Xeodrifter review: Snacktroid
3DS, PC
There's a purity to Xeodrifter that I really admire. The 2D action exploration game is brief, but Xeodrifter explores its simple, well-executed mechanics to a T. It takes the best elements of other exploration-driven action games like Castlevania and Metroid and packs them neatly into a handful of hours.
Nimbly rewarding you with health extensions, gun upgrades and special abilities along the way, Xeodrifter plays something like a "greatest hits" compilation of the genre, though not without adding a few B-sides of its own. Before long, you'll be running at turbo speed, soaring into the sky with rocket-propelled leaps and cleaving your way through enemies with enhanced firepower.
There's no cruft, no filler – just a competent, compact adventure.
Available on 3DS or PC, Xeodrifter is more an homage to bygone eras of video games than a direct recreation. Unlike, say, Shovel Knight, Xeodrifter doesn't try to stay faithful to a specific platform, offering visuals that are a little too advanced for the 8-bit era and music that isn't quite up to the 16-bit standard. The disparate styles mix well, however, and it certainly feels authentic, with lots of well-drawn and detailed sprites.
You control a squat little spaceman, on a quest to retrieve a new warp core for his spaceship, which recently had a close encounter with an asteroid. There are four planets with high energy signatures nearby, and you still have enough impulse power to land on any one of them and start exploring. You're allowed to travel between these planets at your leisure, but you'll soon discover that many of them have impassable obstacles, like bodies of deep water or imposing cliffs.
As luck would have it, only one of the planets caters to your initially limited set of skills, which includes running, jumping and firing a basic gun. As you explore further, however, you'll encounter boss creatures, each of which will grant you a new ability upon defeat. It's a familiar formula that cribs from the likes of Metroid (intentionally, I imagine), but Xeodrifter doles out its rewards at a much quicker pace. Eventually, you'll acquire numerous new abilities. A high-speed dash allows you to run across the surface of otherwise dangerous, pink goo. A super jump lets you sail upwards to access previously unreachable areas. And, of course, there are upgrades hidden around each planet, increasing your health or boosting your weaponry.
Thankfully, Xeodrifter isn't all homage, and it manages to add a few unique touches of its own. Probably the most interesting is the unlockable ability to shift between the background and foreground, a mechanic seen in developer Renegade Kid's previous game, Mutant Mudds. In certain areas of Xeodrifter, you can instantly jump to the background of a scene, possibly giving you access to new platforms, pathways or even secrets. What really makes this mechanic interesting, though, is how it combines with the other abilities. Take the ability to dash across the surface of goo, for example. A river of goo in the foreground often has a parallel river in the background, and each is dotted with walls that stop your dash. In order to clear these obstacles, you have to switch planes before running into each wall, all while dashing forward and making timed jumps. When done correctly, it's very satisfying, as you weave in and out of the background at full speed like some kind of space wizard. You also might just crash into every single wall anyway. It's not as graceful, and you'll take some damage, but it gets the job done.
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You will definitely want to avoid damage, as each section of Xeodrifter's planets is designed as a gauntlet of sorts. After teleporting to the surface from your ship, you'll rarely find health refills – possibly one or two hidden, and always one before a boss battle. As such, you have to tread carefully while blasting space bugs and avoiding hazards. Should you die, you'll lose your progress and get sent all the way back to your ship, though each boss is blessedly preceded by a checkpoint. (Every boss is technically the same monster, by the way, but it adopts new skills and patterns every time you fight it. Some may dislike the concept, but I found it consistently challenging.)
Making these treks somewhat more manageable is a free-form weapon upgrade system. Each planet is sprinkled with upgrade orbs and, rather than unlocking specific weapon types, these orbs grant you points. These points can be allocated to several different categories, ranging from speed to power, rapid fire and spread. You can reallocate your acquired points at any time, meaning you can create whatever configuration suits your current situation. Facing tougher enemies? Plunk those points into power. Need your bullets to cover a wider area? Add a couple of points to the wave fire option. It's a great idea, and watching your weapon evolve from peashooter to unstoppable wall of energy is plenty of fun.
What's remarkable about it all is that Xeodrifter crams this much into only a few hours. My time with the game topped out somewhere between three and four hours, and that includes fishing out hidden rooms and tracking down a few remaining health and gun upgrades after beating it the first time. Yes, that's brief, but the pacing feels just right, giving you enough time to master the game's mechanics without those mechanics becoming stale.
Could Xeodrifter could be a much longer, more complex game? Sure. As it is, however, Xeodrifter is a wonderful snack. It may not take much of your time, but the last thing it will do is waste it.
This review is based on an eShop download of the 3DS version of Xeodrifter, provided by Renegade Kid. Images: Renegade Kid.
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