Omega Boost

"Omega Boost delivers."

Remember those old-school 16-bit shooters? The one that took real skill to get through. The ones with no saves and you had to beat in one sitting? Miss those? Omega Boost delivers a treat for the fans of those SNES classics. It successfully takes those type of games and molds them into a 32-bit frantic, high speed shoot-em-up with intense music, intense graphics, and intense gameplay.

Let's start with the gameplay, as it's usually the most important aspect. Omega Boost's controls are simplistic enough. Two buttons for the boost command which allows you to burst speed in any direction. Two buttons for firing – if you tap the fire button you'll fire your machine gun type weapon; the machine gun is weak but it's good for spraying large groups and the enemies that are invincible against other weapons. Next is your homing laser missiles. Let go of the fire button and they'll lock onto any enemies your crosshairs meet. You can have more lock-ons as you get more experience, but I'll cover that later. The third weapon is called the Viper Boost. As you progress, a bar grows above your health, this is the energy to the Viper Boost, which is a super powerful attack that damages all the enemies it can before draining. Finally, the most important aspect of the controls, is the Scan button. At the bottom left of the screen, there's an arrow that points to enemies. By pressing the Scan button, you spin around to focus on incoming enemies. It's a lot more simple than it sounds.
Besides control, gameplay is great. Usually you'll face off a variety of enemies, take on a sub-boss, a few more enemies, and then a final boss. The bosses are all fairly different and other variety. For example, one boss is a land-crawling spider that latches onto you with a tractor-beam and slams you with attacks from there. Another is a massive air carrier that unleashes a swarm of bombs when you're underneath it and a hail of powerful laser strikes when above it. Bosses can be taken out more quickly if you blow off destructive parts. For example, that air carrier I was talking about has multiple destructive parts, like engines, cockpits, turrets, and the like.
Gameplay is smooth and fast, and rarely gets boring, but may get repetitive.

Seeing as how this game is from the makers of Gran Turismo, it's no surprise that the graphics would be pushed to the limit of the PSX. Amazing trail and particle effects are used for many things, reflective surfaces cover the mechs and enemies, enormous and beautiful explosions erupt every time you take out a boss. Of course, there are some problems. There can be a bit of clipping once and awhile, but the game's so fast that it's hardly noticeable.
The backgrounds look great, especially the space areas with stars flying by in a Windows screensaver manner. But the backgrounds can be bad at the same time. For example, there's not much to the backgrounds. On one level there's just a ground below, a dark sky above, and rain in between. Not much to look at. But again, this isn't much of a problem when the game gets moving.
The FMV intro is amazing and made me want to watch it more than once. While the captioning is way off the actual dialogue going on, it still gets the point across. The action scene in the intro is fantastic and really sets the mood. But unfortunately, the music's so loud that you can't hear what some of the people are saying at all.
The last aspect of the graphics takes place in the replay mode. Just as it sounds, you can record replays of each level and watch them. Some replays can turn out to be amazing – the visuals stand out and really put me in awe, but at the same time, the changing camera angles and spinning camera can dizzy the weak stomach.

When considering sound, there's not much to complain about. Techno music that can be annoying at times but great at other times is present throughout the game. All the gunfire and explosion sounds are there and in full effect. I do have a complaint, though. There's a female robotic voice that informs you of damage and such. But most of the time you have no idea what it's saying. This doesn't really effect anything, though.

As you progress through the game, you'll be able to gain experience points, the more experience, the more lock-ons you can get and the more damage you can do. Also, as the game progresses and you get good scores, levels will become unlocked in the Zone Select area. This allows you to go back and play any level you want, as well as play some new levels that are secretly unlocked. This adds replay value and will keep you coming back for more.
My biggest complaint about this game would definitely have to be the lack of a save in the campaign mode. I found myself replaying the short campaign several times before beating it. This isn't a big deal and can easily be overlooked, but it bothered me a bit. The reason for this lack of save is because the campaign mode is so short. But it's difficult enough to require more than one try to beat. Don't worry, though. You can still save your scores, replays, and all the levels you unlock.

In other words, if you were a fan of the old SNES shooters, then you should give this game a try. Even if you're not, still give it a try. I'd say it's definitely worth renting, if not worth buying.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/00, Updated 04/04/00