XOR (video game)

Gameplay

The player controls two shields named Magus and Questor, which move horizontally and vertically through mazes to collect masks. Each level requires gathering all masks and then reaching the exit. Both shields are necessary for completion; in some levels one shield must be sacrificed, either walled in or destroyed, to finish the level. The first level features maze walls and two types of force fields: one entered only from above or below, and another entered only from left or right. Entering a force field destroys it. Later levels introduce fish and chicken objects. Fish fall downward when possible, while chickens run left if unblocked. Both can destroy a player's shield by hitting it from more than one square away, similar to rocks in Boulder Dash. Fish and chickens can move through force fields if entering from the correct direction. The player can push fish left or right and chickens up or down. Two bomb types exist: V-bombs (vertical) move left like chickens, and H-bombs (horizontal, shaped like spherical bombs with a burning fuse) fall downward like fish. H-bombs can be pushed left and right, V-bombs up or down. A bomb explodes when hit from more than one square away by a fish, chicken, or another bomb; the hitting object is destroyed along with anything directly above or below a V-bomb, or to the left or right of an H-bomb. If one bomb hits another, only the lower or left-hand bomb detonates. Dolls cannot move on their own but can be pushed by shields; once moving, a doll continues until hitting an obstacle. Dolls cannot detonate bombs or pass through force fields. Map sections reveal part of the maze layout, with masks highlighted. Frowning masks act as switches: collecting or blowing up one turns off lighting, making maze walls invisible, while collecting another restores lighting. Teleportation portals, labelled BMUS (Beam Me Up Scotty) in some versions, move a shield to the other portal in the maze.