X-Multiply [Irem, 1989] - 1-ALL

A single-credit clear of the first loop of X-Multiply, Irem’s gloriously hideous SF/bio-horror shoot-’em-up, set inside the body of a human being who is harbouring malicious microscopic aliens. It was developed alongside R-Type II, and shares a lot of the R-Type series’ core design sensibilities and mechanics, borrowing them wholesale and exploring with them in different directions. The game’s core innovation is the flexible tentacles you attach to your ship, which both boost your firepower and give you excellent defensive options once you get to grips with manipulating them. They also deal considerable damage to anything they touch, which encourages you to play more proactively and aggressively, which you’ll definitely want to do, as the action can get quite manic if threats are left unchecked. There are already better runs than mine on here, but I hope the notes I’ll be adding will help new players get into the game and enjoy it for themselves, as it’s a rather underappreciated one, I think. Since I messed up a few times in stage 6, you’ll also get to see how to recover in one of the trickier spots! There are no recent home ports of X-Multiply, but it was released on Playstation and Sega Saturn in Japan as part of the Arcade Gears range, and comes bundled with Image Fight, an excellent vertically-scrolling Irem shooter. These versions are expensive now but I otherwise highly recommend them. I’m playing the Japanese version (M72) here, in MAME. It’s slightly harder than the international release - enemies fire more frequently and the bosses have noticeably increased health, though they still go down quickly with the right weapons. No autofire was used.