Xybots 1987

Is it still worth playing?

Atari Games' 1987 arcade third person shooter, in which Major Rock Hardy or Captain Ace Gunn move through a three dimensional maze and fight robots called Xybots. The screen is split, with the characters' view in the bottom half and the player status and level map on top. In the maze the joystick both moves your character and rotates it to turn, while you shoot with a laser gun, take cover behind objects and look for the level exit. Some levels end with a large boss Xybot. Between levels, coins dropped by defeated Xybots buy energy and power ups, including armor, speed, strength, firepower, and maps of the maze and the enemies. Two players can play cooperatively, and it began as a planned sequel to Gauntlet. Learning to read each maze, alone or with a second player, still keeps each level worth playing today.