XELAN FORCE Reviews

Good game + whatever everyone else said.

Force times 4! This feels like if Life Force was all tate which is basically Crisis Force without that ship's special abilities. But then there's bricks on the ground you break a la Star Force. Then the name of the game is Xelan Force. That's why I call it "Force times 4" in a math sense xD (okay, all jokes aside) There's a nod to Compile where some enemies release tiny pods that you grab to slowly upgrade your regular weapon. Then there's the Gun Nac/PC Engine feel with the secondary power up grabs. And what I mean by that is that secondary weapon & missile grabs will weave back & forth across the screen while changing, so sometimes you have to dodge the power up or else you'll grab the wrong weapon. Another nod is Xevious where it has the square enemies with a flipping animation that blocks your bullets. Just let them flip downward off the screen. While this is a tate shmup, there is one level of the game where the scrolling changes, but your ship is still pointed upwards. There are some dodging stages with tight corridors and one part that speeds up (sorry if I'm giving too much away). There's 8 stages total and the ending has a questionable element as well as a hint of a possible sequel. I would say it takes about 40 minutes to play all the way through from start to finish. You have the choice of two drone types: Follow you around in a trail or stationary beside you. The stationary ones have a dedicated button to change their fire configuration. Otherwise, you're just holding one button the whole time. Some bosses are impossible to hit with some secondary weapons. You'll need to wait for a drop to change it. There's not much button configuration and they sometimes feel like you're holding down a turbo button set. So if you pause while holding the shot button down, you might just immediately unpause. If you beat a boss while never releasing fire, you'll have to unrelease it and hold it again when the next level starts or your ship won't fire at all. The challenge is not too punishing overall and certainly nowhere as hard as Recca, but you can't sleep on anything. You also have to be careful of enemies coming from behind sometimes and without notice. You'll need to memorize the stages to know when they can come out. It's not too often. When there's one wave, you can expect a few more. All in all, if you want a shmup that has a total NES feel in both graphics, sound, and playability without any flickering, you've come to the right place. The price is quite nice as well. If you like what you see in the screenshots, I highly recommend getting it.

It feels like a solid tribute to Compile games like Zanac and Aleste. Great presentation and action heavy gameplay. It's a cool and fun game but it would be even cooler with leaderboards and maybe some achievements to push replay value.

As an STG lover this one really stands out. XF actually feels like an 8-bit PC Engine title that could of been released in the late 80's / early 90's. It also wears Compile influences on its sleeve. Very fun!

It's a cool Famicom style shmup. I haven't played through the entire game as of writing this, but it's worth the 8.99 from what I've seen. I'm not familiar with compile's games but apparently this game is influenced by their works.

Its an unashamedly 8bit old school shooter which has elements of Aleste and the PC Engine Soldier series. It does nothing new but its very enjoyable to play and has an approachable difficulty. The music is fantastic and the graphics have that Famicom look to them. The levels are varied and change up quite a lot adding variety. In addition to the traditional arcade mode there is a caravan mode which is always welcome and a stage select. Over the past year i have been enjoying the resurgence in old school style shooters with Ganablade, Raioh, Kaikan, Zakesta-Z and the Toaplan collections, Xelan Force now joins my play list and it fits in very nicely to my collection.