Otomedius Excellent Review: Average Shooter With Very Few Qualities

Otomedius Excellent Review

I am a big fan of side scrolling shooters and was looking forward to this title. Once I started this game up my first impressions took a huge hit. I absolutely couldn’t stand this title and it seriously beat me down quickly.

Starting out you have your basic modes which are the story mode, multiplayer mode and score attack. You have nine female characters for you to choose from and 8 levels to complete. As you select your character you are able to select the type of weapons you can use within the game. There are a decent amount of variety for options and something that will be key to experiment with. With my first play through I didn’t bother messing with the weapons and just went with the basic options. I also started on normal difficulty, which the first time through just ate me alive. In order to learn the levels well I would most definitely recommend that you start on practice or easy at first. It’s funny how bad I was at first and how discouraged the game made me feel, but like any shooter once you learn how it functions you’ll start to master it a little bit more.

By switching around my weapons I was able to find a good combination of weapons to use which made me quite good once I got it down. This is also when the game became a lot more enjoyable. There are some good type of weapons for you to select, from homing missiles to lasers that attack the nearest target. You can find a good combination to use that makes you very powerful. As you play the game you will collect items and you must collect items for you to upgrade your speed in the game and to upgrade your weapons. You have to collect so many of these items so that you can upgrade each one accordingly and eventually maxing them out, unless you end up dying and then you will start over. It forces you into a good strategy as well, such as deciding which weapons you want to upgrade first and how long you think you can last until you upgrade to your shield and so on. I actually ended up really liking the style that it presented with the weapons once I got use to it.

As you continue to play again and again you will gain experience points. As you will notice when you select weapons, each weapon will be at level 1. But as you gain experience points you will level up and then have level 2 weapons and up. This will make the weapon selection process even more important as you get higher level weapons. So there is certainly a good amount to experiment with here.

The levels in Otomedius Excellent don’t come off as being memorable by any means. There are some decent looking visuals at times as you play through, but then there are some absolutely blah areas also. Overall the visuals really are not anything special whatsoever. As you play through each level there are some obstacles to get yourself through besides just bullet dodging. But once again there is nothing to special at all about the levels in the game. As for the boss fights, they come off as rather weak as well. Not horrible but nothing that excites you to face this boss. Also, if you die just before a boss fight and you don’t have good weapons, there is a good chance you won’t defeat the boss and you will just travel on to the next level after a certain amount of time. As for the enemies themselves, they can be somewhat difficult in their patterns but predictable as well once you get use to it. There are these blocks that come at you as well that you will have to avoid. Unlike bullets, I didn’t like how they could travel through things to hit you. This includes the ground even when you get into a lower area than where they are coming from. They can pass right through the ground to get you!

Overall, as I mentioned I started out not liking this title at all but I was patient and gave it some time. I eventually found myself enjoying it and that was especially due to the weapons that I selected. I was able to get a good feel for what I was doing and I knew what to expect ahead of me. Still, this is only a game for those who are a fan of shoot-em-ups and I would imagine you would still get some enjoyment out of it once you get use to it. It’s not the greatest by a long shot, but it has some very good moments to it in its weaponry. For those who do get this title you can also enjoy up to three players in multiplayer action either on Xbox Live or locally. There is also content to unlock for your gallery. The music in this title wasn’t too memorable either. Fans of shoot-em-ups should give this title a look, while everyone else should probably avoid it.

Score: 2.5/5

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