Otomedius Excellent

Otomedius Excellent (オトメディウスX（エクセレント, Otomediusu X (Ekuserento!)) is a scrolling shooter video game, developed and published by Konami for the Xbox 360 video game console. It is the sequel^[2][3] to the 2008 game Otomedius G (Gorgeous!),^[4][5] a spin-off of the Gradius series. It was released in 2011 on April 21 in Japan and in North America on November 1.

Otomedius Excellent
Developer	Konami
Publisher	Konami
Directors	Toshiyasu Kamiko Kimihiro Taniyama
Producer	Koji Igarashi
Artist	Mine Yoshizaki
Writer	Kazuhiko Maeda
Composers	Nobuhiko Matsufuji Atsushi Sato Naoyuki Sato Norihiko Hibino
Series	Otomedius Gradius
Platform	Xbox 360
Release	JP: April 21, 2011 NA: November 1, 2011[1]
Genre	Scrolling shooter
Modes	Single-player, multiplayer

Otomedius Excellent features female characters from different Konami franchises.

Gameplay

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

The game is set in the year 2011 AD, after a global war between the Angel Squadrons and the Gofer Sisters, as played out in Otomedius Gorgeous. The Inter-Dimensional Organization G has created a new Bacterian Army now led by the mysterious Dark Force. With their new army Organization G attacks both Earth and Gradius, forcing the new members of Angel Squadron to go back in time and fight before Dark Force becomes too powerful to beat.

Release

In July 2011, the first packages of downloadable content (DLC) were released. They featured BGM packs, extra stages and customize Outfits through Xbox Live.

The soundtrack album contains the game's musical tracks from a variety of popular game composers including GEM Impact (Norihiko Hibino and Takahiro Izutani), Motoi Sakuraba, Michiru Yamane, and Shinji Hosoe. The soundtrack also features a large amount of arrangements from previous Konami games. It was released on March 29, 2012, in Japan by Konami, with cover art by Mine Yoshizaki.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	48%[6]

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	C+[7]
Destructoid	3/10[8]
Game Informer	3.75/10[9]
GameRevolution	6/10[10]
IGN	5.5/10[11]
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	5/10[12]
GameCritics.com	2/10[13]

The review aggregate website, Metacritic, displayed a score of 48/100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews".^[6] 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."^[13] Daemon Hatfield of IGN called it "outdated and overpriced," giving the game a 5.5/10.^[11]

The difficulty was particularly criticized. Cameron Lewis of Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 5/10, stating "It's frustrating, it makes no sense, and it just makes everyone involved want to play something else."^[12] Kevin Schaller of Game Revolution also noted the difficulty, saying "If you think games like Mega Man 9 and 10 are tough, you have no idea just how dead you can be in a game."^[10]