While it saw limited popularity in the U.S., Xevious was a smash in Japan, and to this day is considered one of the greatest video-games of all time. Atari promoted the game with the slogan "Are you devious enough to beat Xevious?" and closed the commercial with a tag line branding it " the arcade game you can't play at home." In 1983, the original Xevious was the first arcade game to actually have a television commercial aired for it in the U.S.
In this game the flag gave the player an extra life and this feature was carried over to numerous subsequent Namco games. Among these was the 'special flag' which first appeared in Rally-X. It was one of the first games to have hidden bonuses which are not mentioned in the instructions but can be revealed by a secret maneuver. The graphics were revolutionary for their time, and characters were rendered with remarkable clarity and effect through careful use of shades of gray and palette-shifting. Xevious was one of the earliest vertical scrolling shooters, and greatly influenced games in this genre. As the Solvalou constantly flies forward, it is theoretically possible to advance without killing any enemies. If the player has completed at least 70% of the level before dying, play will begin at the start of the next level instead. If the player dies, play normally resumes from the start of the level. The Solvalou continually advances over varying terrain and the boundaries between levels are marked only by dense forests being overflown. The game technically has 16 levels, but these merge into one another seamlessly. These are considered one of the first level-bosses to be incorporated into a video game. Giant floating motherships appear in certain areas these are killed by knocking out their cores. Ground enemies are a combination of stationary bases and moving vehicles, most of which also fire slow bullets. There are various aerial enemy aircraft which shoot relatively slow bullets, as well as (presumably unpiloted) fast-moving projectiles and exploding black spheres.
The game was noted for the varied terrain below, which included forests, airstrips, bases, and mysterious Nazca Line-like drawings on the ground. The player uses an 8-way joystick to pilot a combat aircraft called a Solvalou, which is armed with a forward-firing "zapper" for aerial targets and a "blaster" which fires an unlimited supply of ranged air-to-surface bombs for ground targets. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. It was designed by Masanobu Endoh (credited in-game as "Evezoo End"). Xevious is a Vertical Scrolling Shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982.
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