E3 2011: Otomedius Excellent Hands-On Preview
By: Jeff Rivera
In the past year or two the Xbox 360 has seen several shmups join its library, but most of them have been kept in Japan. Importers have brought in games like Espgaluda 2, but a few titles have been brought over officially, such as Deathsmiles. Konami has decided to try their hand at the shmup market in North America with Otomedius Excellent, and they had it on display here at E3 2011.
Right from the start the Gradius influence was obvious. It was almost as if Konami created a Gradius title and then re-skinned it with the anime art style. That might not be a bad thing, but everything under the hood is far from a new experience from what I could tell. The big difference is the visual style. Rather than cold, metallic enemies, Otomedius Extreme has colorful and vibrant looking foes. Instead of a small and triangular ship, you control a girl that floats around on a metallic air speeder of sorts. The hit box on the girl is pretty small, but larger than I'm used to with most Konami shooters, so it made for a tough game.
Aside from the comparisons with Gradius, it's important to note that Otomedius Excellent was a lot of fun to play. Some may be distracted by comparisons to Gradius or the art style, but once you get playing it's hard to deny that it feels like a competent and well-crafted shooter.
The game will support multiplayer for up to three players at once over Xbox Live. It's nice seeing shooters getting more attention out here in the West, but it will be interesting to see how Otomedius Excellent is accepted with its anime art style and its focus on, uh, the softer parts of the human female body.
Otomedius Excellent will be released on July 19th, exclusively for Xbox 360.
