XYDONIA Demo

Times were a lot simpler when, as a kid, you would find change on the ground, pick it up and run to the annual city fair to play some arcade games. They came once a year, and I took advantage of every single chance to play.

XYDONIA brought some of those memories back; it’s a wonderfully simple and well-constructed arcade game. It’s one that manages to recreate the look and gameplay of the kind that millions of people have enjoyed a few decades back.

In the spirit of the arcade, play XYDONIA with a controller if you don’t have an arcade stick. It plays smooth and everything falls into place just right. The graphics, the audio, the enemies, it all feels like the real deal from back in the day.

With games like XYDONIA, you can’t go wrong as long as they’re well-polished, and this one is. For a fact, there was one detail that gave it extra points. It’s not that the game simulates the CRT monitor effect, which looks very nice by the way. It’s because like back then, you could see a slight hint about where the enemy was coming from where the glass curved and met the screen casing. Intentional or not, it was nice to see.

Arcade games are made so that you and others can fight over who gets the number one spot on the leaderboard. XYDONIA makes no exception. There is a high score to aim for and most of the time you’ll be perfecting your gameplay to reach and exceed it.

Dying is something common, and you should expect some from XYDONIA. It’s no bullet hell, but it does have its moments. Perfecting by repetition, that’s all you need to focus on because from the enemy’s side, things will always play out the same way. Which, might get to you at some point if you’re not solely motivated by wanting to complete the game.

Nonetheless, XYDONIA is in its early stages of life, content and options are bound to be added. The team behind the game have mentioned the possibility of adding debris as loot that can be used to unlock new stuff. Moreover, there's also multiplayer co-op, just two players for now.

To end, XYDONIA is a very good arcade shooter that boosts the retro vibe. It looks great, it sounds even better, and the gameplay is a blast.