Reviewed by Dan Twitter: @ballouman

The Story

In the game we play as a nomad in his exploration of the stars. The story begins after your ship clashes with an asteroid and the ship’s warp core (power cell) is damaged.



The exploration takes place on 4 stars, each having its own look and different enemies. In order to explore all the stars you need to acquire different abilities,which are all held by a different boss on different stars.

In order to move forward with the story, you have to advance in a specific order through the stars, so you have the powers needed to advance. I won’t tell you what the order is however, because it’s a huge spoiler!

Gameplay

The Gameplay is pretty straight forward, you can jump, duck and shoot.

There is a great weapon upgrade tree that can increase the bullet size, make the shooting faster and make a shooting spread in a different styles.

The main gameplay mechanic introduced in this game is the ability to pass from the foreground to the background of the screen. This ability is utilised in a great way and makes you see a whole other part of the world that you didn’t notice before; it’s a great feeling.

Another great mechanic is the power up system. Each power up will give you a different ability, such as the ability to transform into a submarine in order to pass the water terrain inside of stars. The power ups are hidden behind boss fights and when earned, let you backtrack though previously explored levels and search for secrets; much like in a metroidvania. You should do this because there are secret areas with hidden items, which can help you get stronger and make your gun more powerful.

Art and Music

The game is pixel art and it feels and looks great. The music matches the looks and sounds like an old game from the 90s.

Problems

My main gripe with the game is the saving points, the only checkpoint is just before the boss fight, so if you die you will have to go back to the start of the world. I found this a bit frustrating at the start of the game when I hadn’t unlocked any upgrades and my character was really weak.



Summary

Xeodrifter is a great little game with a great visuals and music.

The story is not the main point of the game but the game play and all the choices inside the game give it great value. The Boss fights are hard and challenging, however they will give you instant satisfaction by overcoming them. In addition, the ability to move from the foreground to the background is so unique for video games and I really enjoyed this mechanic.

The game goes for sale pretty often and it’s a great buy if you’re looking for a small metroidvania with a lot of great ideas.

Therefore, I give Xenodrifter my score of

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