Xexex

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Xexex

Title screen

Developer:	Konami
Music:	Motoaki Furukawa Hidenori Maezawa Satoko Miyawaki Akiko Hashimoto
Program:	Toshiaki Takatori Tatsuo Fujii Tetsuya Wada
Art:	M. Machiguchi Kuniaki Kakuwa Chiyoko Hanano
Release date:	1991
Next game:	Pop’n TwinBee

Xexex (ゼクセクス) is a horizontal scrolling shoot em' up developed and published by Konami in 1991. It is an original project that brings over mechanics from other shooting games such as the Gradius series and Irem's R-Type and X Multiply.

Despite the positive reception towards the game, the sudden boom in popularity of fighting games caused Xexex to sell poorly. The game would be localized to other regions, with the US version being renamed to Orius. Despite adding 2 player co-op, the gameplay is altered drastically. And due to the advanced graphics used in the game, ports were never seen until the far future.

Gameplay Overview

Xexex takes place across 7 different stages, with each one having a different and unique appearance. Using the Flintlock, the player will need to shoot down everything that they come across and use their Flint for either offensive or defensive use. At the end of each level is a boss fight, with each boss having a weak spot which must be destroyed to proceed to the next stage. In between stages are cutscenes that show Princess Irene pleading her help and/or Klaus taunting the player.

Controls

Xexex is a two-button game. Piloting the Flintlock TMF01, the ship can move in 8 directions, fire a wide variety of shot types, and manipulate a biological weapon called the Flint

• A: Fires main shot.

• A (Hold): Charges up the Flint.

• A (Release): Unleashes a powerful, long-range tentacle attack.

• B: Drops the Flint directly in front of the ship. Pressing the button while the Flint is deployed will call it back to your ship.

• B, while charged: Shoots the Flint forward a great distance.

Hitbox

The Flintlock's hitbox is quite large, covering most of the ship, it's front arms, and the engine in the back. It's best advised to use your Flint to block incoming enemy shots. The back tips of the ship will emit sparks if they touch a surface.

Weapons

The Flint

The Flint, just like the Force Pod from R-Type, is invincible, blocks bullets, and has tentacles. The ship always starts with it and only attaches to the front of the ship. The Flint itself starts off with one tentacle, but more can be added by collecting the appropriate power-up, up a maximum of three.

While the Flint is attached to the ship, It acts as a shield with a relatively small size. When deployed, the Flint's tentacles will sprout out and block bullets, home into enemies, and deal damage to whatever they touch. The ship will be able to rapidly shoot by holding the A button in this state.

If the Flint's core touches the center of any organic part of an enemy or boss, it will latch onto it and deal continuous damage until the enemy is destroyed or the enemy goes offscreen.

Controlling the Flint

The Flint itself can be used in a variety of ways. With the Flint attached to the ship, holding down the A button will charge it up, up to a maximum of two times. While charged, the following actions can be performed:

• Releasing the A button will unleash a tentacle attack. This attack has a very long range and does great damage towards enemies. The more tentacles the Flint has, the wider the attack gets. Releasing A when charged up a second time will make the attack go across the entire screen. Do note that the tentacles can be stopped by terrain.

• Pressing B while charged will launch the Flint forward at a very high velocity, piercing through any small enemies in the way. A level 2 charge will launch the Flint further; across the entire screen. If the Flint hits any terrain or a large enemy while being launched, it will produce an explosion that does extra damage.

Pressing B without charging will drop the Flint a small distance ahead of the ship. This is useful if you need to avoid enemy fire from behind.

Main Shot

The Flintlock starts off with a basic Photon Beam shot. This shot does a decent amount of damage but the projectile is tiny. Other weapons and items can be acquired by destroying rapidly flashing enemies.

Item	Desciption
Homing Laser	Fires a burst of three lasers. The top and bottom lasers divert and home onto the nearest enemy, up to 90 degrees.
Shadow Laser	Functions identically to the laser weapon in Gradius, except leaving behind a trail.
Round Laser	Shoots a shotgun-like blast of five shots, which encircle into each other after some distance.
Spiral Laser	A persisting laser that gets wider the further the shot gets. Functions like a combination of the normal Laser and Ripple Laser from the Gradius series.
Search Laser	A heat seeking laser that actively hunts down enemies.
Ground Laser	Shoots a long laser that travels along the ground alongside a regular shot.
Speed Up	Speeds up the Flintlock.
Flint	Adds a tentacle to the Flint. Up to a maximum to three.