{"id":102445,"date":"2019-10-24T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/10\/ok_bitmap_bureau_with_this_xeno_crisis_review_copy_you_are_really_spoiling_us"},"modified":"2019-10-24T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T14:00:00","slug":"ok-bitmap-bureau-with-this-xeno-crisis-review-copy-you-are-really-spoiling-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/24\/ok-bitmap-bureau-with-this-xeno-crisis-review-copy-you-are-really-spoiling-us\/","title":{"rendered":"OK Bitmap Bureau, With This Xeno Crisis Review Copy, You Are Really Spoiling Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b1d5ffb25cfc0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b1d5ffb25cfc0\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Xeno Crisis\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b1d5ffb25cfc0\/xeno-crisis.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b1d5ffb25cfc0\/xeno-crisis.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Xeno Crisis\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Long-time readers of the site will be aware of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/xeno_crisis\">Xeno Crisis<\/a><\/strong>, the top-down 2D shooter that was crowdfunded a while back. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/06\/feature_xeno_crisis_is_smash_tv_meets_aliens_and_its_looking_incredible\">Taking inspiration from likes of <strong>Aliens<\/strong> and<\/a> <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/06\/feature_xeno_crisis_is_smash_tv_meets_aliens_and_its_looking_incredible\">Smash TV<\/a><\/strong>, it\u2019s the work of a small UK team by the name of <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/bitmapbureau.com\/\">Bitmap Bureau<\/a>, and also calls to mind the excellent games from the legendary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2016\/10\/book_review_the_bitmap_brothers_universe\">Bitmap Brothers<\/a> (despite the similar names, the two studios are not connected).<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also interesting in that Xeno Crisis, despite being created for the Sega Mega Drive \/ Genesis, is <em>also<\/em> getting a release on modern consoles, including the Nintendo Switch (a <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.bitmapbureau.com\/collections\/sega-dreamcast\/products\/xeno-crisis-sega-dreamcast-cd\">Dreamcast<\/a> and <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.bitmapbureau.com\/collections\/neo-geo\/products\/xeno-crisis-neo-geo-aes\">Neo Geo<\/a> version are coming, too). While the Mega Drive release is the \u2018original\u2019 game, we couldn\u2019t help but raise a smile at the fact that we\u2019d been sent what effectively amounts to a \u2018review pack\u2019 for a Switch title that takes the form of a 16-bit cartridge. It certainly beats t-shirts and promotional mugs, put it that way.<\/p>\n<p>Xeno Crisis may be running on hardware from 1988, but it packs a punch. The action is fast, smooth and responsive, while the visuals are really eye-popping \u2013 especially when considering the age of the host console. The audio is also fantastic, with an amazing soundtrack by <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCbQQcXMh_ELHjiXY4dbRD6A\">Savaged Regime<\/a> and some surprisingly clear vocal samples (the Mega Drive was never much good at handling speech).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"Xeno Crisis\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/15f6e664a3aed\/xeno-crisis.original.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" width=\"445\" height=\"245\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/15f6e664a3aed\/xeno-crisis.445x245.jpg\" alt=\"Xeno Crisis\"><\/a><a title=\"Xeno Crisis\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8c51f6d966cf6\/xeno-crisis.original.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" width=\"445\" height=\"245\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/8c51f6d966cf6\/xeno-crisis.445x245.jpg\" alt=\"Xeno Crisis\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"Xeno Crisis\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/06f9e3d9bb289\/xeno-crisis.original.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" width=\"445\" height=\"245\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/06f9e3d9bb289\/xeno-crisis.445x245.jpg\" alt=\"Xeno Crisis\"><\/a><a title=\"Xeno Crisis\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/4efb5e20c93d6\/xeno-crisis.original.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/static.nintendolife.com\/blank.gif\" width=\"445\" height=\"245\" data-original=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/4efb5e20c93d6\/xeno-crisis.445x245.jpg\" alt=\"Xeno Crisis\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Because it\u2019s essentially a twin-stick shooter, Xeno Crisis makes good use of the Mega Drive\u2019s six-button controller to give you a single button per direction (X is left, A is down, Y is up and B is right). If you\u2019ve played the SNES port of Smash TV you\u2019ll be familiar with the arrangement. Grenades are triggered by the Z button, while the C button activates your dodge command \u2013 something you\u2019ll need to make use of in the later levels when the action <em>really<\/em> hots up. Playing with the standard 3-button controller is possible, but nowhere near as intuitive. When the game comes to Switch, it naturally won&#8217;t suffer from such control issues.<\/p>\n<p>Bitmap Bureau sent us the <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.bitmapbureau.com\/collections\/sega-mega-drive-genesis\/products\/xeno-crisis-sega-mega-drive-genesis-boxed\">Japanese variant of the game<\/a>, which comes complete with a reversible cover and instruction manual (in Japanese, natch). Even the cartridge is shaped like a Japanese Mega Drive game (you can, of course, get Xeno Crisis in EU or NA forms, too). It&#8217;s a fantastic little package and shows the level of detail this small and passionate team has gone to in order to create the best possible product.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be reviewing the Switch version of Xeno Crisis soon, but suffice to say, our interest has been well and truly piqued by the arrival of this refreshing old-school review copy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long-time readers of the site will be aware of Xeno Crisis, the top-down 2D shooter that was crowdfunded a while back. Taking inspiration from likes of Aliens and Smash TV, it\u2019s the work of a small UK team by the name of Bitmap Bureau, and also calls to mind the excellent games from the legendary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}