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The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks Things aren’t looking good for Hudson Entertainment. Early reports from this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine bring word of cancellations of Bonk, Bomberman and Omega Five for the Nintendo 3DS… among others.
While the Nintendo 3DS won’t be out in Japan until next February, the handheld is shaping up to have a solid array of games. Hudson is the latest company to reveal its working on titles for the portable.
Omega Five! Great little shooter. The Xbox Live Arcade game features an unlockable “retro mode” where the game’s graphics and the sound go 16-bit! You know what, that’s pretty neato. The score was done by game music vet Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, who apparently has been inspired more by game music than anything else. (Word has it he hadn’t even heard the Beatles until he started working in the game industry!) Iwatsuki says this about XBLA:
I’ve been drooling over it for months, and now it’s finally here! Is Omega Five everything I had hoped it would be? Well, yes and no. It has all of the shoot-em up action I was expecting, and it is one of the most beautiful games you’re likely to find on Xbox Live Arcade, but the limitations of the format inevitably shine through on the presentation end of things. After playing with the game just about every free moment I’ve had in the day, I can’t shake the feeling that this would have been a truly spectacular game had it just been fleshed out a bit.
Larry Hryb points out that Omega Five and Tron will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Omega Five will be 800 points, while Tron will be 400. Gamerscoreblog also posted up this short phone interview with Hudson which also shows you some Omega Five gameplay.
This week on arcade: Omega Five and Tron [Major Nelson]
Now let’s just remove that little question mark from McWhertor’s post yesterday, as Hudson officially announces Omega Five for the Xbox Live Arcade coming out next Wednesday. Along with the date, they’ve also announced the price of this lovely little slice of shmuppetry, which will set you back a relatively standard 800 Microsoft points. Along with the release announcement comes information on the last of the playable characters, a female named R.A.D. in a skintight insect-looking suit that allows her speedy maneuverability at the cost aiming speed. Hit the jump for more info on R.A.D. and her various weapons of mass destruction, or to just revel in the fact the this long-awaited game is finally upon us. Yum!
Hudson and Natsume’s Omega Five was originally scheduled to hit Xbox Live Arcade sometime in November, but that’s obviously come and gone and we’re without the game. It looks like Xbox 360 owners may finally get the side-scrolling shoot ‘em up as early as next week, as Console Monster indicates a January 9th release date. It was certainly one of my highlights at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, so I’ll be first in line. No solid word on pricing yet, but the Forgotten Worlds-esque shmup looks like it’s worth the scratch.
January 9th Arcade Release Revealed [360 Monster via Destructoid]
Hudson’s Omega Five isn’t sorta great, it’s really great. And by “really great,” we mean really great. At TGS, we played the crap outta it and are very much looking forward to downloading it. Gamasutra’s Brandon Sheffield has posted a Q&A with Hudson director Daisuke Sato. Hudson is publishing, but Natsume (Wild Guns, Harvest Moon) developed the game with a small five person team. That, however, is not why the game is called Omega Five. Doh! Sheffield asks Sato if the game is an Xbox 360 exclusive:
Q). Do you have any plans to bring Omega 5 to PlayStation’s PSN?
A). Not at present, no.
Q). Any particular reasons why not?
A). The specs of the respective hardware were one reason. We also determined that certain aspects of the development would be easier using the 360. The project was conceived of first for the 360, and we kept it exclusive to keep the development team small.
Oh, so it’s a 360 exclusive, right? Not so fast…
