Title: Xyanide

Date: 09.18.2006

Genre: Action

Platform: Xbox

Developer: Playlogic International

Publisher: South Peak Interactive

First off let me start by saying this is a without a doubt a most welcome game. It took forever to come out and it was worth the wait. For shooter fans or as we collectors call ourselves, shmup fans and others waiting for something other than shoot, bomb, die, shoot, bomb, die continue, bomb, bomb, bomb, die continue etc.. you get what I mean. An actual shooter along the lines of say Gradius or R-type where levels take more than 30 seconds to go through till you reach the boss. The best examples of these 30 second games are basically any Cave shooter. Don't get me wrong I love these games but refer to the beginning of this review for what I first said. Anyway let's get on with it.

Story
Seems the peace loving world of Mardar has been terrorized by the evil witch Aguira and she has finally been captured and sentenced to death by the Judges of Marder. You are Drake chosen by the judges to escort the evil witch's prison craft to the black hole and make sure she gets executed. On the way to the black hole her craft gets struck by an asteroid and pierces her body, the asteroid consists of you guessed it Xyanide, a substance that turns thoughts into reality needless to say you can imagine what happens next. As Aguira is a little ticked off so say the least and what she conjures up in her mind is what you need to fight through and destroy. This story is told in a very lengthy opening cinema that is amazing to look at. Very surreal and dreamy. Cinemas also play out between levels and look just as beautiful.

Graphics
This game has some amazing scenery to look at as you play through the six worlds. The best way to describe the worlds is to take say a game like Gradius V or say Radiant Silvergun and turn the screen down so you are flying into it basically a rail shooter, this term is a debate among shmup fans. When you think about any shmup, they are all basically rail shooters. The levels vary from metallic looking corridors to organic stages in the later levels. Most levels have many branching paths, most shmup vets can figure where the levels have multiple paths just look carefully as you are flying and you'll notice left and right corridors at various points in the levels. Enemies vary as well with later stages presenting some umm well lets just say suggestive looking things to shoot at. You think R-Types final level where the silhouettes were making love while you fight the last boss was crazy, check out the later levels in this title. The game is presented in 16X9 letterbox format only. All in all fantastic looking graphics here.

Sound
The Dolby digital surround sound for this title is amazing as well. Clean separation on the sound effects with the surround correct as to where it should be, say a ship coming in from the left or right or exploding behind you. Music is what you would expect from a title like this, upbeat yet a bit subtle. Music is basically trance mixed with a bit of lounge. Nice soundtrack. One thing I noticed is that the bass is working overtime on this title. Music and explosions are thunderous to say the least and do they sound awesome. No complaints on sound.

Gameplay
Okay for those that want to know how this game plays I will do my best to explain. Take Tempest 2000, Gradius V, Internal Section, Rez, ThunderForce V, Robotron and have them all mate and Xyanide is born. You have a ship that can move in eight directions with the left analog stick, you can fire in eight directions as well with the right analog stick. you actually have multiple planes of firing as well not just on your plane examples of this pertain to the minor enemies flying into the screen from the edges these enemies are not on the same plane as you and your shots will fire into the screen at them. Once they come up to your plane they glow orange and your shots are on the same plane. Another example are game level bosses.

You will be firing on the lower plane at there target areas which generally have an X on them you need to stay in the vicinity of the X area to make any hits and each boss has a meter that seems to take forever to deplete on lower weapon settings, to make matters worse is the time limit you have for them as well. Some bosses you have to look at and analyze very carefully as some parts of them can rotate in and out of your plane making avoiding them sometimes confusing. This is especially the case right from the get go on the level one boss. To power up your ship this game refers to it as mutation. You have two different types of mutation, Organic and Mechanical. Certain enemies will leave behind Xyanide shards that will make your fighter gradually morph and power up. You have two types of primary fire, a spread shot which clears minor enemies and mid bosses, and a straight shot which I learned with practice is the best on major bosses. You have a secondary shot which is basically a guided power shot, you'll have a crosshair on the screen that will target enemies automatically.

Honestly I didn't use this weapon that much but it's there for you as well. There are also special weapon enhancements assigned to the A-offensive, Y-defensive, B-Shield, X-Support buttons. There is also a wealth of special ship enhancements and pick ups you can acquire as well. I actually had to read through the manual a bit to learn what these items were as they were plentiful. One last note on this your ship can morph a total of 26 different times in mechanical mutation, and a total of 25 times in organic mutation. Again making the manual a must read before you play to familiarize yourself with gameplay. I hope I explained this as best I could.

Overall
Okay as you can tell I really like this game, in fact from reading reviews and forums there are A LOT of people who really like this game. It takes all the great shmups you've played over the years rolls them into one and churns out a quality product. It's evident where the creators of this title got their ideas and it's also evident that they wanted to put out an outstanding product that they could be proud of. Well let me be the first to say they did!

Game Score

A-

Reviewed By: Contributed