In both look and play it feels like an obscure late '80s game, and indeed the people behind this are responsible for old school classics like Hydlide and Xak from the time. In fact, look at the Hydlide cover art to see where this game got its art and logo inspiration from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/12807/hydlide/

XeGrader+ is a good game, but what's particularly remarkable about it for me is how much it really feels like a game beamed here from 1987 or so. This is the time period where instead of always trying to make straight 1:1 arcade ports for the home as best as the hardware would allow, an idea was what if we took that arcade style gameplay but didn't have such strict, quarter-eating design behind it? XeGrader+ has that uncomplex, arcade-like gameplay, but with the home console/computer philosophy of not needing to end a player's game within minutes so they can chuck another quarter in.

What you see in the screenshots is what it is: A top-down shooter where enemies come from the top and sides, and you shoot them with your sword. You can upgrade your sword but it's actually a bit rare, and you'll lose that upgrade the first time you get hit. Your character has one level of armor, so basically you get two hits per life. XeGrader+ throws some wrinkles in by having secrets in most of the 18 levels such as touch all the trees from behind to get a score bonus, touch certain gravestones, step on levers, and so on. It's necessary to know these secrets if you want to do well on the leaderboard as the bonuses are pretty large in comparison to regular scoring. Also knowing these secrets sometimes produce those weapon upgrades, which are absolutely crucial to surviving the later levels as the game's difficultly ramps up steadily.

An authentic old school pleasure.

This is my hidden gem of the year so far. It’s a simple single screen shmup with a few secrets to uncover, plus some really nice pixel art. It starts off misleadingly easy, but ramps up fast. Would love to see more crt shaders added.

This game is a delight. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you ever liked tower of druaga, you'll probably really enjoy this game. I wish I had access to a notebook taped to the side of this game to get hints from other players, but the achievement names are nice hints for my taste. Don't look at them if you really love secret hunting. I thought the first fairy was maybe a little too well hidden since it's pretty important, but there are a LOT of really fun secrets. If I understand the leaderboard, I have found less than half!

I love that games like this game be made today. If this sounds like your kind of thing, it won't let you down.