Omega Five

"More games like this on XBL please!"

Omega Five is one of the best bargains currently on XBL. For $10 you get top-notch graphics; probably the best graphics I've seen in a shoot 'em up. Four intense stages of solid shooting with cool bosses. You also get 4 different characters to play with, each playing differently from one another.

The difference between this and most other shoot ‘em ups is that instead of ships you play characters that fly around the screen. How they fly around is never explained (as this game has no sort of story explained), all characters have different main and sub weapons, they also have the ability to shoot 360 degrees which is quite different from most shoot ‘em ups.

I was quite impressed by the graphics, which are hands down the best in an Xbox Live game. They are very detailed and colorful and the explosions and lasers look very cool. The sound and music on the other hand are pretty average. Especially bad are the games voice-overs, like the character select and stage introduction. They are done in Engrish; they are so bad they're quite funny to hear.

I've read some reviews stating that this game is unforgivably difficult, but that couldn't be further from the truth. First of all the game is not of the one shot you're dead type, you get a life bar and it takes about 4 or 5 hits before you die. There are also power-ups that refill your health bar. You start with only 2 continues, but they increase the more hours you log in. So given you spend enough time playing this game you'll finish it with no problems.

There are some bad points. First of all the game features absolutely no storyline, it wouldn't have killed them to spend 15 minutes thinking up some nonsense and putting it on the intro screen. I would have liked to have seen more different main weapon types (there are only 3) and maybe another stage or two.

Shoot 'em ups are very rare these days, so I was very pleased to see one finally get released on XBL. This is a solid game that a fan of shoot 'em ups should buy immediately to support the genre.

Breakdown by category:

Graphics -9/10 some of the best I've seen in a shoot-em up.
Sound - 6/10 No memorable tunes, just your average electronic/techno music
Game-play – 7/10 Solid; Use of 360 degree fire and health bar is pretty innovative in a side scrolling shooter.
Re-playability – 7/10 getting a bigger high score is usually the only point in games of this type.

OVERALL: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/08