New NEOGEO / Dreamcast game: "NEO XYX" NG: DEV.TEAM 2013

[Ghegs]

Alright, here we go...first impressions after a few credits.

The game is absolutely gorgeous. The art looks great and the art style is very cool, reminds me of 80's/90's sci-fi awesomeness. I especially like the intro and game over screens. The music is of high quality as well, very fast-paced, kind of synth rock -like music. Gameplay-wise, I never had problems seeing any bullets, the contrast is very good. After a boss explodes the bonus icons are covered by the explosion so it feels like you might miss them, but since you can just fly around the top of the screen without a worry at that point, I'm not sure if it's actually a problem. NG:Dev, please re-make Last Hope: Pink Bullets with this level of graphics and I'll be your best friend.

The choice between tate and hori play is good. The game's clearly meant for tate play, but the hori mode isn't just an afterthought. The UI layout is different to take proper advantage of the extended vertical space, the intro/game over/score tally screens between stages all have their graphics oriented properly, even the short "How to play"-guide at the start of the game (which can be skipped) is laid out differently between the modes. I really would've liked to see the medal and bomb icons (the ones you pick up in-game, not the ones on UI) to be oriented correctly in hori mode, now they're still pointing at left of the screen. That would really convince the player he's not just playing a tate game in hori. Maybe we'll see that in a patch?

The gameplay is very fast-paced. The ratio between aimed shots / bullet patterns is very good at about 50/50, it doesn't really feel like a danmaku and I would say it's not supposed to, either. More like an early 90's shmup like Batsugun. The ship is very fast but not uncontrollably so, and the speed is welcome when you want to fly around to screen dodging bigger bullet clusters and gathering up all the items. No power-ups here, only medals, bonus icons, bombs and bomb fragments. And there's the slow mode which comes very handy during more hectic moments and boss fights. I do wish the screen's left/right scrolling would start just a hair earlier than it does now.

In my first credit ever I only made it to Stage 2, but I've since made it to Stage 3. So far the game feels neither unbearably hard nor stupidly easy, so the difficulty level seems very good. Then again, I suck at vert shmups (and I am playing this on tate mode) so somebody else will probably have an easier time with it.

I did find a small bug: in hori mode, when entering your initials, the controls were not only flipped to tate, but also mirrored, as if it was the right side of the screen was at the bottom and not the left. Nothing gamebreaking, but still weird. Certainly this will be fixed in a patch.

On the whole, I'd say this is a damn good game. After the Dreamcast version is released and more people have a chance to play, I'm pretty sure this will be hailed as NG:Dev's best game yet. Not only that, but a good game in its own right as well.

[Plasmo]

I agree with most of your impressions but:

On the whole, I'd say this is a damn good game. After the Dreamcast version is released and more people have a chance to play, I'm pretty sure this will be hailed as NG:Dev's best game yet. Not only that, but a good game in its own right as well.

Gunlord is still my favourite game by far. I wish they could make a shmup that is as good as Gunlord.

[rtw]

The entire game looks like a homage to TOAPLAN

Thanks for sharing the video Ghegs!

[mice]

Nice vid Ghegs! Super thanks!

But bombs?! Us non-neo XYX players don't have such luxury.

[louisg]

Wow! I'm really looking forward to this now

[RaidenViper]

Looks good. Thanks for the video, Ghegs

[Jonst]

Oh man,I can't wait!

[Bonus!]

Looks nice! The speech bubbles are a bit silly, though.

[spadgy]

It looks so good Ghegs! So much so I'm considering buying the MVS reprint.

All that stuff in your photo of the full package. Were there items you weren't expecting, because that looks insanely wonderful! I'm guessing the reprint won't include all that.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I like the little touches of the speech bubbles (cracked me the first time I saw it) the "Fuck" bit in it, certainly wouldn't have made it past the arcade PCB publisher if it was released in the USA under the AAMA banner back in the early 1990s era (which is considered the "Silver Age" of arcade gaming). Same thing would apply if the orginal unaltered version of the infamous PCE shmup of Download was released for the TG-16 market (of course, the American NEC subsidy would've changed some the text to make it more user-friendly to sell in that particular gaming market in the 1990s).

And how are the Neo XYX BGM tunes if played on a stereo capable candy cab with an appropiate MVS motherboard to output in stereo ? Does it sound a lot better than most mono-sound only arcade shmups PCBs out there? Take for example, you'd think like with Cave Co. Ltd., they'd start making a decent stereo output for their latest arcade PCB releases in the 21st century but the end-users still have to contend with the old-school mono-sound output like with the Cave SH-3 powered DDP-SDOJ PCB setup. A few more hundred yen spent in incorporating some good audio hardware so that the arcade gamer will get a better audio experience in the end (instead of cutting corners in arcade PCB manufacturing costs to result in subpar audio output anyways) would make sense in this day of age. Even a dedicated 2.1 audio setup will net better results over a two speaker setup any ol' day indeed.

Another cool example would be Atari Inc.'s Space Duel upright with it's four speaker setup + built-in subwoofer for maximum audio impact...I've had the pleasure of playing Space Duel at a local arcade with the subwoofer cranked up back in 1984 -- it really does make a diference to add to the overall audio/visual arcade gaming experience.

Another arcade game example is Atari Games' T-Mek...the original prototype cab sported a two speaker setup but decided to go all-out with the deluxe enclosed enviromental cab design with a dedicated 4.1 audio speaker setup with the subwoofer located behind the player for extra added audio punch.

Great first impression of Neo XYX, Ghegs.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[system11]

I'm excited now - that looks every bit as good as I'd hoped. Mine is in the post, somewhere - since apparently using trackable shipping is too much to ask on a 400 euro item. That is a serious complaint.

[Ghegs]

All that stuff in your photo of the full package. Were there items you weren't expecting, because that looks insanely wonderful!

Actually, it has been so long since I ordered the thing I had forgotten exactly what was supposed to come with it. I did know from experience that NG:Dev's games come with all sorts of little papers and flyers, but Neo XYX's postcards were bit of a surprise, there hasn't been those before.

[z0mbie90]

Nice video Ghegs, looks amazing, the sprites and the explotions just made me smile. Can't wait for the DC version.
In my eyes if NG:Dev keep this up we wont have to be afraid of the End of Shmups era crap

[FRO]

I'll buy the DC version. The bomb is so Truxton.

I was thinking the same thing! And the music kind of has an early 'Zuntata-lite' feel to it, which I like. Sort of a RayForce kind of vibe. Looks awesome!

[the allett]

Waiting for mine to arrive

[Kollision]

sweeeet!
vibes of Toaplan + Taito
BGM for the second stage reminded me of Rayforce a little

[pestro87]

Oh cool, ghegs uploaded a gameplay video.

*clicks on link*

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

*pauses the video and buys the Collectors Edition of the DC port*

Caaan't wait to play it!

[system11]

Wow, it's really good O.O - mine arrived today, no issues with cart being mis-assembled in my case.

I'd prefer the ship to be a tiny bit slower at default speed I think, and the level 1 boss would be more epic if his armour could take more hits before falling away. L2 boss rolling in is awesome.

Easily the best game NG:Dev have made. Actually would have preferred a blue plastic cart to match my other games instead of the wooden one, but on the upside the wood one can be opened without risk of stretching the label, when it comes to the inevitable patch

[IseeThings]

I guess you could call it fluff / polish but certain aspects of it still look a bit disappointing / rushed..

The continue screen? The high score entry? looks like it was coded in 5 minutes for a previous project and never touched again.

As a positive it does look better than the earlier development videos posted, things seem to blow up in a more satisfying way and it keeps a good pace for a Neo game.

I know you can say it doesn't matter, no point in wasting ROM space on the things I mention etc. but it seems odd to see something so lazy looking when the rest of the package looks so nice. Even just having am much bigger font for the countdown numbers would make it look a bit more like 'hey, you fucked up, you're dead' and make it seem a bit more dramatic..

In part it's that kind of attention to detail in 'minor' areas that sets apart Cave and Toaplan's later offerings from these 'commercial homebrew / indie' releases.

Of course they've got time to polish that kind of thing up for the DC port, and then maybe do a special more polished, rebalanced re-release MVS version for people who missed out on the first run

[trap15]

In part it's that kind of attention to detail in 'minor' areas that sets apart Cave and Toaplan's later offerings from these 'commercial homebrew / indie' releases.

This is the single biggest thing I would ever point to when people ask me why I don't like indie/homebrew/etc. stuff. There's just so much more detail in minor places in a "proper" commercial game.
I think it's why I still have some feelings against the game. There's some polish that still seems to be missing. Also how2gravity (look at how aerial medals spawn and fall, it's pretty hilariously bad). And enemies should almost never make sounds when shooting

[system11]

And enemies should almost never make sounds when shooting

Don't make me post the 'not sure if serious' gif-meme.

[trap15]

There are very few games that make noises when enemies fire aside from "large" enemies and things like that. It generally feels tacky when every enemy makes noises.

[emphatic]

I'm impressed by the presentation, but I need to play it before I will give any verdict on good vs. bad. I think Chronoburst looks more like a real arcade game.

[ProcoTaito]

I'll certainly be checking out the Dreamcast version of this.
Looks awesome!

[CIT]

In part it's that kind of attention to detail in 'minor' areas that sets apart Cave and Toaplan's later offerings from these 'commercial homebrew / indie' releases.

That's definitely true!

But the reality is that animations are a huge cost/time factor, so it tends to be too much for most 2-3 people indie teams.

Neo XYX looks a bit flat, due to all the sprites being static, BUT it has progressing backgrounds with ground-based enemies and that is already better than 95% of all doujin shooters. Most doujins only have a repeating background and static aerial enemies.

[trap15]

all the sprites being static

A-ha. I knew something seemed particularly "off". I couldn't place it. That's certainly it.

[system11]

Are you guys still looking at the 8 month old trailer? The finished version has animation on every single enemy, it looks great in motion, there's detail everywhere.

[BPzeBanshee]

Agreed, I recall being one of the ones complaining about the lack of animation and that last video had plenty more of it compared to the outdated development video.

[Udderdude]

They really need to take that old one offline, and put up a new one.

Or just use Ghegs one. :3

[Ghegs]

Speaking of, here's the "a few credits later"-video, now that I've played the game for a while: http://youtu.be/QGloQtA6AKU

Hori mode, footage up to Stage 3 and I keep my medals at max. value after reaching it.