Xadium, Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Mastertronic - 2C0192
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5/10
Summary
Xadium has the potential to be a good game, but ultimately it is spoiled by one thing – the difficulty level. It is very hard, and getting off the first level is somewhat of an achievement considering the tight time limit and the number of gates to pass through. The second level does not allow for any mistakes either or it is back to the start, which adds hugely to the frustration. Some more playability tweaks would have made it better, but as it stands, it is a game that is a case of so near but so far – especially as the graphics and sound are good.
User Review
( votes)Xadium is a Mr Chip software game, but unlike most of their releases, not programmed by Shaun Southern or Tony Kelly, but Michelangelo Pignani. Andrew Morris also had a hand in the graphics too. In effect there are two contrasting levels that the game has – passing through the gates on the surface of the planet Xadium for the first level, and then making your way through the underground caverns for the second level. It may not sound like a large game on paper at least, but how does that stack up in reality?
This is Planet Xadium
An attractive title screen shows with a well-drawn Xadium logo and a nice title theme to go with it – which shows off the planet surface of Xadium complete with some nice visual effects of the colours scrolling towards you go give that sense of speed. Hitting fire starts you off on the planet, and you need to pass through the gates of the planet. Miss a gate and that is points deducted, but hitting one of the gate posts is worse – as this takes some of the remaining time away from you, indicated on the bottom left.
You effectively have a distance meter in the bottom centre of the screen which shows you how far you need to go and that equates to a certain number of gates to pass through cleanly. The score on the right-hand side increases each time you clear each gate and survive just that little bit further along the way. Each time you start – at the start of the game and missing a gate, you can position your ship so that you do not hit the next gate, so at least you are not thrown into a situation where you hit the same gate again and again, reducing the time left far too quickly.
Surface Patterns
The key appears to be learning the patterns of the gates that come up on the surface and the speed which you can safely take them at. Early on within the level, the gates are nice and wide which means that you can breeze through at pace, but then later as the gates get narrower, you will need to slow down so you have enough time to steer carefully through without hitting the gates. They do alternate in two shades of green so you can see which one is coming up next, a simple but useful feature nonetheless.
Rock Hard
This game is very hard with the difficulty level ramped up, more so as the gates get narrower on the opening level – and being able to complete that (as I managed to do a couple of times) is no mean feat. However, if you think the second level is going to be easier, not a chance. You fly through the caverns with left and right determining your speed, moving up and down to avoid the cavern walls (which are lethal to the touch) and if anything comes along, you can also fire to shoot at it.
Unfortunately, this is where another flaw in the game shows itself – if you hit the cavern, you do not carry on from a point close to where you hit, but right back to the start of the cavern to do it all again. That is unfair and shows an expectation to the whole level in one go where the slightest touch of the joystick onto the surface would be fatal. Maybe having an energy bar which reduces on touch of the cavern makes more sense here, so you can move away from hitting something and still see some of the level before the three lives you have are lost in very quick succession.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics in Xadium are nice enough, with the planet surface and pseudo-3D effect nicely done. The gates move a little blockily but the ship is nicely defined and the shadow underneath gives you some guidance for positioning to avoid the gates too. The title theme is very pleasant and the in-game effects are just limited to the speed of your ship in a white noise effect and a ping when you hit the gates, and a crash noise on hitting the surface, so they are more functional than anything else.
Final Thoughts
Xadium would have been a good little challenge had a little bit more thought gone into the game’s difficulty level. It took me multiple attempts to get off the first level (and that was with some useful tactics from playing the game before) and then because of the narrow caverns, I pretty much lost all three lives straight away on the second level. Tweak the difficulty in both cases and this would have been a good little game that would have potential to be a hidden gem, but instead, a lack of playtesting and improvement to the gameplay means that it is just average, despite it appearing and sounding well.
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I quite enjoyed this one, obviously drawing some inspiration from the old Buck Rogers game.