CRISIS BEAT ROM UPGRADE
CRISIS BEAT ROM SERIES

They frequently appear as enemies are killed, but players can revert back to the main gun with a simple button press if a chosen power-up isnвЂ™t working out.

CRISIS BEAT ROM UPGRADE

There are 10 in all, and each upgrade is timed. Throughout each stage, all manner of badass weaponry can be obtained, including spread guns, flamethrowers, and homing bullets.

TheyвЂ™re not the only tricks up the playersвЂ™ sleeve, though. For instance, Grenades, a standard part of the marine arsenal, are helpful for breaking up groups of aliens and for dropping boss health bars. It takes a powerful set of weapons to dispatch them before anyone gets to sight-see, and Xeno CrisisВ brings the firepower in great fashion. The colorful graphics really pop, although players wonвЂ™t have much time to gawk while aliens pour out of the walls and doors. The stages range from dunes to forests, and each one has its own set of baddies to shoot. Many contain helpless colonists вЂ“ each named after a Kickstarter backer вЂ“ that offer bonus points and other benefits (nothing dirty!). Each level is composed of multiple rooms that are all worth exploring. As one of two marines (male or female), one or two players must clear out seven different stages of alien-infested colony as they try to find the source of the contamination and put an end to it. Xeno Crisis takes all this goodness and creates a package that is engrossing from the start. NeiborgвЂ™s designs are wonderfully old school, and my one complaint about them is that the screen turns black and white when the game is paused, preventing me from soaking up all that great sprite art whenever I want. The enemies all look menacing, with color schemes that make them easy to track, and their smooth and fluid movements stand out from the backgrounds and from each other. NieborgвЂ™s ability to create gorgeous, detailed sprites has long been a high watermark for 2D art, and his addition to the development team was a great coup for Bitmap Bureau.

CRISIS BEAT ROM SERIES

The character and environmental art was done by sprite artist extraordinaire Henk Nieborg, whose work has graced such titles as The Misadventures of Flink (Genesis & Sega CD), Contra 4 (Nintendo DS), and the Shantae series (Nintendo DS). The attractiveness of Xeno CrisisвЂ™ simple premise got an incredible boost by its great visuals. Guns and aliens are an evergreen combination, and the Xeno CrisisвЂ™ basic formula likely made it much more appealing than some of the more elaborate RPG titles other publishers have tackled recently. ItвЂ™s a tried-and-true formula, already perfected by WilliamsвЂ™ legendary arcade game, and it made the product much easier to sell to backers. Rather than try to be the biggest and most complex title ever released, Xeno Crisis was a simple run-вЂn-gun that focused on shooting bad guys and advancing to the next screen.

A large part of the campaignвЂ™s attraction was its simplicity. These talented folks strive to show just how far the technology can still be pushed, and Xeno Crisis has taken the process to another level.Д«ased in Southampton, England, Bitmap Bureau launched Xeno Crisis on Kickstarter in late 2017 and quickly reached its funding goal. ThatвЂ™s all well and good, and I love games like Shovel Knight to death however, thereвЂ™s been a wonderful rise in efforts by small developers to make new games specifically for older hardware. I make that assertion based on the industryвЂ™s current love of doing thing in the вЂњretro styleвЂќ but releasing their wares on modern platforms. The result is perhaps the most compelling reason to take retro game development seriously, something people seem to be only beginning to do. Bitmap BureauвЂ™s Xeno Crisis mashes together the great atmosphere of beloved sci-fi films like Aliens with the white-knuckle gameplay of arcade classics like M.E.R.C.S. There have been titles for all genres released, each of varying quality, but one has managed to bring the beloved 16-bit gameplay and aesthetic into the present in unrivaled fashion. The past decade has been a veritable renaissance for the machine, with publishers bringing translated titles from the past, as well as entirely new games. Genesis owners are a fortunate lot, enjoying the bountiful number of games being released since Sega retired the console in 1997.

Genre: Run-вЂn-Gun Developer: Bitmap Bureau Publisher: Bitmap Bureau Players: 1-2 Released: 2019

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