At some point since E3 Konami has added a few precious art assets into their E3 press offerings for the Xbox 360 shmup surprise Otomedius Excellent – I know they weren’t there at the time because there’s simply no way I wouldn’t have posted them.
Anyway, since this will not stand, you can catch your semi-inappropriate dose for a game I’m exceedingly stoked about after the break, along with a video glimpse that has been around since E3 proper, just for good measure.
Soldiers scramble through the ruins of a forgotten yet familiar city, finding footholds in crumbling buildings as swarms of genetic mutations fly across the skyline like scurrying schools of fish darting through deeper waters. In the foreground, futuristic helicopters and mobile infantry patrol broken stretches of freeway, filling the screen with missiles and bullets as Isa and Kachi make a desperate break for freedom.
Exactly why Isa and Kachi are on the run is unclear, along with the motives of the shadow organization pursuing them – staffed by ominous assassins who speak with the comfort of established relationships that forever remain a mystery to the player.
Even if some retailer revelations spoiled the size of the surprise, I’m still ten shades of strange-shooter-happy to get an email confirming that Konami is bringing Otomedius Excellent to the 360 this year. The sequel to Otomedius Gorgeous offers nine “stunning” characters over Konami’s brand of 2D sidescrolling – and three players can apparently team up locally or over XBLA.
Konami even mentions “exciting downloadable content to be announced later”. Not only is Konami bringing it here, but they even sound excited about it –
“As the sequel to the 2008 Japanese hit Otomedius Gorgeous, Otomedius Excellent boasts a significant visual and gameplay update since its predecessor. Accompanied by brilliant graphics and an excellent soundtrack, Otomedius Excellent will engage fans with the Gradius franchise on a whole new level.” – Shinji Hirano, President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
Seeing as the shmup is the genre I obsessed over the most during my childhood, I still waste a good amount of time thinking about it today. Most recently I’ve been obsessing over the simple diamond design of Star Fox’s Arwing, which while technically not a shmup, does deserve consideration in the halls of classic ship design.
I’m certain there’s something really clever to be said about the evolution of ships within these games, and how each of the truly great releases owes its success to the design of the ship over all other concerns. Within a really good shmup, the ship is the protagonist. And as such, each has something important to say about the games they inhabit, serving as a reflection of the worlds within those games.
Having previously established that I have zero objectivity and nothing but enthusiastic gibberish to share about Deathsmiles finally coming to North American 360 owners, it seemed like the only thing left to do was jump up and down on Aksys’ desk about the announcement.
For the sake of dignity I squeezed a few questions in along the way, which Aksys Games’ PR Specialist Cherie Baker was good enough to answer – while leaving me with a cliffhanger to wonder about.
Catch it all after the break.
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