Originally posted August 21st 2014 on the Seafoam Gaming Forums

Title: Xtype Plus

System: Wii U eShop

Price: 2.99

Release date: 8/14/2014

The main game/story

This game is a vertical shooter, similar to Recca or Star Soldier. However, this is more or less a simple boss rush game, and it doesn’t have normal enemies or full levels. It still does the job well.

Graphics

Being made with Nintendo Web Framework (With the help of IMPACT), it looks simple. The ship is a light blue, small little thing that can turn around via the right analog stick, and the bosses are big yellow machines with a core. Everything looks nice and simple and it works OK.

Music and sound effects:

For a game intended for high scores, this actually has a good soundtrack. The title screen theme sounds nice and calm, and the Normal and Plus modes each have their own upbeat soundtrack that gets you in the mood to fight! Sound effects are the simple shooting noises you would expect, though the explosion sound from a boss or the bombs in plus mode are a bit too loud at times, but besides that, no problems!

Gameplay

Being a boss rush of sorts, the game consists of you controlling your ship using the left control stick, while shooting using the right control stick (Yes, no buttons to shoot, it’s a twin stick shooter.) It works very well! While I prefer moving in 2D games with the D-pad, the control stick seems to work OK for this game, since there isn’t much precision required.

You pretty much shoot the ongoing waves of bosses, causing them to fire an insane amount of bullets, before destroying them and moving onto the next boss. It’s that simple!

Classic mode lets you simply play the original HTML5 game XType, with the simple “Shoot bosses don’t die” mechanic. But the new Plus mode lets you use a bomb that wipes the screen of bullets and lets you attack the boss more. It adds a layer to strategy to the game as it really can help you out of tight situations.

Of course, despite it’s 2.99 price tag it would be too easy if you could do everything in minutes. Introducing the online leaderboards and video replays! On these, you can see the best of the best and their high scores, as well as a video replay of HOW they managed to get that score! It’s a really neat and super awesome idea that works really great if you need some tips. (One tip I learned that I’ll teach you is that in desperation, crash your ship into the core of the boss to destroy him and move on to the next stage, at the cost of a life and no points being gained from destroying the boss)

The main reason I held off for a month on this review was due to the fact that on July 31st, the sudden incoming of new players caused the leaderboards to be unusable, pretty much forcing the game to be pulled from the Wii U eShop until last week. Now they work just fine and the high score battles can begin! If you don’t want to fight the best, just compete with your friends, as there is an option for that as well. Sadly there is NO Off-TV play, which for a game like this is a perfect addition. Luckily the dev said he would add it in a patch, so it’s at least coming soon!

Conclusion

In conclusion, due to the online leaderboards, video replays and the simple pick up and play nature of this game, XType Plus is a great game and will certainly lead to a lot of high score competitions. Sadly the lack of Off-TV play really hurts the game in a way, but that will be patched. Overall, XType Plus gets an 8 out of 10, and I recommend it as it’s a great value for a great shooter on the Wii U eShop!

Thanks to phoboslab for the review code.