Play Xenon Online

Game Overview

Xenon is one of those old-school MS-DOS shooters that actually tried something different. Instead of just blasting upward like every other space shooter, you can move in any direction—which sounds simple now, but back in '88, that was kind of a big deal. You play as Darrian, some poor space pilot dragged into a war against these alien freaks called the Xenites. The story’s tucked away in the manual, so good luck knowing what’s going on unless you read it first.

What makes it fun is switching between a flying ship and a ground tank on the fly (literally). Some enemies are easier to take out from the air, others from the ground—but bosses lock you into one mode, so you can’t cheese it. Power-ups drop from wrecked enemies, and grabbing them fast becomes second nature. The levels get brutal fast, though. That first time you hit a forced tank section with enemies swarming from all sides? Yeah, good luck.

It’s got that classic Bitmap Brothers feel—slick, punishing, and weirdly satisfying when you finally nail a tough stretch. Just don’t expect hand-holding.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".