Xyanide Resurrection

Never heard of Xyanide? Well, up until a few weeks ago, neither had I. I stumbled across a listing in upcoming games for the title, which was soon to hit the Xbox, and as soon as I saw the word "shooter", I decided to do a little digging. Sure enough, this game resembled the kind of old-school shooting games that I had enjoyed so much over my gaming career, so I knew I had to pick up. And ever since its release, I've been playing it for a while now, shooting a variety of enemies as I made my way through tunnels, getting to the eventual boss showdown. Now it looks like the Xyanide madness is continuing on the PSP, leaving me with yet another game to reserve.

Xyanide Resurrection follows the same plot line as the Xbox game. You've been given the task of transporting an intergalactic witch who's done some great wrong-doing on innocents to her doom, a black hole where she'll be sealed up forever. However, along the way, a strange comet made up of the material known as xyanide strikes the ship and gives the witch unexpected power, forcing the player to face all kinds of odds in defeating her and her newfound compatriots. It's a bit more challenging than you might think.

Xyanide has a weird play formula. You don't take control of the ship in full and where it goes, although you can direct yourself down different paths of the corridor. Otherwise, the game works on a 2-D plane, with you moving your ship about as you shoot the various enemies that come into play. It's a bit strange, but it plays like Geometry Wars once you get the hang of it, and it looks like this play style will work well for the PSP, between its analog stick (for control) and its buttons (for shooting).

The shooting actually varies between weapons. Use the L button to fire lock-on lasers (more powerful as they get fully charged) and then use the R button to switch off between less-powerful spread fire and more focused missiles. You'll need to switch between weapons pretty constantly in order to defeat a great deal of enemies, as the missiles seem to have more of an effect on the boss at the end of the level. These bosses can vary from machines with firing capabilities to huge vessels flying through corridors to a face-off with a giant slug creature with vulnerability in its mouth. Always the mouth.

The game probably won't look as precisely smooth as the Xbox version, but Playlogic is working hard to make sure the graphics are still stylish enough for the PSP format, complete with awesome 3-D backgrounds to zip through and plenty of frantic on-screen shooting action. The background effects will be made up of plenty of sound effects and driving techno music. The presentation works well for the Xbox, and should do just fine for the PSP as well.

As for extras, Resurrection will allow two players to take on all the xyanide-driven creatures, just like the Xbox game. This will be done through Wi-Fi, both in terms of cooperative and competitive play. Competitive play will basically rely on a high score shooting contest, with whomever shoots the most enemies being awarded the victory for each stage (in terms of a letter grade). Hopefully, Playlogic will have further online abilities ready for the game, including new downloadable levels. One can hope.

Xyanide Resurrection looks to be a terrific shooting game for the PSP. All it needs now is the right price- around $20 to $30- to get its audience in gear for some thumb-blistering action. We'll be back with a full review upon the game's release.