Grade: B+
Run and Gun Old-school platformer with boss battles galore
Xenogunner is a 2D run-and-gun SNES-looking game with concise levels. Xenogunner focuses nearly exclusively on a gauntlet of boss battles. The bosses are varied and intense, and it’s an incredibly challenging set of battles.
Regarding abilities, you have a few simple weapons at your disposal, a hyper-dash, and a double jump. However, that’s all you need to defeat some of the most challenging enemies in the universe.
Within your first 2 minutes of gameplay, you get dropped right into the mix and have to figure out how to defeat a boss. After dying a dozen times, I almost put down Xenogunner, but I am glad I stuck it out for a bit. Once you get the hang of the controls, the battles feel manageable instead of impossible. After zero on-ramps, the game progresses from there.
Boss Highlights
There are only about 5 minutes of level design between each boss battle, and the goal is to get as much health as possible to gear up for the boss. After that, the boss’s battles continue one after another, and it’s quite the gauntlet.
I had three favorite bosses in Xenogunner from my time playing.
First, there was the final boss of episode 1, and this boss battle against the Lunatic Xenogunner had three phases. In the last phase of the boss, it turned into a Water Gun, which was a cute surprise!
The second was an Ice Cream Knight, where things quickly escalated into a Grim Freezer situation.
The last boss was an enjoyable break from the mold. Finally, there was a Lottery Boss, where you had to get all 7s, or you’d have to dodge things.
Story Notes and Wrap-up
The story is presented as comic strips and text at the end of the different episodes. It’s a silly Saturday morning cartoon tale that’s a bit goofy. But it fits with the game’s vibe not to take itself too seriously.
While typically, this type of gauntlet challenge game isn’t for me, I’m glad they embedded some options to make the game a little easier for those of us without reflexes to keep up with bullet hell. If you want every advantage possible, I recommend going into the settings and turning on the “drop health for each enemy” and “increase the invincible time when hit.” These give a little boost to make the boss battles slightly easier.
Overall, Xenogunner had a lot of creativity in its design and implementation. After a slow start, I enjoyed my time with this game.
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