There's this game on Xbox Live called Omega Five that's actually been out since, like, January, but I always managed to glance right over it because for some reason or other I assumed it was one of those static left-stick-move, right-stick-shoot games hobbled together with a single algorithm by some micro scale American contract developer called "Osmosis Cheese" or something consisting of four dudes with shaven heads and goatees (how in the mother shit
that look ever caught on is beyond all understanding of the human species that I possess - why would you
want to look like you've got your goddamn head on upside-down?) operating out of one guy's garage. There are quite a few of those on Xbox Live. But it turns out that it's not, it's a
non-static left-stick-move, right-stick-shoot game from a small Japanese team at Natsume (published by Hudson!) who credit themselves with the sort of nicknames you'd expect to see in the credits of a 1989 NES game like, y'know, "Taka G" and "Poo" and shit. And it's awesome. The character design is badass and the music is, like... like I can't really explain it, but it's got a certain mid-90's Japanese coin-op-to-Saturn-port sound that I thought was lost forever and here it is like a pet dinosaur on my Xbox Live in 2008 and it makes me want to weep with joy. Alot of the game can be described like that, actually, it's like a high-def Saturn game. It's even got the Hudson bee!
Complaints: it's a bit short at only four stages, but that kind of adds to its mid/late 90's Japanese coin-op charm. Also, the third boss is too damn hard. The final boss is easy-peasy by comparison.
The soundtrack:
ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!!!
Come to my arms, sweet 1997!
