Xevious — stories left

It was also the first game to use hidden characters, and when their existence became known some time after release, it won great popularity as a game that lived up to its catchphrase, "The more you play, the deeper the mystery".

During development the official name was "Adore Gillenes", and the instruction card gives it as such, but American staff could not pronounce it correctly, and the name was changed to "Andor Genesis" after the way one of them said it.

The developers had not expected players to reach such a score, but only 2 weeks after the game went on sale the first report of maxing out the counter came from Yasuhiro Ohori, who was known at the time as a highly skilled player (along with Ohori, Naohiko Nakagane and Hideto Furuta are said to be the first 3 players to have maxed it out).

The game's music takes the 1st track on Video Game Music (1984-4, Alfa Records), the first music album in Japan built mainly on original video game sound sources.

Later releases included the 12-inch single Super Xevious (1984-8, Alfa Records), which contained arranged music from the game, and the Video Interior Series title Xevious (1984-11, Victor Company of Japan and others), the first video software in Japan to take a video game as its subject.

This software is also the only home port of Xevious 3D/G and Xevious Arrangement (as of 2024).

The book is said to be the first that Namco produced and held the copyright to.

The first home conversion of Xevious was for the Family Computer in 1984, being one of the system's first third-party titles.

Three mobile phone versions were released; the first for J-Sky in 2002, renamed Xevious Mini, the second for i-Mode the same year, and the third for EZweb in 2003.

In its first few weeks on the market, it recorded record-breaking sales figures that hadn't been seen since Space Invaders in 1978.

Compiled with music from other Namco video games, such as Mappy and Pole Position, it is credited as the first video game soundtrack album.

Developers who learned of this technique after release raised the points per 1 Zapper shot to 2,000 in the arcade version of Super Xevious, as a "reward" for advanced players. In fact the increase to 2,000 points had already been made in a high-difficulty version sold overseas before Super Xevious.

Distribution of the 2 titles above ended with the closure of the Nintendo eShop service on the Wii U and the 3DS on 2023-3-28.

The Arcade Archives version released in 2021 has a rich set of "detail settings". Alongside the usual items such as screen burn-in and the appearance of the phantom Sol (the 46th Sol), it allows the player to switch on or off the display of the aerial-item table, the visualisation of Sol and Special Flag positions, and the reproduction of the all-out attack.

In the Famicom version Super Xevious: Gump no Nazo (1986), it can be destroyed by hitting it with about 32 zapper shots (200 points).

In the ranking "Best 10 Popular Video Games", part of the feature "Survey of 100 Readers" in the magazine AM Life, it took 4th place in No. 4, its first appearance.

In the popularity poll feature "The Best 30 Chosen by Readers" in the Gekkan Gamest supplement The Best Game (1991, Shinseisha), it took 10th place.

In the ranking feature "The Best Games Chosen by Readers" in the Gamest Mook The Best Game 2 (1998, Shinseisha), it took 28th place.

Xevious 3D/G+ (1997, Namco, PlayStation) - contains 4 titles at once: Xevious 3D/G, Xevious, Super Xevious, and Xevious Arrangement.

The 3 titles other than Xevious 3D/G are ports from the arcade title Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 (1995), and for Xevious and Super Xevious the presence of an ending and the number of loops before the ending can be set.

Atari sold 5,295 Xevious arcade cabinets in the US by the end of 1983, earning about $11.1 million (equivalent to $ in ) in US cabinet sales revenue.

The Famicom version sold over 1.26 million copies sold in Japan, jumping system sales by nearly two million units.

The game was a major hit as a Namco shooting classic ranking alongside Galaxian (1979) and Galaga (1981), and recorded sales second only to Taito's Space Invaders (1978).

Xevious was praised for its detailed graphics, challenge and originality.

Computer & Video Games magazine praised the game's thrilling action and impressive graphics, recommending it to players fond of titles such as Zaxxon and Scramble, while Electronic Games found that the realistic graphics and intense action made Xevious an easy recommendation to fans of the genre.

Amusement Life praised its detailed backgrounds, fast-paced gameplay and sense of mystery, labeling it a masterpiece and one of the best games of 1983.

Nintendojo greatly praised the Classic NES Series version for its gameplay and multiplayer mode, favorably comparing it to games such as Gradius.

They also praised the game's detailed graphics, difficulty and impressive enemy intelligence for the time.

In the months following, Atari, Inc. acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute it in North America, advertising it as "the Atari game you can't play at home".

Joystik stated that the game was superior to titles Zaxxon and Tron, specifically in its graphics and gameplay.

In 1998, Allgame called it one of the more "polite" shoot'em ups for its detailed visuals, challenge and unique enemy designs, finding it to have a "charm" unmatched by other games of the genre.

In 1995, Flux magazine rated the game 88th on their list of the "Top 100 Video Games", saying that it "ushered in a new age of scrolling overhead shooters", with its "detailed graphics, multi-level targets and catchy theme music.

In 1996, Next Generation ranked it number 90 in their list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time", praising its art direction, intense gameplay and layer of strategy.

Sharpe of Play Meter magazine stated that the "dimensionalized, overhead perspective of modern, detailed graphics was launched with Xevious."

Developers who learned of this technique after release raised the points per 1 Zapper shot to 2,000 in the arcade version of Super Xevious, as a "reward" for advanced players. In fact the increase to 2,000 points had already been made in a high-difficulty version sold overseas before Super Xevious.

The previous game, Xevious, had a high-difficulty version for Italy and Spain, where the charge per play was low, and heavy users in Japan who heard about it called for a domestic release, so this game was produced as a separate version for advanced players.

They felt that its responsive controls and "chaotic" difficulty made it one of the best titles released under the label.

They also praised the game's detailed graphics, difficulty and impressive enemy intelligence for the time.

Retrospectively in 1998, AllGames Earl Green noted of Super Xevious high level of difficulty and new enemy types, writing that its enhanced challenge and differences in gameplay made it a superior update to Xevious.

There are also ports that reproduce this bug.

The burned-in state of the logo is reproduced in the home ports as well: in the version included in Xevious 3D/G+ for the PlayStation the burn-in display can be switched on and off with a hidden command, and in the versions included in Namco Museum Vol. 2 for the PSP and Namco Museum DS for the DS it can be switched from the "Maniac Option".

By analysing this, the game rank can be adjusted deliberately, but in 2020 a bug was found in which repeatedly letting oneself be killed on purpose at a particular place, without destroying the Zolbak, causes the values in the table to overflow so that random values are read.

Namco executives expressed displeasure towards the idea, with Endō instead claiming they were simply a bug in the program and leaving them in the code.

During development the official name was "Adore Gillenes", and the instruction card gives it as such, but American staff could not pronounce it correctly, and the name was changed to "Andor Genesis" after the way one of them said it.

When the game first went on sale this was not presented officially and existed as hidden background material, but it was later printed in magazines and mooks from Dempa Shimbunsha and in the liner notes of the music album Super Xevious, and in 1991 it was published by Futabasha as a newly written book, Shosetsu Xevious: Fardraut Saga (#Setting).

Three mobile phone versions were released; the first for J-Sky in 2002, renamed Xevious Mini, the second for i-Mode the same year, and the third for EZweb in 2003.

The Arcade Archives version released in 2021 has a rich set of "detail settings". Alongside the usual items such as screen burn-in and the appearance of the phantom Sol (the 46th Sol), it allows the player to switch on or off the display of the aerial-item table, the visualisation of Sol and Special Flag positions, and the reproduction of the all-out attack.

There was a remake project by PROJECT ACES built with the AC04 engine, but it was shelved and only a trailer was released.

Versions for the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 were completed but never released; the 2600 port was programmed by Tod Frye.

The North American release paled in comparison, despite still selling 5,295 arcade units by the end of 1983.

In North American arcades, it was a more moderate success, reaching number four on the Play Meter arcade charts in July 1983.

Asked later by fans about the title of the arcade (AC) version Super Xevious (1984) - "Why was it not named XX Xevious, using the Xevian word for super?" - Endo replied that the idea had not occurred to them at all at the time.