Videogame Review, Xevious for the Atari 5200 Console (Unreleased But Complete)

Videogame Review, Xevious for the Atari 5200 Console (Unreleased But Complete)

Do you hate math?  Well, then Xevious for the Atari 5200 will really piss you off.  It’s actually one of the hardest, most erratic games I’ve ever played for the Atari 5200 even if the controls are superb, the music is enchanted, and the graphics speak in wild styles for the 80’s.  You’ll notice on my photo for Xevious that the playing field is made up of tiny little dots on land and water while the green brush is given a floral texture or pattern, and, my ship’s ammunition consists in crystal-rainbow bars floating in the wind near the oncoming “pebbles” taking the forms of launched enemy ships, not to mention the glowing, shining purple walls rolling over the hills across from plenty of sitting ducks or annoying blasters.  At first I was turned off a little by the graphics until hours of playing have made me confirm that this shooter is in line with Columns for the Sega Genesis and Gaplus for the Nintendo Wii.  Handling a Nintendo Wii remote is pretty tricky but the Atari 5200 controller makes me feel like a boss for Xevious.  Innovation is very tight- the analog joystick, two sides of firing buttons and a hot panel with start, pause and reset.  Difficulty is rough, intense, and heightened though.  After looking both ways, and looking both ways again, and looking both ways again and again before crossing the fields and maneuvering my unique controller in front of the TV, seeing degrees here, seeing degrees there, waving around my controller and joystick like a rope in the daunting horizon I’m about ready to lose my lunch.  Command takes place at an extreme scale: degrees in joystick, degrees in controller, degrees in buttons, degrees in arms, degrees in elbows, degrees in TV viewing and so forth.  (Note: the ship comes to a complete stop when you tilt the joystick a little low and to the right.)  Thus far I’ve earned over 44,000 points in Xevious for the Atari 5200 console.  The 80’s concept has expanded horizons and, although finding the right bombing spot lets my ship get moved by me towards deliberate charge, enemies feel scattered and they have an unfamiliar juggling act compared to the enemy flow in Xevious on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  Gameplay on my end is passive for the NES; however, for the Atari 5200 console I’m constantly shifting gears and predicting necessary, vital calculations of joystick-and-TV movement in my head since my numb mind from schizophrenia allows me to enter Atari 5200 worlds with ease and great capability.  Of course a game isn’t automatically good just because I’m good at it.  My tastes in games are awfully weird.  Xevious for the Atari 5200 is good if you can sum up a hundred addition problems in a minute; 2 + 2 = 4 isn’t enough.  The main ship boss you run into early on at around 10,000-18,000 points on average is quite easier and the popping black missiles (which look like marbles exploding) are more transitional and figurative on a smooth layout.  Jungle Hunt for the Atari 5200 is also very hard.  Finding the joystick’s degree of control may block out people who aren’t good with math and that’s disappointing.  This version of the classic Xevious arcade game still offers a lot for the money during chaos in gameplay with the gold joystick from Best Electronics and I’ve found my heart for this.  Like a sport in real life Xevious for the Atari 5200 will make you sweat.  Nonetheless, can somebody else reach my heart for Xevious on the same level of expertise?  Such a gamer would have to be great at math, literate of spatial depth with one’s body and have complete understanding of degree and movement.  Dodging the flying shots and enemies is really fun and charging at the bombing spots with immediate bombs without hesitation gets me going, especially with auto-fire that’s functioning from both sides of my black, multitudinous controller; and, I hate it with a passion when lingering pebbles suddenly shoot diagonally fast bullets before exiting the screen completely.  Run, cowards!