is a

scrolling shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character m ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, developed and published by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

video game console. It is the sequel to the 2008 game '' Otomedius G (Gorgeous!)'', a spin-off of the ''

Gradius is a series of shooter ( shoot'em up) video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. ...

'' series. It was released in 2011 on April 21 in Japan and in North America on November 1. ''Otomedius Excellent'' features female characters representing different Konami franchises.

Gameplay

''Otomedius Excellent'' offers a single-player campaign and a multi-player mode provided via the

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

service. If stages are too hard, the player can recruit up to three helpers in the Multiplay offline mode. In Score Attack new weapon cards can be unlocked after finishing the main game. Through

online multiplayer was possible and new content could be unlocked. There are also several new characters, several extra stages and several character BGM packs that were available through downloadable content.

Plot

In the year 2011 AD, after the civilization war between the Angel Squadrons and the Gofer Sisters before their memories taken, and the music box has been forbidden ('' Otomedius Gorgeous''). Meanwhile, the Inter-Dimensional Organization G now continues the new Bacterian Army with new member squadrons to defeat the unknown Bacterian Force and the Dark Force was taken to earth and revolved their destruction but the Squadrons were going back in time to finished their most powerful forces among the real world of planet Gradius.

Release

In July 2011, the first packages of

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

(DLC) were released. They featured BGM packs, extra stages and customize Outfits through

. The soundtrack album contains the game's musical tracks from a variety of popular game composers including

GEM Impact GEM Impact is an audio production studio founded by game composer and saxophonist Norihiko Hibino in 2005. It is located in Tokyo, Japan, and employs a number of composers, producers, and artists. Hibino's fluency in English has allowed him to tak ...

(

Norihiko Hibino is a Japanese video game composer and saxophonist. Biography Hibino was born in Osaka. He graduated from the Osaka University School of Human Sciences in 1996. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1997, he moved to Kansas City to s ...

and

Takahiro Izutani is a video game music composer and guitarist. He is notable for his work in the ''Metal Gear Solid'' series. Profile In 1997, his avant-garde rock band Happy Family (Japanese band) released an album, "Toscco" on Cuneiform Records in the U. ...

Motoi Sakuraba is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. He is known for his numerous contributions in video games, including the '' Tales'', ''Star Ocean'', ''Mario Golf'', '' Mario Tennis'', ''Golden Sun'', and ''Dark Souls'' series, as well as several other a ...

Michiru Yamane is a Japanese video game composer and pianist. Yamane's musical style draws on Baroque music, baroque, Classical Period (music), classical and rock music, rock traditions, with both Johann Sebastian Bach and Yellow Magic Orchestra as prominent ...

, and

Shinji Hosoe , also known as Megaten and Sampling Masters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring ''Ridge Racer'', ''Street Fighter EX'' and many Namco arcade games between 1987 and 1996. He also runs the music production ...

. The soundtrack also features a large amount of arrangements from previous

games. It was released on March 29, 2012, in Japan by Konami, with cover art by

Mine Yoshizaki is a Japanese mangaka, manga creator. His most well known works are ''Sgt. Frog'', a manga he created which later received an anime adaption, and ''Kemono Friends'', a multimedia franchise for which Yoshizaki serves as concept designer. Career ...

Reception

The review aggregate website, ''

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

'', displayed a score of 48/100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews". Eric Bowman of ''GameCritics.com'' gave the game a 2/10, saying "Otomedius Excellent shouldn't be worth anyone's time. Beyond the overall badness of the gameplay, the whole thing just feels incredibly cynical." Daemon Hatfield of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' called it "outdated and overpriced," giving the game a 5.5/10. The difficulty was particularly criticized. Cameron Lewis of ''

Official Xbox Magazine ''Official Xbox Magazine'' (''OXM'') was a British monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. The maga ...

'' gave it a 5/10, stating "It's frustrating, it makes no sense, and it just makes everyone involved want to play something else." Kevin Schaller of ''

Game Revolution Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male ...

'' also noted the difficulty, saying "If you think games like ''

Mega Man 9 ''Mega Man 9'' is a 2008 action-platform game developed by Capcom and Inti Creates. It is the ninth numbered game in the original ''Mega Man'' series, and the first home console game in the series since '' Mega Man & Bass'' (1998). ''Mega Ma ...

'' and '' 10'' are tough, you have no idea just how dead you can be in a game."

References

External links