is a shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...

 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 that was released by Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

 in 1991. It is the 3rd title in the Xevious

Xevious

is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982. It was designed by Masanobu Endō. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware. In Brazil the arcade cabinet was printed with the name 'COLUMBIA' for the game, while the...

series.

Solvalou is the name of the ship that the player controls in all five games, including the later Xevious 3D/G

Xevious 3D/G

-3D/G+: is a compilation of the Xevious arcade games for the PlayStation. The main game is Xevious 3D/G, a port of the 3D polygonal scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game but it also includes accurate ports of the arcade games Xevious, Super Xevious and Xevious Arrangement from Namco Classics...

and Xevious Arrangement. Solvalou is also borrowed as a fictional company brand in the 4th Ridge Racer

Ridge Racer

Ridge Racer may refer to:*Ridge Racer , an arcade game first released by Namco in 1993, later ported to the PlayStation*Ridge Racer , a series of sequels and spin-offs based on the arcade game...

game, for an elite Italian racing team who race in distinct silver and navy blue livery. It later appeared in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is an update to Tekken 5 and is technically the seventh game in the Tekken series. The arcade version was released in Japan in 2005 and in North America in 2006, while the PSP version was released later that year...

as Jack 5's customizations.

The game was released for the Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Virtual Console

Virtual console

A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 service in Japan on March 26, 2009, and is one of the first Virtual Console titles to make use of the Wii Remote

Wii Remote

The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...

's pointer.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very much like Xevious

Xevious

is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982. It was designed by Masanobu Endō. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware. In Brazil the arcade cabinet was printed with the name 'COLUMBIA' for the game, while the...

and Super Xevious

Super Xevious

also is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. As the name suggests, it is the sequel to Xevious, which was released 2 years earlier.-Gameplay:...

except that the game is in 3D and has a 1st-person viewpoint.

Hardware

The arcade version of Solvalou runs on the Namco System 21

Namco System 21

The Namco System 21 "Polygonizer" is an arcade system board unveiled by Namco in 1988 with the game Winning Run. It was the first arcade board specifically designed for polygon processing...

hardware, also called Polygonizer, which displays the game very smoothly with flatshaded polygons. The game is controlled with an analog pilot joystick with two buttons; one for fire and the other for bombing.

There are two cabinets for Solvalou. The larger sit-in cabinet has a concave mirror which reflects the inverted image of a monitor placed above the player's head, creating a more immersive display for the player. The other cabinet is a so called 'upright' cabinet with a 20 inch monitor.