Xevious 3D/G Finally Brings Namco’s Polygonal Arcade Original Home

Hamster releases Namco's 1996 polygonal shooter Xevious 3D/G on Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, giving the arcade coin-op its domestic debut three decades late.

Hamster has selected Namco's Xevious 3D/G as the latest Arcade Archives 2 release, with the 1996 polygonal shooter landing on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 24 for $16.99 or local equivalent. This is more interesting than simply finding another Xevious ROM under the digital sofa.

The original System 11 arcade version has never previously received a faithful home release: Namco's 1997 PlayStation conversion altered the experience, meaning this is effectively the coin-op original's proper domestic debut three decades late. Xevious 3D/G dragged the series' famous airborne shooting and ground-bombing formula into the polygonal age, adding new weapons, enemies, dramatic camera work and seven areas ranging from the familiar geoglyph desert to a space fortress.

It was a conspicuously mid-1990s attempt to modernise a game whose 1983 ancestor had already become foundational to Japanese shooters. The new release also carries some pleasing historical arithmetic: Hamster identifies it as the 100th Namco title in Arcade Archives, arriving around the fifth anniversary of Namco joining the programme.

Xevious 3D/G has never enjoyed the untouchable reputation of its ancestor, but preservation should not be a popularity contest. Sometimes the fascinating games are precisely the ones history could not quite decide what to do with.