XESS: The New Revolution

XESS: The New Revolution (pronounced "excess") is a compilation arcade game that was released by SemiCom in 1997; it runs on the hardware first used by Toaplan for Snow Bros.: Nick and Tom, in 1990, but increases the speed of the Motorola 68000 to 16 MHz and reduces the Zilog Z80 to 4 MHz (it also uses a Yamaha YM-2151 and OKI MSM-6295 for sound as opposed to a Yamaha YM-3812).

Games in this compilation

 * Cookie & Bibi (1995): SemiCom's first game released under their own name, which plays similar to Taito Corporation's Puzzle Bobble series (but replaces the Bubble Dragons with squirrels - the eponymous "Cookie" and "Bibi" - and the bubbles with fruits), had begat two sequels by this time, but they're both virtually identical to the original (just replacing the fruits with balls and fast foods).


 * New Hyper Man (1997): Never released as a standalone game, this follow-up to SemiCom's first unofficial sequel of Hyper Pac-Man (which is also included in this compilation under the name "Hyper Man") is a multi-directional shooter, which features ducks, armadillos and slimes as enemies in addition to the two types of unnamed ghosts (and the pink ones are now red instead).


 * Hyper Man (1995): Originally released as a standalone game under the name "Hyper Pac-Man", this version for SemiCom's first unofficial Pac-Man sequel removes the final boss's last form; it is also worth noting that in 2002, both unofficial Pac-Man titles for this compilation (but not Twinkle, which was released later in 1997) were rereleased as a part of K1Soft and Han System's Puzzle King under the names of Pac-Man 2 and Hyper Man 2 respectively (the former name also does not refer to Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures from 1994), along with that aforementioned "Snow Bros.: Nick and Tom" under the name Snow (but the original ending sequences were removed).