Product Code Database
group=lower-alpha is a 1991 first-person rail shooter arcade game developed and published in Japan by Namco. The sixth entry in the Xevious series, the player takes control of the Solvalou starship from a first-person perspective as it must destroy the Xevious forces before they take control of Earth. The Solvalou has two weapon types: an air zapper to destroy air-based enemies, and a blaster bomb to destroy ground-stationed enemies. It runs on the Namco System 21 arcade board.
Solvalou was advertised as a "hyper-entertainment machine" for its sit-down cabinet design and 3D shooting gameplay. The game is named after the starship the player controls in the series. Although it proved to be a commercial failure, Solvalou was well received by critics for its realism, 3D graphics and impressive hardware capabilities, with some finding it to be better than Namco's previous 3D arcade titles. It was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009 as one of the first titles under the Virtual Console Arcade brand. A home port for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was announced in 1994 but never released.
Kawada used Namco's recently acquired Apple and Digidesign sound tools to create the music, sampling music and sound effects from the sample editor program Alchemy and then programming it on a Macintosh computer. He produced hand-made sound effects with Turbosynth, a modular sequencer program, and created custom sound driver functions that could produce techno-inspired beats. These tools allowed Kawada to easily create music and sounds through single-line commands; Kawada said that "it was truly invaluable to be able to get a danceable groove with only a single command".
Critics felt that Solvalous gameplay was challenging but fun. A GameFan commentator said the game was so great that it was almost worth traveling to Japan to play it. GamePro writer "Hack'n Slash" described it as being "breathtaking" and "pulse-pounding shoot-em-up" that cleverly blended together the basic concepts in Xevious with the action of 3D arcade games. Slash particularly liked the gameplay for remaining faithful to the original. S.E.A. agreed, and enjoyed Solvalou for its simplicity, but was critical of the difficulty, and noted that the player could easily become overwhelmed by the number of enemies and projectiles onscreen. Though they were satisfied with the game overall, Gamest writers felt it could have benefited from more content, and would only really please Xevious fans instead of the general public that Namco hoped it would bring. One felt the Xevious branding was unnecessary and would have been better as an original project. Critics generally believed the game was entertaining and was worth playing, with GameFan showing hope for it being released on the 3DO.
Retrospective feedback has also been positive. Retro Gamers Stuart Campbell in 2006 believed Solvalou was a faithful update to Xevious, and his disappointment at the lack of re-releases and proper emulation for the game led him to label it as "one of the great "lost" coin-ops". In 2014, Carlo Savorelli of Hardcore Gaming 101 likened it to Konami's Solar Assault (1996), a similar 3D spin-off of Gradius. He was fond of its graphics for combining 3D flat-textured polygons with pre-rendered sprites. Game Watch writer Tetsuya Inamoto reviewed the Wii Virtual Console version in 2018 in light of the service's impending closure, noting that it was a surprise favorite for Wii owners. Though he was critical of its high difficulty, Inamoto claimed the 3D graphics and intuitive usage of the Wii Remote's pointer function made Solvalou a must-own on the platform.
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