214. Exed Exes (Micronics, Famicom, 1985)

Exed Exes is a port of a 1984 Capcom vertically scrolling shooter for arcades, released internationally as Savage Bees. I played the original on the Capcom Arcade Cabinet compilation and found it to be a pretty bland shooter, though in 1984 it was still a decently fledgling genre. Apparently the original Exed Exes was the first scrolling shooter to allow 2-player simultaneous action, though that's not all it has to offer.

While the action is pretty basic (you only have 1 type of shot and no bombs), the enemies and stages have a decent amount of variety to keep things interesting. Most enemies are insect themed, and while the sprites are pretty basic, there are nice colors and a large variety of enemy types, though many behave similarly. There are also fun "hi-point areas" where the screen will fill with non hostile enemies and an occasional power up pickup. When you grab the power up, all of the enemies on screen turn into fruit for you to collect for big points. In general, Exed Exes loves doling out the points, and the screen will be filled with numbers if you're doing well.

My least favorite things about the game are typical gripes that I have with most scrolling shooters of this era: the player ship is too slow, has too large of a hitbox, and being able to button mash extremely fast is a big advantage. Even in an 80s shooter I love like Terra Cresta, I have a hard time really getting into the zone while playing because there is such a huge threat from almost any enemy. Exed Exes actually felt a bit easier for most of my play time, but the bosses felt particularly like a kick in the fun with the sheer number of shots and unpredictability of the screen scrolling around. When I finally beat the boss, it didn't feel like I had gotten better at the game, just that I got lucky.

2/5, a typically mediocre mid-80s shooter with a couple neat ideas