It's obvious however, regardless of what console you play on,
designer Ed Logg was treading on untapped territory. The limitations of the hardware
create the biggest problems with choppy, disorienting movement. It's done with a quick
90-degree spin. The arcade version had a small animation. There's nothing here. Turning is
still done with a button press. The advantage with the arcade version was a constant on-screen map, and a split screen for two players. With a link cable on the Lynx, each player can still have their own screen. That map however, is tossed into a menu. It's critical for the game to work, and since the action takes up the entire screen, it's a completely different game. You can still purchase power-ups to the map (along with weapons and other items), and it feels weird to do it when it's not there most of the time.
Even the player's energy is located in a sub menu. Granted, there
is an indicator on the main sprite to lets you know when time is running low, but there's
no reason not to include something on the main screen. That's the major hurdle for Lynx
players (graphically it's perfect), and that's not including the basic flaws of the
design. Xybots is hardly an awful game. It's enjoyable, though hopelessly dated, and after slowly adjusting to dual analog sticks, this is a tough one to move back in time with. The concept of the game revolves around the graphics, and that's a sure sign something is wrong. It's not a failure, just a frustrating game that's even more limited in this port.
