Back in the day, I borrowed Xexyz from a classmate and played it for a couple of nights. I remember nothing about it! But Jeremy Signor remembers it fondly, and that is the magic of the NES experience: every dang person has his or own distinct memories of distinct games that left impressions on them for the years. So celebrate diversity by reading this Xexyz retrospective and wondering just how the heck the name is pronounced. (My theory is that you say it like “shee-zor.”)
Wait is the game’s currency really B-Ball?
Nah, the currency was the ambiguous [E], while B-Ball was simply one of the any weapon types you could buy. This was one of those games one of my older brothers once borrowed, and I spent years forever loving it and wondering what it was, unable to recall its name. I finally found it via the internet some time ago, and realized why its name had escaped me so. As for why I loved it back then… I think the platformer ridden with little rooms of things to do, and the excitement of what the appearance of the next anime princess and her associated fish-ship would be excited me.
I still have my XEXYZ cart! I remember renting this game over and over from a local rental place down the street from my house, then buying it when it went out of business when I was like 8 years old. I got it and Maximum Carnage for Genesis with my christmas money. That was a great year (for me, not the local rental place).
To this day I haven’t had a friend know what the hell this game is when I pop it into the NES. Still easily one of my favourites in my NES collection, thanks for this little article and the nostalgia bomb!
Xexyz! Yay! I absolutely LOVED this game. This
I actually played a little bit of this at a friends’ place way back in the day, and I remembered really enjoying it. I probably oughta pick a cart up if I should happen across one.
The main hero’s head also initially looked weird to me — but I recently realized that the bottom-forward corner of the head is supposed to be the lower-half of his face, while the top-forward red piece is supposed to be like a Gatchaman-type visor.
Are you sure about that? I always thought he looked weird because he was a robot.
“Zeks-is”
Not as good as Blaster Master or The Guardian Legend but a worthy cousin in the “what genre am I” family. Like TGL it has a password for a boss rush that’s fun in its own right.
Zebra: it’s what seems to me makes the most sense to me, but I suppose I’d need to do a bit more research on the character to properly confirm it.
I really dug Xexyz back in they day. Really fun and has some great music. I also vaguely remember writing a short story based on it for school, probably the only piece of Xexyz fanfic you’d ever find.
Would you believe that Xexyx is NOT a wacky name coined in Japan? Apparently it had a much more reasonable (if long) name there: Kame no ongaesi Urashima densetsu.
I was very happy to be able to write this article because to me, Xexyz was my childhood NES experience. It’s one of those games that just sort of congealed into existence in my library, but I soon grew attached to it. It’s also one of those games that I discovered that everyone has played but no one ever talks about. So being given the opportunity to do this game justice means a lot to me.
I expected Xexyz Force as the title.
I don’t really remember much to be able to compare the whole game, but the Japanese version has a much better ending in which a turtle allows you to choose between 3 wishes and every wish is a different ending. Pretty nice.
Huh, weird. At least that would explain the “kame” part of the Japanese title.
I think that was used in the print ads, actually. “Xexyz: You’ll Remember Nothing About It.” Sure explains the sales, anyway.
Glad to see an appreciation for a little-known game like this. I hav it somewhere in my collection; in a closet in a box somewhere. Will dig it out along with Monster Party and Layla sometime.