| Manufacturer: | Atari |
| Genre: | 3rd person shooter |
| Board: | Dedicated Motorola 6800-based hardware |
| Year: | 1987 |
Some of the biggest games on home consoles for the last few years have been 3rd person shooters like Gears of War, Uncharted and Mass Effect. But 20 years before any of those games came out, Atari released a revolutionary arcade game, that contained the same, basic formula. 1987's Xybots was viewed from behind the protagonists, Major Rock Hardy and Captain Ace Gun, looking "into" the screen. The joystick twisted left and right, allowing the players to both strafe and turn. And it wasn't even polygonal; Xybots was entirely sprite-based. The sprites were view-aligned, so that when you turned, the enemies and items turned with you and never actually rotated. Meanwhile the maze structure shifted perspective as required. It was rudimentary, but it gave the player a level of control that had not been seen before.
You could also argue Xybots was an action RPG, because at the end of every level you could spend points earned to upgrade your abilities, from improving your shield, making your gun faster and more powerful and making Rock and Ace move more quickly. It also featured a co-operative mode and a detailed HUD, with information about your progress. In a 1988 review, Games Machine magazine said, "The twin player/partnership facility of Xybots works so much better than four-player chaos that occurs in games like Gauntlet. More emphasis is placed on teamwork, which adds a new dimension, and two players working in unison make for a deadly force." Not the sort a thing you can say about most co-operative arcade games. Even games like Final Fight, Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tended to be chaotic and even frustrating.
Often, when you go back and play a revolutionary game like Xybots, it feels horribly antiquated. This is because innovative games inspire innovation and other developers expand on the core ideas and improve them. While the 3rd person model has been improved and perfected, Xybots is still great fun today. It actually feels a little bit like a 3rd person Doom - with robots! If I was to level one complaint at this classic, it would be its combined health and timer system. Your health ticks down from 99, which means you have just over a minute and a half to finish each level, assuming you don't get shot or use your Zap ability to freeze enemies, both of which knock off 10 HP. There are health packs around, but of course you waste time and risk being shot trying to get to them. This means in true arcade form, Xybots is rock hard and they slightest mistake can be fatal. Nonetheless, I booted this game up to play before writing this review and quickly lost the next hour or so to it. Not too shabby for a 24 year-old precursor to the modern 3rd person shooter.
If you want to play it legally, it is available on Midways Arcade Treasures 2 for Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.
MTW
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