| Credits | |
| Published: |
1989, Image Works
 |
| Developer: | The Assembly Line, The Bitmap Brothers |
| Copyright: | Mirrorsoft |
| Graphics: | Mark Coleman |
| Musician: | David Whittaker, Bomb the Bass |
| Sound Effects: | David Whittaker |
| Information | |
| Hardware: | OCS |
| Disks: | 1 |
| Code Language: | ASM 68k |
| License: | Commercial |
| Language: | English |
| Players: | 1 or 2 |
| Relationship: |  Sequel to Xenon |
| Notes: | Highscore: (1 credit, 1 loop) 500,210 by capehorn |
| Categorization | |
| Genre: | Shoot'em Up |
| Subgenre: | V-Scrolling |
| Tags: | shootemup, shooter, topdown, vertical |
| Magazine Reviews | |
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Added by Kim Lemon on Nov 29, 2004. Viewed 63934 times.
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It's a decent enough shooter although it will never be in the same class as Hybris or Battle Squadron. The excessive buildup of weapons makes it look a bit silly after a while. Also the in-game music gets tiresome real fast.
View all comments (245)
I played this game mostly with trainer, but i hit the enemy objects with the ship and collect all the ¨money¨ bubbles. But you cant do that without the trainer. When i play through the whole game.. You cant get the maximum weapons, you need to many bubbles, i just crash the ship at the side of the screen where enemies keep coming to collect enough of them.. But you can buy a kind of round shape weapon that you hit against enemy objects and cotrol it like the ship abit. Samples that where used for the music came from bomb the bass.
View all comments (45)
Only two things bugged me about this game. Firstly, how the sfx needs to steal a channel from the music during play if you want to hear both. Secondly, the hit detection on enemies is a little too tight. That said, an amazing looking game that's real fun to play.
View all comments (91)
Very nice to play with autofire, not so much because it helps you beat the game, but it just helps you survive a little longer. It still requires a lot of practice but it's doable and the difficulty curve is right and pleasant to learn. Eventually you could even beat the first loop with 3-4 spare lives.. But the final boss battle is hard!
View all comments (60)
This was before my time, but when I played it I was unimpressed, and this dislike stuck for a while, but with persistence I got some enjoyment from it, although it wasn't the best Amiga shooter even for 1989.
The slow movement and scrolling (which doesn't feel like a deliberate design feature to make it more methodical), excessive backtracking, and risk of getting stuck in the scenery with no chance of avoiding enemies make it alternately dull and frustrating. Still, I like the interesting range of organic enemies, some impressively huge.
Only the relative novelty of the shop scene and weapons system is worth much more praise but even then there's the silly Super Nashwan power, probably designed with fancy screenshots in mind (or as Schmuck Bait, as it wasn't a sensible use of money).
On the technical side, the full-screen graphics are okay with some nice parallax, but clearly designed for the ST and so nowhere near even the earlier Amiga-exclusive Hybris. The music is good (albeit not really my thing, and cutting out ingame), but the Bitmaps can't even take the full credit for that.
Still, I stand by my view that the Bitmaps were lucky that the earlier Battle Squadron was an American-published title not officially released in Europe until 1990, because that's better in every way - the 'whoosh' you get in playing that after this is astonishing. This is nowhere near as stylish as some people seem to think, but probably still style over substance.
View all comments (183)
Back in the day I remember eagerly awaiting this and being quite disappointed on release. Re-visiting it in 2023 and it’s not as bad as I remember.
Positives: The presentation is still top notch, it has great graphics & music (although in-game some of the channels cut out when you start shooting which spoils it). I like the weapon shop, it’s good to be able to choose the loadout.
Negatives: The gameplay is questionable in places, it’s possible to get stuck and “wobble about” on the scenery and it becomes a battle with the controls to set yourself free. This isn’t so much a problem early on, but in the later levels there’s maze-like structures that you have to navigate which are so tight it’s pretty much odds-on you’ll lose a life stuck to the wall with a zillion bullets raining down on you!
I also don’t like the back-tracking, it seems out of place in a game like this.
Overall it’s hit and miss but can be fun for a quick (mega) blast! 7/10.
View all comments (24)
A few jarring flaws but a lot of things going for it too. I'm sure that back in the day this made many players very happy.
View all comments (29)
It gets an 'okay' from me for the nostalgias but the speed of the gameplay really does let this one down, it plays like treacle and would benefit from a speed boost. But the bitmap brothers quality of everything else does shine through. The bolt on guns for the ship are a lot of fun as you go through and upgrade bit by bit.
View all comments (51)
Incredible ship design, enemies and bosses look amazing, love the predator inspired shop keeper. Bomb The Bass is such an exceptional sonic achievement for it's time and suits the game in many ways perfectly, I just feel because it was used throughout the game it gets a bit repetitive. Would easily give this game a ten but the scrolling and game play is a bit jerky mainly due to the heavy load of the soundtrack.
View all comments (49)
Aside the technical programming which is excellent, the game itself is overall below the average
View all comments (79)
I think The Bitmap Brothers coded for the Atari ST and then copied pasted the code for the Amiga and added a better soundtrack and sometimes a sky gradient, because all their games are 16 colors only and are not smooth, always 25fps with some sluggish scrolling. Too bad!
View all comments (40)
A good game with the graphics characteristic of The Bitmap Brothers. Plus cool music. As for me, a bit slow and monotonous gameplay. I was much more fun playing SWIV or Battle Squadron. For me: good.
View all comments (16)
Odd one this. First time I played it was on a friend's ST and I really loved the small looped sample of the intro theme, had some real energy about it. Strangely for me I find the full version on the Amiga less effective, possibly because it wasn't the first one I heard.
As for the game, it hasn't aged particularly well. Whilst it is undoubtedly iconic there are so many better Vertical shooters out there. It's still a good game, but possibly not as good as it's legendary status implies.
View all comments (65)
I'm still enjoying Xenon 2 Megablast for the Amiga 500
I can still remember which are the best upgrades to buy at each of the levels shops.
View all comments (1)
A triumph of hype over actual quality.
View all comments (123)
The gameplay never delivered on the exceptional graphics, but it holds a special place in my Amiga heart nevertheless.
View all comments (1)
Battle Squadron was released a few months later and proved to be largely superior in gameplay, with a perfect collision detection and slicker animations. Xenon 2 remains a visually superior shootemup with some cool weapons to buy though, but that's all there is to it really.
An overrated game that blew everyone's mind with its impressive presentation.
View all comments (119)
Graphics are wonderful, music is just a "tour de force", there are lot of sprites on screen, really a technically impressive game, particularly in 1989. We all loved Xenon 2 and the Bitmap Brothers became superstars with this one, announcing great things like Speedball 2, Gods, Cadaver or The Chaos Engine.
But to be honest, nowadays I'm not a great fan of Xenon 2. It is to much difficult with a poorly balanced rate of fire compared to the organization of enemy waves and collision detection much too fair. If you ask me, Battle Squadron, launched at the same time, is far funnier.
8/10 because apart from the fact Xenon 2 suffered of its old age, it remains an impressive game for 1989 that made dream a lot of gamers for which a good game had to be a technical achievement
View all comments (144)
Just played it again for the first time in years and it still looks great, sound was innovative at the time and its well done, but im not really into this type of music.
also , theres only one track and the fx cuts into the tune horribly. Now for the really bad. The gameplay itself is unforgivably laggy and cheap. Not fun at all.
View all comments (99)
Often labelled as the best shoot'em up on the Amiga, it clearly is not. While it has some innovative gameplay elements that would make an original shooter, they are not well implemented, the game being affected by laggy controls and bad collisions. I'm afraid no stylish design or music could balance that. Still worth a few plays, but not many (6/10).
View all comments (212)
Overhyped game with slow and bad playability. Collision detection is awful when shooting enemies.
View all comments (47)
Average game. Take away the music and graphics and the gameplay underneath is left wanting. Cheap deaths and bad framerate. Not good.
View all comments (135)
... Even after so many years, it's still an unbeated awesome game. The gameplay is simple, maybe too simple, but still remains wonderful. Vote 8/10.
View all comments (40)
High production values used to mask poor gameplay, once again. Shoddy framerate on a shooter is an almost immediate death-blow that all the sharp graphics in the world can't distract you from. I was also never a fan of the sample-heavy house music found in the Bitmap Bros games. 5/10.
View all comments (42)
My personal favourite shooter of all time. The graphics are simply gorgeous, the variety of levels are great. The music is among the top amiga soundtracks. The reverse mechanic isn't the best as it only works properly on some levels and the autofire powerup is useless but if you can't forgive this game for these slights then you are really missing out. The best way to play is on emulation with digital joysticks and autofire rate set just right to maintain a constant rate of fire. It's possible to complete this game. The boss battles are absolutely epic.
View all comments (3)
Overrated in many peoples opinion...but in mine opinion...this game was a blast!
I know this one had it's issues, still I came back and had fun with it.
And the opening sound...damn...a blast indeed!!!!
View all comments (34)
It seems that I'm playing a SEUCK game with better graphics.It's a pity that is so sharp because the game is excellent in all other.
View all comments (92)
Overrated, that's what I read a lot. Well, the controls, gameplay and framerate are indeed quite bad. However, the game was - for me and lots of other kids - at that time THE reason to buy an Amiga, just because the music and graphics were awesome at that time, and the shop scene to 'pimp' your ship was a cool bonus. It had something magical, it was like a high-end arcade game but then on your home computer. Bottom line: style without content probably - more gimmick than gameplay... Nonetheless a cult classic!
View all comments (1)
This game is so overrated
View all comments (60)
What a turkey. I can't believe this overrated pile of crap is held in such high regard. There's plenty wrong with this game which has been discussed already but what really kills it for me is the terrible ship movement and the horrendous collision detection. And the dead ends you have to reverse out of? WTF?!
View all comments (5)
Bitmap Brothers' graphics and Bomb The Bass' powerful music made this game a classic back in the days. Actually, it's a very slow and often frustrating shoot-em-up. And I hate when you complete a game that restarts from the beginning without even saying "thank you for playing"!
View all comments (54)
Terrible, and very overrated. The graphics are shaded nicely and boast some welcome parallax scrolling, and the weapons shop is a great feature, but there's one very large problem: the engine is worthless! The framerate is awful even without any on-screen objects, the scrolling is incredibly slow, and the ship's movement is vague and imprecise. The reverse mechanic is poorly-implemented, often doing nothing but scroll the screen backwards a few pixels, which does more to confuse the player than it does to help (except when backing out of the levels' many dead-ends, which serve no purpose other than to artificially lengthen playing time). Adding insult to injury, the fire rate is actually slower with autofire than it is when simply tapping the fire button. And what's so great about the music? There's only one song in the entire game, and, in a stroke of genius, the developers put the drum on the same channel as the player's weapon effects, effectively removing it from the song.
If you want to play a vertical shoot-em-up on the Amiga, stick with Battle Squadron. Nobody should have to settle for this piece of garbage.
View all comments (141)
I loved this game for my AMIGA, the graphics and music was class.
View all comments (28)
I used to play this one in the early Amiga days, maybe it was 1989 when a close friend of mine gave me this game. Incredible music and, in my opinion, great gameplay, fun, fun, fun. As of now, I think I'm gonna download it foe UAE
View all comments (29)
Even though I liked Bomb The Bass back in the day...
View all comments (77)
Wrong category: that one isn't a shoot'em up, it's an anvil simulator with one single lame tune played thorough the entire game. Beside it's just another ST port.
1/10.
View all comments (80)
Still play this fantastic looking game nowadays. Still love it, especially the ridiculously large bossess and insane weaponary.
View all comments (18)
A very average shoot-em-up, blown (pun intended) out of all proportion.. Project X this is not, the game engine was not at all polished.
The much praised music really wasn't all that great.. But you could impress your friends.. Psychologically speaking perhaps this explains the mysterious appeal this game had for some. 5 out of 10
View all comments (84)
As the Amiga only has 4 music channels, the coders decided to use the channel that plays the drum loop for sound effects too. So whenever you started shooting, the pumping drum loop went away and you had to listen to some piuuu-piuuu laser effects and the melody, which sounds like shit by itself.
View all comments (412)
Classic. Great shoot 'em up with an unforgetable tune . I remember Bomb the Base.Those guys were great . Great stuff. 10/10
View all comments (60)
On of the best shooters of that time with a really great soundtrack. Graphic was also not bad. I luved it
View all comments (12)
There seems to have been something of a backlash against this in recent years and it's definitely the case that it's a little too slow, that the "fly backwards" feature isn't that great and that the music is repetitive and annoying. However, there's still an above-average shooter in there and the graphics and atmosphere are still excellent.
View all comments (145)
Awesome music, awesome graphics, equally to an awesome game in which the bottom line is that the game is difficult, but still can be finished really.
View all comments (50)
Ah yeah!
View all comments (48)
Great shoot them'up, if it wasn't that slow it would be a 10 to me.
Battle Squadron is a better game IMO.
9/10
View all comments (13)
Awesome graphics, a pumping title theme but... It's too slow. This game could have been much better.
View all comments (142)
Beautiful shooter but rock hard.
View all comments (810)
Rival of the Battle Squadron! Another 'Bitmap Bros' masterpiece. Famous title track, original & very hard gameplay with reverse scrolling! Featuring most powerful weapon of all time: Super Nashwan Power. Take an A500 and play all night!
View all comments (26)
Xenon 2 is a classic example of why great presentation is no substitute for gameplay. It boasts a soundtrack by Bomb The Bass and great graphics in the familiar Bitmap Brothers style, but it's also slow moving and dull, with enemies moving in predictable patterns.
Compared to the adrenaline rush of games like Project X and Apidya, or console efforts such as Thunderforce or Axelay, this plays like a leisurely stroll in the park. Not recommended.
4/10
View all comments (24)
This is the best Shoot em up of the "early" period, and the Amiga version is just the Best among the others!
PS but Battle Squadron opens a new period, but wait... After that Battle Squadron there weren't other excellent vertical shoters... So BSquadron remain the best vertical shoter of all the Amiga Age.
View all comments (192)
Very good...with friend.
View all comments (86)
You can easily finish it without a trainer.
View all comments (22)
Another game which is impossible to finish without a trainer.
View all comments (145)
Another one where nostalgia can overrule. One of the first games I ever played on the Amiga, and that first disk with the Bomb the Bass tune just blew me away. It was that intro music that made me think that computers were really getting there and the future was bright, not a great game gameplay wise, but technically, yes!
View all comments (13)
Great shoot em up game with nice GFX and blasting soundtrack!!!
View all comments (522)
Did anyone liked this one as a game that is and not as a soundtrack etc etc?
View all comments (162)
Thumping soundtrack and.... Very little else. I hated this shooter as it just didn't seem to go anywhere, even the OTT weapons didn't help it any. Quite poor in my opinion.
View all comments (524)
I can't find anything interesting. Bad graphics, I'm shooting with silver balls or whatever. This game is overrated
View all comments (142)
I really enjoyed this one. Nothing Stands out, but it had great sound, great graphics and fast play. I believe I had to use an autofire module to get through it. Great Stuff.
Sluggo
View all comments (8)
Gameplay isn't smooth and its too hard so it isn't enjoyable.
View all comments (23)
This game was at the time the most overrated crap IMHO. It needed fancy graphics (which it did excel in) to hide the poor gameplay.
View all comments (71)
There's not much there if you look (and hear?) beyond the stunning presentation.
View all comments (100)
This was the first computer game I ever played, on a 8086 PC with CGA-graphics. I loved it back then. Just loaded it to the Amiga and it's just as good as I remember it. Only thing I miss is a two-player simultanious mode...
View all comments (19)
Kef: I'm a real freak then
Or at least I was
View all comments (15)
I love this game, I think it works but it's too damn hard. You'd have to be a freak to get anywhere decent into the game without cheating.
View all comments (29)
I really tried to like this game but I couldn't. Xenon II tries to attract you with pretty graphics and a really cool backing track, and initially it does, but you soon find out that the game is very pedestrian in the playbility department. While the graphics always stay attractive and interesting, the background music, which constantly repeats itself, becomes boring after a few minutes, and the sound FX are medoicre at best. The game is challenging, but I found myself too bored to take up that challenge - apart from the graphics, nothing else really urged me on. Even the new weapons and upgrades don't make the game more compelling, for some reason. I also thought it was a poor decision to allow the Super Nashwan upgrade to only fuction for 10 seconds at the start of the level - what is the point of spending so much money on such an uber upgrade if it only lasts briefly, and is only usable at the time you probably won't need it? You can't help but feel that this was a good opportunity for the Bitmap Brothers to do something different and intriguing with the scrolling shoot em up genre. Sadly, they didn't.
View all comments (30)
I'm agree with the last comment: once you remove all the stylish techs stuff the game in itself is nothing special, being just an average V-shooter. SWIV, Battle Squadron and even the old Hybris are better than this one.
Overrated.
View all comments (100)
While I can't fault it on the technical side, I can't help but feel that this is style over substance. The under-lying gameplay doesn't have any original ideas, and in places was too difficult. Stick to SWIV.
View all comments (41)
Kudos to anyone who completed Xenon 2 without resorting to cheating. I could get to the last level without losing a single life yet I could still not clock the game.
Fantastic graphics from an Amiga graphics god and that classic Bomb the Base soundtrack mark this out as a landmark Amiga title. Top stuff.
View all comments (7)
Made me buy the Bomb the Bass album "Enter the Dragon". Also, my original game didn't work well on my computer (only loaded every fifth time or so - but it worked on all my friends' computers!), so I had to get the cracked version to play the game! I still feel that the first 3 levels are classic stuff. A hyped but genuinely good game.
View all comments (201)
There is an attempt to PC remake on Bitmap Brothers website.... Looks good, but miss that sountrack...
View all comments (800)
Xenon 2 is another example of the graphical brilliance of the Bitmap Brothers. When I first played this on my Amiga I was stunned. Later Xenon 2 was surpassed by other shooters, but it still is very nice. Add up an incredible soundtrack and good playability, and you have a hell of a game. Only let down slightly by the extreme difficulty. Very good!
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Playability: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
View all comments (211)
Excellent! Bloody brilliant game-play, smooth graphics and bonehard bombthebass soundtrack ! It is a true megablast...
View all comments (66)
If I have to mention my single favourite game for the Amiga, this should be it.
The soundtrack was simply amazing - some people remember this game just for that incredible Bomb The Bass piece. The graphics were original to say the least: the lush metallic look (a Bitmap Bros trademark) mixed with some of the most disgusting gigantic insects ever seen in a computer game (organic creatures in the style of R-Type). The power-up system was one of the best ever, requiring a careful strategic planning to invest your money on weapons that were actually useful to progress in the levels. The Super Nashwan Power was a joy to see, but only rarely in the game it was really useful; and to complete the game you had to build up an impressive battery of laser-firing satellites. Some inventions are unique to this game and they are just unforgettable: for example the possibility to "dive" into the second layer of parallax scrolling to avoid enemies, and the useful "push back" feature by which you could temporarily reverse the scrolling to avoid nasty enemies or collect more power-ups. Some end-of-level bosses were particularly impressive, filling three or more screens and scrolling in both directions. Organic shoot'em ups have never been so much fun. Oh well, R-Type was even better in some respect, but that's a different game, and the Amiga incarnation was not one of the best. Two thumbs up.
View all comments (15)
Who can ever forget that soundtrack???
View all comments (40)
Amazing sounds and graphics, but it was way too hard.
View all comments (97)
Decent graphic, incredible sound - and an average shooter. Reasonable fun.
View all comments (44)
Awesome game, good graphics and excellent music. Check it out.
View all comments (232)
So Hard! But so good!
Very good graphics, and the sound...8o!
I used to load it even only to hear that soundtrack!
some flaws here and there, but a real megablast fun.
I loved this game.
View all comments (4)
There's no denying that as a shoot-em-up it did have some flaws.
But the music and presentation were excellent. One of the few games where you are allowed to make a few exceptions on the playability.
And who can forget the shop-keeper, and the Super Nashwan Power.
View all comments (105)