I have really nothing to say about this game except that 1). to suggest a narrative, if the above blurb is to be believed, that there is an indigenous race on earth that is not human and THEY are the bad guys is ah, remarkable to say the least, and 2). to have all that and no ending? To not tell me if the humans or xeviousians come out on top? Just a loop that never ends? Or is that the xevious secret weapon, an “eternal recurrence bomb?” I mean yeah it’s more likely the developers couldn’t have been arsed to make an ending but said oh well we made it so hard it’s not like anyone’s beating it anyway but still, it’s fun to imagine

The most interesting thing about this game is the background being on earth. It's fascinating how it feels to be a paradigm shift in graphics by simply giving you something to look at that isn't yet another star field.

That being said, nothing here is better or more interesting than in many schmups that came before it, and I would argue the combat just feels unfocused. Rather than waves of enemies that you need to figure out how to deal with, it's almost as if they randomly populated them on the map.

The sound effects are basic, and the obnoxious background music that just repeats the same few grating notes detracts from the experience as well.

Xevious is certainly an inspiration for vertical-scrolling shooters. Not only is it one of the first out there, but it basically cements all the stylizing and faults that the genre has been fixing and fine tuning. Sadly, Xevious has aged incredibly poorly, but in the sense that you can tell how everyone afterward used Xevious has a base and built from there.

By today's standards there is basically no value to play Xevious for the average gamer, but potential devs absolutely have lessons they can learn from it. Not only does it have the simple scrolling and shooting that you get with most shmups, it also adds in an additional dimension with the way you bomb bases to help clear the map and get additional points. Having both parts that a player has to watch out for can really be a rewarding experience that helps illustrate proper challenge. At the same time, the difficulty levels of Xevious is kinda all over the place due to the game being endless; making for some segments far harder than others. It's not really much to the game's determent to it's design pre say, but it can discourage less willing players to keep going. To add to this, a lot of the enemies introduced will always act in similar fashion, so you can really get a mix bag of understanding what to do with any given enemy while there simply being too much to handle at once. A lot of the pains and woes of Xevious is simply come from it feeling too slow or it being unfair to get barred with so many enemies / bullets. Tie this altogether with a nothing story and bland art style compared to today's standards, and it really doesn't stand out like it did back in the day.

In other words, don't really bother with Xevious nowadays if you can help it. As much as it paved the way for it's genre, the game simply has too many hang ups from the older times to feel enjoyable nowadays. However if you are into game developing, appreciate the genre, or a fan of old school games Xevious still has some value too it.