Played this through SF6 - which, imo? New gold standard for how to preserve this ilk of arcade games. There's a lot of old games in the corner of 'obscure but unremarkable' that don't set themselves apart even in retro bundles and collections. But something like this as an optional minigame in a larger experience? Awesome. Perfect replication of finding a random retro machine in a sea of redemption games and raw thrills cabs.
But uh, as for Exed Exes, it uh, uhhhhhhh, fucking sucks. It's mid-80's vertical shmupping, so it's stealing from Toaplan and Xevious without anything that made those games remarkable. Only cool for embodying that transitional period where shmups were trying to imitate the level-based structure of new platform and brawler games but still stuck in the 'score attack' tunnel-vision of Space Invaders and its many successors.
But uh, as for Exed Exes, it uh, uhhhhhhh, fucking sucks. It's mid-80's vertical shmupping, so it's stealing from Toaplan and Xevious without anything that made those games remarkable. Only cool for embodying that transitional period where shmups were trying to imitate the level-based structure of new platform and brawler games but still stuck in the 'score attack' tunnel-vision of Space Invaders and its many successors.