The Classic Arcade and Console Era (1972-1989) - Xain’D Sleena (a.k.a Solar Warrior and Soldier of Light)
I have no idea what the title means either, but this game is an intriguing outer space run and gun platformer brimming with wild ideas.
RELEASE DATE: 1986
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Technōs Japan / Taito
BEST VERSIONS: Arcade (Japan)
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Somewhat playable
You’re right to be put off by the name of a game called Xain’D Sleena, particularly when the title doesn’t ever really explain itself in-game beyond perhaps being the full name of a galactic bounty hunter who goes by the name of Xain. HardcoreGaming 101’s write-up by Kurt Kalata suggests that the name means “soldier of light” in the game’s fictional language, and since I can’t verify that detail myself, I’ll take his word for it. What I do know, however, is that the European PC ports from ACE and RAD Games were titled Solder of Light while the US release from Memetron was titled Solar Warrior. But since the US release includes well-meaning changes that unfortunately ruin some of what makes the game so interesting, we’ll stick with the Japanese original in this discussion, particularly since the original game’s text is presented in English.
The premise of Xain’D Sleena is that you’re supposed to travel to five different planets hunting down generals from the evil Dristrag galactic empire. You fly to each world on your spaceship in a really cool animation and then disembark and fight your way to the enemy outpost, where you defeat the boss, set a bomb and escape. As you leave each world, the game shifts to a sidescrolling shoot ‘em up as you pilot your ship away from the Imperial forces before they shoot you down. Every level features a different biome and theme – on one, you’ll be battling dinosaurs in a swamp while on another, you’ll be fending off man-eating manatees underwater and in yet another, you’ll be fighting a giant disembodied head atop a pyramid in the desert or dodging sandworms that emerge from holes in the sand.
Once you defeat three levels, you face an enemy mothership in space in a pretty cool midboss-style set piece battle, and once you defeat all five levels, you’re taken to a sixth encounter with a humongous killer starbase that you infiltrate on foot and fight your way through so you can set a final bomb. It’s a particularly nasty place because you get to re-fight all five of the bosses you’ve already faced, but the game also curiously makes these encounters skippable. All you have to do to win is plant the bomb, jump on your ship and escape.
One reason Xain’D Sleena is not regarded as a classic today is its extreme difficulty – if you can make it through without using saved states or a cheat, my hat is off to you. Enemies are numerous and often have attacks that are hard to avoid. The game’s crouching and ducking mechanics are too slow to be of much use on the harder stages, and there are some enemies who are absolute bullet sponges or who fly too high for you to easily reach. The game pushed its original arcade hardware way past its limits, and slowdown is a constant problem even on an emulator. The special weapons system is also difficult to understand – which weapon you get when feels arbitrary, and some weapons (like the triple-shot blaster and the spreadfire gun) are far superior to others (like the grenades and the stronger single-bullet gun).
While the game has a life bar that lets you take a few hits before you die, it’s something of a joke because there are several instant-kill enemies and plenty of cheapness. Dying also takes you back to a checkpoint, which makes beating bosses rather difficult until you master their attack patterns and learn how to clean out the bad guys who appear with them. At the very least, the life bar gives you a fighting chance through a very challenging gauntlet of infinitely-spawning enemies, and it does recharge from mission to mission.
But Xain’D Sleena was way ahead of its time, and one thing that’s neat about it is that you can play the first five levels in any order by selecting which planet you’d like to visit next. While this is old hat for games today, it was a distinctive feature in 1986, beating Capcom’s Rockman/Mega Man’s non-linear structure by at least a year. Another cool aspect of the game is the double-jump using Xain’s jet boots, an absolutely essential skill based on a mechanic that had only recently been introduced in 1984’s Dragon Buster. While Xain’D Sleena is a sidescrolling run and gun game, it also predates Konami’s 1987 staple Contra, and thus lacks that game’s multi-directional shooting or elegant special weapons system.
It's also a game with terrific art design. Every level is gorgeously presented thanks to lush backgrounds and cool little flourishes. That dinosaur I mentioned you fight on the swamp planet? It fills almost the entire screen, and it appears on a planet where even the local flora is trying to kill you with traps that look like flowers lying on the ground. The underwater level has huge canyons you have to leap down and schools of fish swimming by and the desert planet has the sky change colors dramatically to signal the coming of the giant head you have to fight. The game’s music helps to sell all of this as well, particularly with the triumphant theme at the beginning of each stage, which does a good job of getting you pumped up for the next mission.
While Xain’D Sleena does have its issues, it’s still a remarkable game worth experiencing today. Unfortunately, you’ll have to do so through a game ROM and emulator since Taito has yet to re-release the game in a compilation or modern format. I did find a legal version of the arcade game on Antstream Arcade at the time of this writing, however, so it is certainly worth checking there first.
Sadly, the US version, Solar Warrior, is also a compromised experience due to the removal of the level select (you just play the stages sequentially) and making some pointless changes to the already bare-bones story. The home versions were all released in Europe for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, and as is usual for these sorts of ports, the 16-bit PCs do a reasonably good job of approximating the game but have a slightly different feel due to the sprites being larger and the screen’s real estate being smaller. The Commodore 64 version tries its hardest, but only has three planets and isn’t up to rendering the sprites without some flickering. The other versions all struggle to make the game playable and fun.
As Our Series Continues…
It’s time to move on to console and arcade gaming in the 1970s and 80s, and we’re going to cover it all with an exploration into hundreds more games you’ve probably never played but definitely ought to check out. Come for amazingly great early 1980s games like Warlords, Super Locomotive, Shark! Shark!, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John’s Adventure and Intrepid and stick around for mid-to-late 1980s greats like Peter Pack-Rat, Penguin-kun Wars, Momoko 120%, UFO Robot Dangar, Wonder Momo, Raimais, Last Alert, The Legend of Valkyrie and the arcade version of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe’s Brother, complete with a rockin’ soundtrack with wonderfully inscrutable lyrics.
If you’ve never heard of any of those games, you’re in for a treat as we explore them one by one. And If those games are all old hat to you, don’t worry; they’re just the tip of the iceberg for what we’ll be discussing!
If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
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Kind of strange the Japanese version was in English!