Otomedius Not So Excellent

Otomedius Excellent isn't just a Gradius clone. It is Konami's spiritual successor to Gradius and it is coming to Xbox 360 on July 19 along with a sexy anime girl pillowcase that you will probably want to hide from your girlfriend, your mom, your friends, and any strangers who might wander into your bedroom. They have certainly given it a lot of extra bells and whistles, with the aforementioned anime girls riding the spaceships and detailed backgrounds. There are a few glaring issues with the game as I've played it so far though. Read on for details.

I received very little information from the Konami representative on the floor, so I was mostly on my own in figuring out this game. Luckily, Otomedius has simple controls similar to Gradius. You use the joystick to fly, and shoot with the A button. The objective is also nothing new; fly around, shoot things, collect power-ups, and then shoot more things. There is a story which involves the anime girls, so that certainly adds something. In general the game is very difficult though, and at times it seems impossibly hard. I failed entirely to kill the second boss, losing something like 20 lives until eventually it just left. I guess that was supposed to happen? No one on the floor could really explain it to me. Aside from that, which is perfectly explainable by my ignorance, I still found the controls to be questionable. In particular, the collision detection is strange. It doesn't seem to understand when I hit an enemy or projectile, which makes it really difficult to determine how best to avoid them and where a safe spot is when projectiles approach very close together. It seems doubtful that the full version will play any better. In fact I got the feeling I actually was playing the full version.

If you are skeptical, or really love Gradius gameplay, check out the demo version once it hits Xbox Live in July and see for yourself. I just wouldn't recommend throwing down money on this one without trying it first.