The arcade classic Xevious is now playable online at no cost, thanks to a Japanese campaign for Sprite.
As part of a retro-themed campaign for the citrusy soft drink, which features Sprite's classic logo and other nostalgic imagery, you can now play a slightly tweaked version of the 1982 aerial shooter called Sprite x Xevious. It's got online leaderboards and can be controlled with either the keyboard or mouse. Oh, and many of the enemies have been replaced with twirling soda caps and bottles.
Otherwise, the gameplay is mostly unchanged. There's still the vertical-scrolling, laser-firing action that was so influential to the creation of the shmup genre. Huge "Sprite" logos are stamped into the landscape below. But brand visibility is also given maximum screen time through another gameplay tweak: unlimited lives.
While Xevious was a hit in Japan, the game remains less known in the West. Nearly all of the sequels and spin-offs, which were mostly sprinkled throughout the '80s and '90s, were Japan-only releases.
The original arcade game is available on Wii's Virtual Console, and was released on Nintendo 3DS last year with 3-D visuals.
