- Platform: PS4
- Genre: Action/Platformer, Metroidvania
- Also Available On: PC, 3DS, Vita, Wii U
I’ve been grabbing a lot of the releases by Limited Run Games for my collection of late, and being a fan of Metroidvania games, this one was at the top of my list. While this isn’t the best Metroidvania I’ve ever played, it’s one of best in terms of its raw mechanics, and that props up the main issues that I had with the game. In the end, I really had two main issues with the game; it’s length and repetition of boss battles.
Unlike Metroid’s generally single open world, Xeodrifter takes place on 4 smaller locations. While there is a bit of revisiting to each location, the small size means there is not much in the way of secret paths to visit. There are a handful of spots in each world with hidden health or weapon upgrades, but not the breadth of secret areas that the Metroid games use to open up entirely new paths for core traversal.
Like Metroid, each core upgrade is also given after a boss battle. However, the bosses in Xeodrifter all have the same visual design, other than a color palette swap. Each battle also builds on top of the previous, with largely the same mechanics, with generally a single addition using the skill learned from the previous battle. By the end of the game, this makes the boss fights quite a lot easier, as you’ve generally already learned the pattern of how to beat the boss, and can generally make a pretty good guess at what the new mechanic will be.
That said, mechanically this game really does shine. It’s core shooting and movement is extremely fluid, and at a generally faster pace than would be expected out of the bigger names titles in the genre. The upgrades also add a lot of flexibility to the game, with the standout probably being the upgrade that allows you to pass between different depths in the scene, not unlike the 3D gameplay used in recent 3DS Kirby titles. Combined with other abilities, such as the submarine and dashing, you’ll often be juggling movement and shooting across multiple planes of gameplay at the same time.
Also of note is the gun upgrade system. This game ignores the more standard straight beam upgrades from Metroid in place of a point-based upgrade system. The guns can be upgraded in 5 ways; bullet size, bullet speed, fire rate, fire spread, and movement wave width. Because of this, the guns can be upgraded in a way that suits the player’s style, rather than just being a straight upgrade. For example, I maxed bullet size and fire rate, while putting a few points into the movement wave. What this gave me was effectively a machine gun shooting large pellets, while moving in a small wave pattern. I could have just as easily made a powerful slow firing shotgun, or something akin to a rail gun depending on how I wanted to play. It was a truly fun way for them to handle the hidden upgrades typical of the genre.
Generally speaking, if you’re a fan of Metroidvanias, this is probably worth a try. The game has its issues, but it has great core mechnicas, and is relatively cheap, so for a bit of a time filler, it’s worth the play.