Otomedius Gorgeous

[Soundwave]

Hmmmmm one word to sum this up??

ODD!!!!!!

Had a very quick go this evening but so far it seems good.

If your familiar with any of Konami's other shooters things will be instantly familiar...infact the intro to each level is straight from Gradius 5 & allows you a little bit of time to power up some weapons.
Once past that it's onto the level proper & then it's straight Parodius style fare & VERY pretty it is too.

The levels are gorgeous, sprites are colourful & funny too...look out for the Penguins in rubber rings on the first level lol
Oh & the intro is a sight to behold...typically over the top Anime styled girls (or big bobbied cartoon girls as my better half calls them)

When you first boot up the game your greeted with EVERYTHING in Japanese...there isnt a stitch of English here at all which makes it quite difficult to be fair.
I've managed to figure out that the first option on the menu screen is Arcade Mode & second is the X-Box only Gorgeous version.

The Arcade mode allows you a bit of le-way with the levels in that flying too close to the ground or sceneray wont instantly kill you (Whereas in Gorgeous mode getting too close is insta-death...this is quite frustratin to be honest as a slight slip & it's cheap death for you)
Also in Arcade mode you have the option of Single play where you can pick a level from a few to play in any order you choose

Gorgeous mode seems much the same...only played this quickly as I kept going back to the Arcade single play option.

You have your usual choice of different characters with differing strengths & weaknesses but again without speaking Japanese I couldnt tell the differnce apart from their different power up options (much like the different choices in Gradius)

Aside from that I havent ventured too far with it but I'm enjoying what I've seen so far

I will warn you though to my untrained eye it is much much slower than anything else I've played before so if your after fast paced Cave style bullet hell deffinitley look elsewhere this isnt for you...but as far as Cute-Em-Up goes it's pipped Sexy Parodius & Cotton Boomerang as my fave

Anyway I know this was high on the list for some so would be interested to see what you all make of it but I'm looking forward to delving deeper with it soon.

Oh & if anyone fancies translating the menu's for me at some point I'd be eternally grateful

Neil

[charlesr]

Take photos and we'll see what we can do

[Soundwave]

Take photos and we'll see what we can do

Lol no problem will get them done once the Mrs has finished watching CSI Miami

it's pretty confusing to be honest & there are a lot of different menus but I'll get them all done

Neil

[noobish hat]

Send 'em to me, I'll have a look

[teddymeow]

I'm intrigued as to how this will work on a home console as the arcade game had some sort of touch screen interface that you used to press to deploy smart bombs and the like.

Is there a special stick with a touch screen section or something? Or have they removed this bit entirely?

[Soundwave]

I'm intrigued as to how this will work on a home console as the arcade game had some sort of touch screen interface that you used to press to deploy smart bombs and the like.

Is there a special stick with a touch screen section or something? Or have they removed this bit entirely?

There is a special stick that features the same touch screen technology but the boxset now goes for nearly ?300 delivered from Play-Asia.

To use smart bombs without this stick you have a button that acts as the screen...hold it down to power up the bomb release when fully charged it's a simple & crude way to do it but it works well enough.
Did have problems though when my chosen smart bomb were multiple homing ones.
The game slows to a crawl while you select the targets before returning to normal speed.
My problem was by the time I figured out what I was doing I hadnt picked targets & my missles flew wildly about the screen & hit nothing lol

[Soundwave]

Well got the photo's of the menu's but they is cack...didnt realise how difficult it is to get clear photo's from a CRT

Still on with the show....

Start screen:



Main Menu:



First Option on Menu:



Second Option on Menu:



I didnt do Third option as it takes you into a screen that gives you details on each character
The Fourth Option is also absent because thats the Options menu

It's really just the first 2 that I'm particularly interested in.

Couple of other points I neglected in the first post...

In Arcade mode the screen is shrunk to a 4:3 ratio with borders either side
In Gorgeous mode though the screen in full on 16:9 widescreen with no borders & looks even better for it

Thanks for any help translating

Neil

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Main menu:
Original Mode
Gorgeous Mode
Shop
Gallery

Original Mode:
Game Start
Option
Ranking
Replay
End

Gorgeous Mode:
Single Play Mode
Multi Play LIVE Mode
Multi Play LAN Mode
Option
Ranking
Replay
End

Even colour coded for you

[Soundwave]

Wow you is all kinds of awesomeness

Thanks for that mucho appreciated...especially the colour coding lol

[Kubrick]

Nice work with the translation there, Famidude.

I spent a couple of hours on this last night. I'm liking it so far, but it perhaps doesn't have that immediate wow factor and addictive scoring hook that some shooters have.

The gameplay is solid since it's basically Gradius with the added Burst attack (and those barely-concealed breasts) but I reckon it feels a bit "standard" tbh. A lot of it will be pretty familiar to a veteran of previous Konami shooters since many enemies, attack patterns, bosses and even entire levels are resurrected here.
I'm all for homages/references, but to me, they're overdone it in Otomedius, and as a result, I'm left feeling that not much of the game is original. It could probably do with another couple of levels that weren't lifted from something else. Also, compared to some of the crazy stuff in the Parodius series, it feels a bit "normal" by comparison.

Don't get me wrong, I've no real complaints with how the game looks, sounds or plays - its excellent, just that it feels a bit too familiar. On the plus side, I like the fact you "level-up" your character with each play, eventually earning new weapons etc. Not quite sure how the grading system works though. I managed an A once, but have mostly been getting Ds & Es

[abigsmurf]

love Mine Yoshizaki's character designs, shame this isn't on PS3. The levelling system looks good for adding longevity.

Is it still one hit or scenary collisions = death? Does it have a giant dancing girl?

[Briareos]

So is this an xbox 360 jap only disc release or is it on arcade?

[Soundwave]

love Mine Yoshizaki's character designs, shame this isn't on PS3. The levelling system looks good for adding longevity.

Is it still one hit or scenary collisions = death? Does it have a giant dancing girl?

Yeah the Levelling up is a good idea...if I could understand it
Like Kubrick mentioned I've only only had D's so far on any level I've played...clearly I suck

Yep one hit death on X-Box mode & any scenary collision is insta death too.
The Arcade mode is slightly different though in that I seemed to survive many scrapes with the scenary & the odd bullet hit too I think there is a sort of life bar in that mode??

Briareos,

This was originally an Arcade release.

I'll hopefully get a bit more time on this tonight but from what I've seen I'm loving it soooo cartoony & great

Still stand by the fact that if you want a fast paced typical shooter give this a wide wide berth it really isnt for you.

Neil

[J0e Musashi]

I'm buying a 360 just for this game. If only it was on PS3. I have got to get me that stick though!

[SuperBeatBoy]

I'm buying a 360 just for this game. If only it was on PS3. I have got to get me that stick though!

You and me both. I'm buying a new Japanese 360 out of my coming wages for this, aswell as the other amazing shooters out there.