Shooting your gun is your primary form of playing, next to jumping. You can even save up to three variations of the system, for those who really want to get prepared. The power-ups you find can be spent on certain kinds of upgrades (shooting faster, curving shots, bigger shots, etc.) and these can be reset and spent again at any time in the menu. I enjoyed powering up my gun with each collectible, and also having to strategize a bit. There wasn’t a whole lot of enemy variation, but rather reskinned colors, but again this goes along with the concept of constantly adapting to when something new is introduced. Xeodrifter is more about shooting the creatures that are on each planet, and looking for upgrades. There really isn’t a lot of platforming here, it’s not like there are any bottomless pits that I can remember. This carries over into the world itself, both in regards to the platforming, and enemies. You spend a lot time memorizing the design of the fights, and then have to adapt to when something new is introduced. I think this is why Xeodrifter is a such a difficult experience. I kept getting closer and closer, and when I finally was able to win, the feeling was great. I told some of the NWR staff while playing that I was afraid I wouldn’t beat the game, just because of how hard it was, but I didn’t give up. Xeodrifter is not a game that lets you fudge through some of the more difficult sections, even in boss fights. While seeing the same character over and over again was a little disappointing (I knew who to expect behind the checkpoint door), I did enjoy that I was constantly being pushed to genuinely master the boss fight.
It usually went: The first boss introduces a level of challenge, the second boss increases the intensity of that challenge, the third boss then incorporates everything from beforehand while adding another layer of challenge, and then exponentially go from there. Thus, all of the fights are fairly similar. All of the bosses are essentially the same character, or at least of the same species. I got stuck, multiple times, on some of the bosses. And while this wasn’t required, I felt the obligation to continue to backtrack and discover what else was hidden on each planet because the health and gun power ups were a big incentive to progress through later challenges. This was usually an optional experience, but it added a bit more time to the already short adventure. I would get a new ability, like dashing fast over lava, or jet streaming up into the air, and then backtracking to areas I had been already to see how I could use them to navigate into new areas. This wasn’t a problem, and was actually something I enjoyed, because while the adventure was not entirely open from the beginning, it became more about exploration as I powered my character up. I quickly realized the relatively linear nature that the game was pushing me in though, because I didn’t get far when I docked at one planet, simply because I did not have the ability to traverse as needed. Right off the bat, I liked that I had access to all four planets right at the beginning.
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