Xexex (ver AAA) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Xexex © 1991 Konami.

Xexex is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up in which players pilot a ship called the 'Flintlock' and must save the blue-haired Princess Irene of the planet E-Square from an evil lord named Klaus.

The player's ship has a detachable orb attachment called the Flint, which behaves in a similar fashion to the 'Force Device' from Irem's "R-Type" series. Power-ups can be obtained to increase the Flint's power, movement speed, change the main weapon, or even give the player an extra life.

The player starts the game armed with the Proton Laser, which emits thin stream of weak bullets. Defeating certain enemies will drop other weapons:

• Homing Laser: A 3-way laser with weak "bending" homing for top and bottom lasers.
• Shadow Laser: A laser beam that creates a damage-inflicting shadow as the ship moves up and down.
• Round Laser: An unusual spread shot (different from the overseas version's main weapon)
• Spiral Laser: A spiral laser of considerable width.
• Search Laser: A laser with strong homing that travels in square trajectories.
• Ground Laser: Fires an upgraded Proton Laser along with a laser beam that travels along the ground.

The name of the current weapon is displayed at the bottom of the screen. In the non-Japanese overseas versions, the only available weapon is the Proton Laser and picking up power-ups simply increases the spread of the weapon. Missiles are a secondary weapon.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: GX067
PROM Stickers: 067

Main CPU: Motorola 68000
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151, K054539, (4x) Volume

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

TRIVIA
Released in October 1991 in Japan.

This game is known in the USA as "Orius".

King Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Xexex: Konami Kukeiha Club - KICA-7508) on 21/01/1992.

Konami released two Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Flint and Flint Lock, as a reference to this game.

UPDATES
The game is notable for different gameplay mechanics between the original Japanese release and the overseas releases. The Japanese version has lives (with re-spawn points) instead of a life-bar and a much larger variety of weapons. The enemy patterns are also changed slightly.

STAFF
Directored by: Tom Murchie
Program design by: Tom Murchie, Baumann, Wady Teits
Graphic design by: Mickey, James K kark, Cha Heifetz
Sound designers: Carol Queen, Michael Oldriver, Rosetta Stone, Shanghai Manmos
Hardware design by: Jean Simons
Title design by: Nissy Balvoa
Character design by: Ken.Heine
Art directed by: Maguro Banda
Special design by: Nori Tama
Special effect by: Screaming (Mt.Fuji)
Sub special effect by: Tamaya Jp
Screen play by: Coszo Gi Ken
Planning produced by: Studio Sumomo

PORTS
It took 16 years for Xexex to get a home port.

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Sony PSP (jan.25, 2007) "Salamander Portable [Model ULJM-05219]"
[JP] Sony PSP (mar.13, 2008) "Salamander Portable [Konami The Best] [Model ULJM-05322]"

CONTRIBUTE
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