Xeodrifter starts with such starkness- a dangerous and lonely planet, then a(n initially) challenging boss battle that could be the beginning of a hundred potential adventures. After defeating the creature in your way and obtaining your first item you are set free to explore 4 different planets, each with their own distinct maps.
Thematically and stylistically similar to the original Metroid series, Xeodrifter can’t decide if it wants to be a successor or a mere homage. Intrinsically constrained by its own short length, it seems to brush the question aside and exist anyway.
Exploriness
As soon as the game opens up, it’s only a short time before the player feels suffocated by the designer pulling them towards the correct direction. Exploration is often punished and their is always a single correct way to go. True, Metroidvania games are not typically open-ended, but here it feels a little over-planned. On the other hand, by making the correct choice more obvious, it wastes less of the player’s time in areas they cannot yet traverse.
The early passes of the game, where the player tries out each available planet for its suitability for progression, are an effective start and one of the game’s better portions. But by the time you get the 2nd and 3rd items, your path becomes pretty clear. The incredibly comprehensible layout of the game is unsatisfying overall. I would have preferred to have seen the maps interconnect at one point rather than going all the way in and all the way out each time.
The standout item of the game is the Plane Shift and it almost succeeds in elevating the entire enterprise. Going from foreground to background is achieved with precision and is very well executed. The first few puzzle rooms and its first use in the boss battle with this mechanic are easily the highlights of the game. Later on, though, it is used a bit less ingeniously.
The rest of the items are a little bland. A Submarine? Just drown me. A teleport Phaser that is barely used? Felt a little superfluous but maybe I was using it wrong. I like that there are items hidden behind certain walls that one automatically assumes are accessed by some alternate, hidden route but really you just teleport through the wall.
Honestly, this game should have dedicated itself wholly to exploring the Plane Shift instead of just combining simple maps with obligatory Metroidvania concepts.
Gameplay
Maybe this is not fair to say, but I hate floaty jumps. You start with a terrible gun, but you at least get upgrades for that. Your jumping remains utterly resistant to the light press and I got myself killed many times by believing it would somehow start working. The problem, really, is that the slow speed of the jump makes you adjust your mental predictions when jumping over bullets to an uncomfortable degree.
Combine that with the nearly non-existence invincibility frames and the game becomes lot more tedious than it needs to be. In the face of a game with more traditional feeling controls, the shortcomings the overall concept execution could be forgiven since it is so short.
There is a repeated boss that I see receiving some criticism, but it is not itself big problem. However, the later stages of the boss just took too long. A refrain can be done well, but some of the powerups are less significant than others, so an additional gimmick just becomes taxing. A mini-boss of some kind would have been nice, too.
Style
Xeodrifter uses what I like to call neo-pixel art, which, since about the release of Shovel Knight, feels a little outdated. It approaches the art in a retro style game by making sort of over-pixelated characters that you might see in an emulator or a Game Boy, but do not really feel like 8-bit era games. I found it to be essentially adequate but not really noteworthy, a perfect example of a boiler-plate retro indie game from its era.
The setting and environments are well done, even if they pretty much copy Metroid’s aesthetic. But the enemy designs were not too inventive, with the possible exception of the eyeball cube. To its credit, though, there are some moments playing this game when the music and the environment coalesce and it feels pretty good.
I particularly like the loneliness that it channels from the original Metroid, where it feels like that hero hasn’t spoken to another human in weeks. Minimal text, no companion, no inner monologue, just cold, unfeeling insectoid aliens.
Xeodrifter is a game that is good to see but bad to play. After beating it, I feel finished with it, and a little burned by it. There could be been so much more, but that’s not what the game is. It is 4 levels, a mirco-metroid. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else, and yet we cannot accept it for what it is.
When I close my eyes I can see the Xeodrifter of my dreams, as a game without bosses and entirely featuring the Plane Shift as its core mechanic. It is a puzzle game with a sense of scope and focus, and becomes as sleeper classic and is remembered. But that is not the game I see when I look at my screen again. The one thing we I say for certain is, it has a really good death fanfare.
Leave a Reply