''Xevious'' is a franchise of

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

video games published by

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

, formerly

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

. ''

Xevious is a vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades in 1982. It was released in Japan and Europe by Namco and in North America by Atari, Inc. Controlling the Solvalou starship, the player attacks Xevious for ...

'', the first title in the franchise, was released for arcades in January 1983 in Japan and a month later in North America by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

. It was created by

Masanobu Endō is a game designer, president of Game Studio and Mobile & Game Studio, and the director of Digital Games Research Association Japan. He formerly worked for Namco, where he created arcade games and is best known for ''Xevious'' and ''The Tower of ...

, who also designed ''

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 Arcade game, arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the ...

''. The game has received many sequels, spin-offs, and re-imaginings, the most recent being ''

Xevious Resurrection ''Namco Museum Essentials'' is a 2009 video game compilation developed by Cattle Call and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 3. The collection includes five Namco arcade games from the 1980s: '' Pac-Man'' (1980), ''Galaga'' (1981) ...

'' in 2009. ''Xevious'' games have been ported to many platforms and compiled into several Namco compilations. The franchise contains twelve games—seven mainline entries and five spin-offs—

soundtrack albums A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

, ''

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

'' machines, and an animated feature film produced by Groove Corporation. Gameplay in the series consists of controlling a spaceship named the ''Solvalou'' throughout a series of levels, shooting at enemies and avoiding their projectiles. The ''Solvalou'' has two weapons, an air zapper that destroys air-based enemies and a blaster bomb that destroys ground-based enemies. Later games introduce mechanics such as additional playable ships, power-ups, protective shields, and two-player co-operative play. Critics have labeled ''Xevious'' as one of the most important games of its kind. It is credited as the first vertical-scrolling shooter, and among the first video games to implement bosses, pre-rendered visuals, and a cohesive world and storyline. ''Xevious'' inspired games such as ''

Gradius is a series of shooter video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. Games *''Scr ...

'', ''

TwinBee is a vertically scrolling shooter released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1985 in Japan. Along with Sega's ''Fantasy Zone'', released a year later, ''TwinBee'' is credited as an early archetype of the " cute 'em up" type in its genre. It w ...

'', ''

Zanac is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile and published in Japan by Pony Canyon and in North America by FCI. It was released for the MSX computer, the Family Computer Disk System, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and for the Vir ...

'', and ''

RayForce is a vertically scrolling shooter by Taito for the Taito F3 arcade hardware and released in 1994. It was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, Microsoft Windows in 1997, then rereleased for iOS in 2012 and Android in 2017. Due to trademark probl ...

''. It has had an influence on game designers such as

Satoshi Tajiri is a Japanese video game designer and director best known for being the creator of the ''Pokémon'' franchise and one of the founders, and president of video game developer Game Freak. A fan of arcade games, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own v ...

and musicians like

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for ...

Video games

Other media

Soundtracks

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xevious * Mass media by franchise Media lists by video games franchise