Xyanide

"Short, enjoyable and a throwback to the SHMUP days!"

Xyanide is an on-rails SHMUP (SHoot-eM-UP) that has you piloting a small spaceship with a great deal of power. The game pits you against seemingly endless waves of enemies as you travel through a mostly mechanized world.

Graphics:

This game is quite pretty. Your ship as well as the enemies are well rendered and the explosions and numerous weapon effects are very attractive. The background is also great to look at, but there is not nearly enough variety in the levels. It all felt familiar up until the 6th and final level, when the scenery finally changed. The cut-scenes are rendered very well and are pleasing to watch.

Audio:

Xyanide has average audio at best. This game employs generic upbeat electronic BGM. However, the sound of the weapons and explosions are quite well implemented.

Plot:

For a SHMUP, this game has an unusually large amount of long cut-scenes that do a fairly good job of explaining the story. Strangely, these cut-scenes are only accessible through Arcade Mode, which happens to be the Story Mode too. This was a bit confusing initially. The story itself doesn't jump out at you, but certainly does a good job of managing the transitions from level to level.

Gameplay:

There are no other games to truly compare this to on the Xbox. From a shoot-em-up fans perspective, this is a more than competent game. The weapons (you have two main types of fire) are responsive and lively, and pretty too. There is a wealth of special fires you can employ, and it is encouraged that you employ them as often as possible, which flies a bit in the face of those games that award you with 2 bombs and have you try to conserve them for the final boss. I found this refreshing.

Each level has a boss which is quite a lot of fun to go up against. The levels are lengthy and will seem like they go on for quite some time, which they do.

The control scheme is odd initially as it employs both thumb sticks and not your triggers or buttons for firing. For the first 10 minutes, the gamer is likely to not have any idea how to control the ship, but once the control scheme is played for a brief time, it becomes second nature. This seems strange, but it is implemented really well. Due to this unique control scheme, the game transitions from 3D to 2D planes without you missing a beat. I give big kudos to the game designers for being able to design this control scheme.

Length:

Xyanide has 6 long levels. The entire game clocks in around 3-5 hours at the most, so it is a very short game. I don't know if they ran out of production money or time, but this game could have been extended by incorporating a few more levels.

Overall:

If you're a SHMUP fan, rent this title for an evening. It is totally worth the rental. It's a competent and enjoyable game and should be original enough to appeal to most gamers for a night. I would not recommend this for a purchase only because it is quite short.

7.4/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/07