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.
Title screen
| Developer: | zakichi |
|---|---|
| Release date: | June 10th, 2023 (PC) |
| Previous game: | Tiny XEVIVOS |
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Controls
| Action | Key | Button (Controller) |
|---|---|---|
| Move | Arrow Keys | D-Pad/Joystick |
| Shot | Z | Button 0 |
| Hi-Point (Hyper) | X | Button 1 |
| Slow-Movement | Left Shift | Button 5 |
| Reset (Practice Mode) | Q | Button 6 |
| Pause | Space | Button 7 |
| Quit | Escape |
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 both score and to extend the duration of Hi-Point mode. Collecting larger fruit will generate larger stars that give both more score and Hi-Point meter.
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.
Items
"Woop" 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. If a Woop 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 and grant additional score, displaying "Wow!" 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.
In Round/Stage 4, there is a hidden alien that can be picked up for 20,000 points. Also in Round/Stage 4 there is a hidden 1-Up Cow that can be uncovered with the player's shot. Collecting it will grant the player an extra life.
Hidden items cannot be auto-collected.
Strategy
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 the hidden 1-Up Cow item in Stage 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,
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.
For high scoring, routing usage of Hi-Point Mode to extend its use as long as possible through a stage 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.
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.
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).
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.
Video Index
WIP
References & Contributors
WIP
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
