Exerizer
A fixed shooter with eight-way movement and parallax scrolling.
In 1987, Jaleco developed and published the fixed shooter Exerizer for arcades. It launched in Japan that March, while Nichibutsu brought it to North America as Sky Fox later the same year. The game is an indirect successor to Jaleco's Exerion (1983) and Exerion II: Zorni (1984). Western critics generally praised it, though some objected to its portrayal of women.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Jaleco
- Publisher
- Jaleco (WW); Nichibutsu (NA)
- Released
- March 1987 (JP); 1987 (NA)
- Genre
- Fixed shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Platforms
- Arcade
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Exerizer is a fixed shooter that draws from Galaga and Phoenix, but adds free eight-way movement across the screen and parallax scrolling starfields. Players pilot a small fighter with two weapon options: slow, unlimited rockets and fast laser shots that consume the ship’s power. That power can be restored, and the ship upgraded, by collecting power-ups dropped from certain destroyed enemies. The game supports two players in alternating turns. Like Gorf, it offers several distinct wave types. One stage features space witches riding either serpentine Chinese dragons or Western winged dragons. To defeat them, players must repeatedly hit the dragon’s weak head point, then shoot the rider for bonus points. Progress through most waves comes from destroying all enemies—which grants score bonuses and power-ups—or simply surviving their attacks long enough.
Reception
The game has been received mostly positively upon its release. In Japan, Game Machine listed Sky Fox on their April 1, 1987 issue as being the twelfth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. The Italian edition of Zzap! called it a treat for those who love the space shooter genre, ensuring a good fun for a sufficient period of time. A review by Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games called it a weird mish-mash of ideas from best-sellers of the past, noting that the dragons have been borrowed from Space Harrier and there are many scenes reminiscent of Space Invaders. She complemented its colorful graphics and concluded that the game does offer a fast and relatively addictive shoot 'em up. Commodore User, however, refused to even score this slickly-executed but otherwise boring game, accusing its creators of promoting sexual assault due to a stage featuring a group of female enemies who are only vulnerable when they open up their cloaks and expose their sparsely-clad bodies in the spreadeagle position. The reviewer described it as an act to humiliate and belittle women in the most violent, degrading way, by subjecting them to sexual violence, and implied this cheap 'n' nasty game's presence in arcades to be dangerous for British society. Sinclair User arcade section remembered it as a sexist shoot'em up. According to a retrospective review in Retro Gamer, when compared to much of Jaleco's other arcade titles, Sky Fox can be seen as a bit of diamond in the rough, as it is a nicely presented little-known vertical shooter that plays like a mixture of Galaxian and Space Harrier. The reviewer felt the game's need of banking and consideration to attacking enemies is a neat mechanic, which, coupled with Sky Fox's nice visuals and humorous enemy designs, makes it an enjoyable little shooter, and recommended Cave's Espgaluda II as a converted alternative.
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