Kotaku
I've been drooling over it for months, and now it's finally here! Is Omega Five everything I had hoped it would be? Well, yes and no. It has all of the shoot-em up action I was expecting, and it is one of the most beautiful games you're likely to find on Xbox Live Arcade, but the limitations of the format inevitably shine through on the presentation end of things. After playing with the game just about every free moment I've had in the day, I can't shake the feeling that this would have been a truly spectacular game had it just been fleshed out a bit.
As I said, it is one of the prettiest games on XBLA, and the visuals alone are worth the $10 worth of points I dropped for it. Playing through as Ruby, one of the two initially available characters, I was really impressed by the variety of enemies, the colorful effects, and the sheer amount of things flying across my screen at the same time. Then I played as Tempest and my jaw completely dropped.
Tempest's weapons are simply breathtaking. Flowing globules of frost and fire issue forth from his weapon, flowing like slime over enemies, splashing against them with impressive physics for a shmup. It really is a sight that online videos do not do justice.
The gameplay itself is pretty standard. Fight your way through hordes of enemies while collecting various power ups and charging up your super weapon. So far the game is relatively easy, and the initial three continues should last you quite awhile once you get the lay of the land. Once you complete a level in arcade mode you unlock it in the challenge mode as well, allowing you to hone your skills alone or with a friend via co-op to a razor's edge.
My biggest disappointment, as I said earlier, comes from the presentation. There is no storyline for Omega Five. You choose a character and off you go, blasting the living hell out of things without any real overly obvious motivation. There are no difficulty options...just a simple menu allowing you to start a new game, play offline multiplayer, adjust the settings and read up on gameplay.
Omega Five is definitely worth the $10 to shmup fans everywhere. It's a beautiful example of what is possible via Xbox Live Arcade, while at the same time being a sometimes painful reminder of what isn't.
Comments
It's better than it seems. And it already seems brilliant. All of you, go forth and download!
Played the demo must buy. I think Mr. Fahey likes it too.
Haha, Fahey, obligatory 'Short Circuit' reference has been duly noted and is appreciated.
Ahh, time to blow $10. Curses! This game looks (and sounds) darn good..and I do love my shmups.
I watched the video up on gamerscore and downloaded the trial. I do love the fact that they admit that the game is hard, so hard that only one guy on the development team has actually survived long enough to actually finish the game. I don't doubt that it's a pretty game, but seeing as how I couldn't last more than three minutes in the game without dying, and i'm not holding out much hope that I would actually finish, i'll stick with the trial version.
Does a game like this really even need a story? I have a feeling that if it had one, everyone would just be complaining about how shallow it is.
tempest look like he is pissing on enemies..until I realized that he got 4 arms..
It's really not that hard. Especially compared to its brethren. In fact, I'd call it one of the easiest shooters in a while. I'd played for maybe 30 minutes before getting to the last stage without dying. The last stage IS hard but you get 5 credits after playing for an hour so that really softens how hard it is.
It's a wonderful game though. I had fun being number 4 on the leaderboards for all of 5 minutes when it first appeared.
Xbox Live "Arcade"? Hello?
I mean, is there no story or just a real minimal one?
In no time, there will be videos on youtube of one guy playing with two controllers, making everyone else in the world feel like a piece of crap. Ever seen that Ikaruga video? Man, I want to punch that guy.
"Flowing globules of frost and fire issue forth from his weapon, flowing like slime over enemies"
hwahahah
Definitely getting this when my 360 gets back from repairs. Maybe Ikaruga and Rez HD will be out by then as well.
i really wish they had added online-coop, thats kind of a deal breaker for me, but it sounds cool.
Just grabbed this last night, and holy crap yes it's a lot of fun! Definitely worth the 10bux. Iunno about the story thing though. It's been a while since theres been a new-ish game with no storyline.. here's your guy, here's your weapon, go kill things.
@EggmaniMN:
I can't even clear the first level yet ;_;
It's official! I'm going to get a 360 JUST for the XBLA games I'm seeing, including this.
I need Rez HD, and I need this.
Oh no story? Count me in. IMO: Arcade shooters don't need a story line. These kind of game usually make you generate your own story really. Sometimes taking away the experiences is enough.
Either that, or give me a one-screen-text-description to why your there is enough for me. "You are a badass, the enemy is threatening the lives of the children and puppies. As well as the efforts of our civilization. They must be stopped. You will stop them...and...ready...Go!!" Thanks , Done. :)
Most SHMUPS in the arcade had a tiny paragraph explaining the story...that nobody read. Or 10 seconds of "video" that everyone wished they could skip over.
I'm fine with the lack of story for a SHMUP. It gets you to the SH part faster. :)
Yeah that looks pretty awesome, if it had different difficulty settings it would be better I think, then you could pump it up to the standards of Ikaruga and make it literally impossible. I hate you Ikaruga.
This game is damn fun and it does a few interesting things. I haven't actually unlocked him yet but Sensei is supposedly a melee character. How the hell that will work in a shmup is beyond me, but it sounds intruiging as hell and I can't wait to unlock him.
p.s. Ruby's level 3 type B weapon is the shiznit. Dual pink lasers of death that reflect off surfaces? Hell yeah.
I think storylines only matter if there's awesome artwork that accomies the game.
@Tepoz: *accompanies* I can't type today
I'd love to buy it, but I'm not buying any more stuff from XBL until the DRM is fixed.
Wait, why is the lack of storyline XBLA's fault? Especially when Undertow, a beautiful twin-stick shooter, recently came out on the service and that had a storyline complete with cutscenes in addition to a full multiplayer experience.
I guess I just don't see the basis for the criticism. At all.
Not really a shmup fan and i still thought the demo was fun as hell. I'm thinking about getting it, but don't want to buy a game that would be impossible for me to finish.
anyone else having trouble logging onto Live! at the moment (again) ?
As far as shmups go O5 is pretty forgiving. You actually get a health bar and there's health refills in certain points of the levels and the enemies follow a completely linear path so if you memorize their locations and how to deal with them it will hold you in good stead. You also have the ability to dodge bullets but it takes a small portion of your life. I'm not sure if it's preferable to actually getting hit but I assume so.
This game is great so far. Who wants a story? You see something, you shoot it.
This looks like some mindless fun to me.
I look forward to this when I get home.
This is quite a refreshing change of pace from all the bullet hell schmups I play all the time. I can't wait to unlock Sensei and see how he plays.
@opt2not: "The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?"
Stop saying "shmup."
are shumps supposed to be anything more than a shump? story should never be a factor its a shump.
The video linked earlier this week seemed a bit slow for a shmup, but memories of Ikaruga and the gorgeous visuals have led me to consider this a must-buy tonight.
*sigh* and here I thought I could get to my backlog of games sometime this week
@ExplodingKayNine: *looks at Gadgetron*
*snickers*
@gadgetron: I agree. No story is need for this sort of thing. I hate it when games try to add a weak ass story just for the sake of having a narrative.
No one completes these games for the sake of the story and you know it.
In "Bad Dudes", "the president has been kidnapped by ninjas..." was story enough for me :)
I awoke to a demo of this on my 360 this morning and have not stopped playing it... except now. and now. but im turning it on now...
I played the demo a few times, and while visually impressive, I don't know if I'll get bored of it after a few days or not. Either way, I'll probably get bored later and buy it. Anyone know how long it is?
I thought the demo was way too short for me to make a judgement on whether to buy it or not. It only lasted about two minutes. But after reading these comments, it sounds like the whole game is good so I will probably buy it.
Is it weird that as much as I love shooters like this one, I only love them when they're vertical? I just can't get into this horizontal stuff.
Awesome game. Wish there were more releases like this.
They could have have at least hired one English speaking person to do a decent voice over.
While I agree the stories for shumps are largely irrelevant. You at least need some art or cutscenes at the beginning and end of the game.
Anyone that's ever played through all the levels on 1942 on the NES knows nothing is more infuriating then "Congratulations" and being sent back to the title screen.
Bought it....playing it....loving it!!
I feel bad because I find the game extremely easy. The game's still fun, though, and certainly worth the money.
It might be because of the kinds of shoot-em-ups I'm used to playing on a daily basis, though (Touhou Project, for example.) It looks like it all depends on Aksys to bring Shikigami no Shiro III to the 360 if I'm gonna be getting any challenges.
IMO, its neither extremely easy (that honor goes to Aegis Wing) nor extremely hard. For me, its just challenging enough to have me keep trying without getting frustrated every time I run out of credits.
From what I've played of the game, I think it's fantastic. I already bought it. This game isn't even 50MB, so all of those people complaining about file sizes can wonder what can be done with 3 times as much space.
If you think about old school games, many of them didn't HAVE a story line, or one or two lines at the most. It's just an excuse fore the gameplay. As long as the game is fun, I don't always need a story to nitpick. Maybe because I wasn't expecting a story, I'm satisfied.
I only hope enough people buy these games to let developers know ther is a market for this stuff.
I tried the demo a few moments ago, it is definetly a title I will purchase.
@BillDoE: I love the voice-over! It's fabulous!
I'm going to get it. Made the mistake of getting TRON instead. Wish I read this review of TRON before. [bengardnershead.blogspot.com]
Ok, I wasn't really affected up till now by the Xbox Live problems (had been out of town and playing Wii/DS mostly since the 23rd or so), but I can't even get into the XBLM to download this game, and now I'm starting to get pissed. I ask so little of you MS: Play some Halo and COD4 occasionally, download a shmup every once in awhile, and somehow you still find a way to frustrate me.
*grumbles incoherently*
OK, after 20 minutes of waiting it finally came up. Damn, still annoying though.
I really wish we got this game for free, you know, for our compensation. Oh well.
Also, for those who knows the answer... is "SHMUP" short for "Shoot 'em up"? If so, a bunch of these guys are just following the herd, calling it, "Schmup", or "Shump", or whatever...
Unavoidable Triple Post, this game is awesome....and really damn hard. :)
@Animus: SHMUP is short for that, yes. It took me awhile to figure it out though, we always just called them side scrolling or vertical shooters back in the day. I guess the advent of people calling FPS games "Shooters" led to this abbreviation?