X-Out (pronounced ‘Cross Out’ apparently) Resurfaced is a remaster of an old horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up which originally began life on the Commodore 64 before being ported to better computers such as the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga. Indeed, it is the Amiga version that seems to be the source for this update which comes to us by way of German studio Kritzelkratz 3000.
Now, X-Out was very much a ‘Euroshmup’ which is to say that the graphics are very much designed with home computers in mind, the action was a bit more limited (there’s no bullet-hell here), it had very bespoke upgrade mechanics and it was balls hard. It was a different feel to your traditional coin-op shoot ’em up with a difficulty curve that wasn’t interested in you plonking in more coins but rather one that challenged you from the get go.
Firing up this remake, it’s immediately apparent that the game is rooted in nostalgia. Not just in recreating the game, which it does very well, but also in harking back to the era. Indeed, the game opens with a fake crack screen, mimicking what 99% of X-Out players would have seen back in the early ’90s. A screen with a cheat mode trainer menu and colourful scrolling messages. Back then, the words will be telling you which scene group cracked the game and released it onto the pirating scene, now it tells you that this isn’t a cracked/illegal version. Ultimately that screen will be used when cheats are unlocked. More on that later.
Firing up X-Out initially is quite confusing. There’s a LOT going on. Before you set off, you have to design your loadout. You can pick a ship and your weapons which can include three flavours of primary weapon, each with up to three directions of spread fire, a choice of secondary weapons, additional weapons that are activated by charging (holding down) your primary or secondary weapon buttons as well as nine satellite weapons. All of which can be obtained and equipped if you’ve got the credits for them and a ship big enough to support them. Yeah, there’s also four types of ship.
This is all made more confusing by the fact that the game suggests three initial builds for you to try, before then flinging you into the shop. So at first, it’s all a bit much. The system works quite well once you start beating levels though as you’ll keep earning credits and can keep bolstering your ship or can even buy extra ones (these act as extra lives). Although, once it is game over, that’s that. You’ll be starting from scratch.
In terms of the core gameplay, it’s all pretty solid but certainly not as immediate intuitive as games that start you off in your weakest form and have you power up. This is a standard horizontally-scrolling shooter (albeit one that is set under water) which is set across eight levels, each with a mid and end of level boss. You’ve got your standard primary fire button (mapped to X) which can be tapped or held (to activate those extra weapons). That’s a faff though but, thankfully, R2 acts as an auto-fire which we used almost exclusively as the charged weapons were more of a danger to you than the enemies. To stop firing in this game isn’t usually a great idea. Your secondary is mapped to O/L2 and then you’ve got speed up/down on the shoulder buttons. There’s quite a bit to think about initially. How on Earth did they do all this on a one-button Amiga joystick?!
A lot is made about the difficulty in X-Out, and for sure it is pretty savage but, oddly, not much of that comes from the enemies or their bullets. 99% of our deaths came from colliding with scenery. Based on the Amiga’s more limited colour palette, the levels here have a way of making you confuse foreground objects for background ones. So, crashing into things is almost inevitable for new players. And that’s super annoying as while normal damage just depletes your health bar, crash damage will wipe you out. And if it’s early and you don’t have extra ships, that’s it. Game over. No continues. Start again. Eesh!
Boss battles can also be tricky but for the same reasons. We never found ourselves getting blasted out of the water by their firepower. Instead it was always us running out of space as they came hurtling into us. Indeed, it’s quite telling that the first cheat that the game unlocks for you (after your first few deaths) is the one that turns off scenery collision damage. With that enabled we were able to get 75% of the way through the game without much hassle on our first use of it. One the second use we were able to finish the game. When environmental damage is more of a factor than your enemies and their guns, something’s not balanced right.
However, cheats will disable any trophies so it’s good to play the game without them if you want to actually make true progress. And, yeah, if you can stomach the frustration of hard to see deaths, X-Out is alright. The controls are just about good enough (although analogue stick movement does feel a bit loose which isn’t great given how all the levels want to smoosh you against a wall) and at just eight levels long, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome.
What we didn’t like was the lack of variety. Although there are eight levels, these are mostly grouped into three types, all of which seem to riff from the original R-Type template. So you can expect a couple of levels of the drab, standard biomech stuff. A few that involve claws on tentacles with blobs and walls that you have to shoot through. And a couple of lava areas at the end. It’s not the most inspiring stuff but the game does well to zoom out from the original game’s viewpoint, giving you more on-screen information to work with and also minimising vertical scrolling.
One real let down though is unimpressive boss designs. If you think that R-Type was giving us some of the best bosses in the genre three years earlier, and that we had some killer conversions of it on home computers before X-Out came out, it’s disappointing to see such uninspiring ones here. The boss on level two was particularly lame with three tiny areas that took damage and no animations.
The music has also had an upgrade too with both the original soundtrack and an enhanced version to play along to. They both sound great, although you’ll need to drop the effects volume down to like 40% if you want to hear any of the tunes properly.
As ever with these type of remakes/ports, the audience here is anyone who enjoyed the original game and wants to play a more enhanced version of it and, to that end, X-Out Resurfaced delivers. The improved sound and visuals definitely make this worth a look and the price, £15.99, is just about fair enough if you’re a diehard fan. However, it is old and pretty limited and so fans of shoot ’em ups generally may want to wait for a sale. But if you fancy a challenge, especially an nostalgic one, this is probably one of the better retro remake shooters out there.
Summary
A solid remaster of an Amiga-era shoot ’em up. We’re here for the nostalgia but the game does feel a bit limited and might not appeal to newer shoot ’em up fans.
