Neo XYX

Neo XYX is a science fiction-themed vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game reminiscent of Toaplan and Cave shooters such as Batsugun and DoDonPachi respectively, in which the player take control of a space fighter craft through six increasingly difficult stages in order to defeat an assortment of enemy forces and bosses. Its gameplay uses a main three-button configuration. During gameplay, power-up items are drop randomly from enemies and certain setpieces, along with medals to build up a chain. Every time the player collects a medal, the next one that spawns will be worth more but if a medal falls off the screen, the next one to spawn will be of the lowest value and breaking the chain, but the player can activate a bomb to fling falling medals from reaching the bottom of the screen. The player has only two weapons at their disposal: the main gun that travels a max distance of the screen's height and a bomb capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius, while more bombs are obtained by collecting six fragments through levels or a full bomb stock. The player can also slowdown the ship's movement to avoid incoming bullets more precisely by pressing the C or R button in the Neo Geo and Dreamcast versions respectively. If both fire and slowdown buttons are held down, the ship produces a focused vertical shot, providing more firepower than the standard shot. Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing but in the Dreamcast version, the player are forced to restart from the beginning after losing all available continues. == Development ==

Neo XYX was developed in conjunction with Redux: Dark Matters and The Ghost Blade using a Neo Geo development kit, serving as the third shoot 'em up title from NG:Dev.Team and their fifth game overall. Timm Hellwig helmed its production, serving as both producer and director, as well as its sole programmer. Designer Perry "Gryzor/Rozyrg" Sessions, who had previously helped with development of Gunlord at NG:Dev.Team with René Hellwig, acted as art director and graphic artist. Two other members, "Plasmo" and "Runefaust", collaborated in its development phase as beta testers. Sessions stated that his main influences were Toaplan shoot 'em ups such as Twin Cobra, Truxton and Fire Shark, as well as other games in the genre like Super Star Soldier, Gate of Thunder, Soldier Blade, and Lords of Thunder, all of which he regards as his favorites. He was also inspired by other titles such as those by Llamasoft. Sessions also stated that work on the project took longer than expected and proved difficult, as creating level artwork was a "weak spot" for him but regards it as some of his best for any project he worked on. When asked about the differences between the game and the original XYX, Sessions stated that they came from him and NG:Dev.Team working separately, as he did not have any means to playtest the project on his part while Timm had a "final say on everything"; Timm did not like the mixture of science fiction and fantasy elements, requesting to change elements such as dragons that later became cyborgs, while the team also lowered the planned number of playable ships. Sessions also claimed he had no saying over difficulty balancing issues, as the original XYX was used as a basis for most enemies. When composing the soundtrack for Neo XYX, Rafael Dyll stated that NG:Dev.Team wanted him produce music that were short and looped without noticeable breaks, creating something fresh but based on retro sounds, using instruments akin to arcade games from late 1980s or 16-bit consoles such as Sega Mega Drive. == Release ==

Neo XYX was first announced in late 2012 for Neo Geo as a limited run and Dreamcast but prior to the announcement, a demo of the original XYX containing an unfinished level editor for Windows was made available as freeware at Sessions' personal website earlier on April of the same year. but was quietly delayed until it was published on October 28 of the same year for Neo Geo MVS. Around the same time period, a music album was released by NG:Dev.Team and a digital album was later distributed by Rafael Dyll through Bandcamp in October 2014. In July 2014, a Neo Geo AES version was also released by NG:Dev.Team. The Dreamcast version of Neo XYX was then slated for a holiday 2013 launch but remained in development due to internal issues until it went gold in January 2014. The Dreamcast version was published the following month on February 17, in a Japanese-style DVD packaging as three editions; This version has no regional protection but only works using Dreamcast units built prior to October 2001. == Reception and legacy ==

Neo XYX was met with positive reception from critics. According to Hardcore Gamers, all editions of the first Dreamcast release were sold out as of February 2014. Destructoids Chris Carter praised its complexity, boss fights, game modes, hand-drawn artwork and soundtrack by Rafael Dyll. == References ==