Hi-Point meter is filled. When it reahes 50% full the shot is at maximum power.

Moving forward increases the vertical range of the shot, but changes it to a narrow spread with weaker power. Moving backwards keeps its wide shot and increases power, but decreases vertical range. Holding the shot button will function as auto-fire.

Hi-Point Mode
Hi-Point mode can be activated once the Hi-Point meter, shown to the left side of the screen, is filled. A short sound effect will play indicating that Hi-Power is ready. Activating Hi-Point mode will start depleting the meter, and cause enemies to fire more bullets. However, nemies defeated while in Hi-Point mode will drop fruit, which can be picked up for additional score, and to generate Star items, which can also be collected for scoring and to extend the duration of Hi-Point mode. Collecting larger fruit will generate larger stars that increase the Multiplier, Hi-Point meter, and Star Counter.

When in Hi-Point mode, the player's shot also cancels bullets it comes into contact with. Bullets canceled in this way grant additional score, and increase a counter in the top right of the screen (which resets to zero each stage).

Hi-Point mode can be deactivated at any time by pressing the button again. The only downside to canceling Hi-Point in this way is that the meter will have to be refilled completely before it can be activated again. It will also deactivate naturally if the meter is fully depleted.

Additionally, when in Hi-Point mode, two options will appear beside the player, moving closer and further horizontally depending on player movement. The options have a very short range shot of their own, however their primary utility is in being able to also manually collect items of any kind that they pass over. This is particularly helpful for extending Hi-Point mode as they are able to quickly collect fruit and star items.

WOOP and OOPS! Items
Enemies destroyed will drop "WOOP" items. Collecting WOOP increases the player's Hi-Point and Score Multiplier meters. WOOP can be auto-collected by not firing Shot for a brief moment. WOOP that reaches the bottom of the screen will change to read as yellow OOPS! and begin to slowly scroll off screen. OOPS! must be manually collected to be saved, which will then display "Phew!" instead of the normal numerical score value of the item. OOPS! do not give their score value if collected.

If a WOOP/OOPS! is completely missed and scrolls off screen, the Score Multiplier will decrease slightly.

Fruit and Star Items
When in Hi-Point Mode, destroyed enemies will instead drop Fruit items. Fruit items collected will increase the player's score, and generate star items horizontally on the opposite side of the screen. Star items that are collected will increase the Hi-Point meter, Multiplier, and Star Counter (green counter int he top right), displaying "Wow!" when collected. Star items, however, will not give additional points by themselves when collected. Fruit and Stars cannot be auto-collected.

Hidden Items
Ice Cream Cones are hidden items that can be uncovered by flying the ship over its location, and picked up after a short delay. There are many ice cream items hidden throughout each stage of the game. Each have a base score of 1000, which is affected by the Score Multiplier. For example, collecting an ice cream cone at x8 Multiplier will grant 8000 points. Ice Cream also gives a small score bonus when uncovered.

In Round/Stage 4, there is a hidden alien that can be picked up for 20,000 points. Also in Round/Stage 2 and 4 there are hidden 1-Up Cows that can be uncovered with the player's shot. Collecting it will grant the player an extra life.

Hidden items cannot be auto-collected.

Extends
The first extend from scoring is at 1,000,000 points, with extends at every additional 2,000,000 points after.

There is also hidden 1-Up Cow items in Stage 2 and 4.

Basic Strategy
Playing safe is generally good to keep as top priority, regardless of if you are playing for survival or scoring. For survivial play, not getting hit is the goal in order to clear the game. For scoring, losing your ship will completely reset your score multiplier, and reset your Hi-Point meter to 50% regardless of where it was previously. This severely impacts hi-scoring, and as respawning has a significant delay, it is easy to chain-miss due to being overwhelmed by enemies. This is made even harsher in both cases as the player is given only a short window of invincibility after respawning,

In both playstyles, using Hi-Power mode for the entirety of a Boss fight is greatly preferred, as it generates a lot of score from the dense bullet patterns, and allows the player to be virtually invincible for the entire fight (exceptions being collisions with extra enemies that fly down the screen, or the melee attack of the final boss).

Taking note of where the hidden cow 1-Up extends are will both assist in survival and high scoring play. Some amount of scoring is also beneficial to survival play, as it will award more life extends from scoring. While it can be hard to recover after losing a ship, it is still better to have more lives than not.

Survival
For survival play, keeping your Hi-Point meter above 50% will ensure you stay at maximum Shot power, making it easier to defeat enemies quickly. Likewise Hi-Power mode can be used in sections of stages where there are a lot of enemies and dense bullet patterns. Most enemies's collision box is very small, usually centered on them and only about the size of the player's ship at most (this includes the larger beetle enemies). Because Hi-Point shot cancels bullets, the player is relatively safe so long as they are firing. One should take note of where enemies will spawn though and their movement, as some can spawn on top of the player, instantly colliding.

Scoring
For high scoring, routing usage of Hi-Point Mode to extend its use as long as possible and generate the most fruit and star items is key. Likewise, ensuring keeping at a Score Multiplier of x8 provides a significant amount of score. Because the multiplier cannot be increased from items generated through Hi-Point Mode, reaching x8 multiplier before activating should be a focus. Most notably, having an x8 counter as you defeat a boss with award the largest bonus possible, and thus achieving a No Miss boss fight should be a high priority. Note that the large number displayed after defeating a boss is after calculating the multiplier to its base value.

Because losing a ship also resets the score multiplier to x1, and there is a bonus for each life in stock at the end of the game, a No Miss clear of the game is ideal. It is overall better to miss at the start of a stage/round, or early into a full game run, rather than towards the end of a stage (such as during or just before a boss), if it is to happen.

When in Hi-Point mode, your shot will also cancel bullets. Because of the size of the shot, while firing you are effectively all but invincible to bullets while in this mode. The main things to be cautious of are bullets approaching from behind, and colliding with airborne enemies (including boss turrets, the final boss melee attack, and enemies that spawn in at certain positions on the screen). Bullets canceled will award score, so managing defeating enemies quickly to extend the duration of Hi-Point, while also allowing them time to fire their patterns before destroying them is the challenge. Some enemies will also only attack after approaching close to the player, where they aim at the ship and leave behind a trail of bullets as they try to crash into it.

Star Counter
A large part of scoring is the green counter in the top right of the screen. This counter increases whenever a Star item is collected, and directly affects end of stage bonuses after defeating a boss. Having a high counter is important for bonus points awarded at the end of stage.

During a boss fight, the counter will continually decrease until it reaches zero. At the end of the boss fight, bonus items will be awarded to the player, reflecting the counter when the boss was defeated.

The calculation of the bonus to the score is, and the bonus is not affected by the Score Multiplier bar. For example, if a player defeats a boss worth 10,000 points, having a current multiplier of x8, Star Counter of 1500, and a current score of 770,000, their score after end of stage bonuses will be calculated as follows:

Formula:

It should be noted that after defeating the Stage 4 boss, all Star Counter values achieved from Stages 1 through 4 are added together for the final boss fight. As such, the Star Counter throughout a full game run has a very drastic effect on a player's final score.

References & Contributors
Wexew Mexem Itch.io Page https://zakichi.itch.io/wexew-mexem Developer's Itch.io Store Page https://zakichi.itch.io/

Contributors Initial Wiki Page Creation: Xeirla