@abraxas 1 April 2021 more from that month

Here's another one from my NES collection... Xexyz (pronounced like "zeck-sehs" or sexes, but with a z at the start) is a multi-style game released by Hudson in 1988. Each "world" starts as a platformer, but then transitions to a sidescroller shmup and ends with a bullet-hell style bossfight, with the exception of the final boss which plays out almost like a first-person shooter. The game had a pretty awesome advert with some really sweet animation. I would totally watch a cartoon series if it actually existed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yt7907oUg0 It's really not the best game per-se, but the variety keeps things fairly fresh. The only real negative points are that a key part of the platforming bits is shooting at everything to try to find a hidden trigger to reveal a hidden door to get to the next section of the world; and that the side-scrolling parts are artificially stretched by forcing the player to pick one of two doors at the end - one takes you to the next part, and the other will take you back to the start of the part you just did and make you re-do it. Both are essentially just beginner's traps. #Retrogaming