Otomedius

Game Overview

It's amazing the games Konami will release. Starting almost from the time the company started producing video games, Konami has always seemed interested in making fun of the very games that made them famous. You can find this approach in various titles, from Demon Castle Special: I'm Kid DraculaA parody game for the Castlevania series, developed by Konami. This fun and silly platformer was released, at the time, exclusively for the Famicom with no Western release. It only officially came to international shores as part of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection., a game featuring the son of the main villain of the Castlevania series on an adventure to prove how awesome he was, to the whole of the Parodius series, an increasingly ridiculous collection of games playing off the gameplay of the relatively straight-laced Gradius series (well, barring the occasional Moai head, which Konami was also fascinated by). Konami loves to poke fun at their games, and it’s one of the things Konami fans love about the game company.

By the end of the 1990s Konami had seemingly given up on making arcade-style shooters. TwinBee bailed out of arcades by 1995. The Gradius series would only find one more release in arcades with 1999’s Gradius IV: Resurrection. And as for Parodius, that series switched into a tactical sim game in 1997, Paro WarsA tactical sim spin-off of the Parodius series, and spiritual sequel to the Gradius spin-off Cosmic Wars, this game pits the various factions and characters of the Parodius universe in cute battle against each other for the fate of the Parodius universe. It functions as the last official release for the series., before stopping entirely. While Konami did release a few more shoot ‘em ups after that, they didn’t go to arcades, and most of them ran out of steam quickly thereafter.

Then, after a long wait, the company came out with a semi-sequel / spin-off / parody of their whole genre called Otomedius (a portmanteau of Otome, a sexy romance game genre, and Gradius). Released in arcades in 2007 (and later on home consoles as Otomedius Gorgeous), the game stars schoolgirls in place of the pilots from across the Gradius series. It was a classic shooter through and through, just one that was concerned with a war between the evil Bacterian alien fleet and the students of St. Gradius High School.

Because when you think of pilots fighting a war against aliens you automatically think of schoolgirls in tiny uniforms, right? Classic theming we’re all familiar with.

It was a natural successor to the Parodius series, especially Sexy ParodiusThe last title in the series to hit arcades, Sexy Parodius swapped out the standard weird and crazy graphics for, yes, a sexier style (that, okay, was also weird and crazy)., playing in the same strange pool and finding ways to be silly and fun all at the same time. At the time the game was praised by critics for its creativity and strangeness, but at the same time it was noted that the game was imbalanced and difficult and (in the home release) often suffered from slowdown. Still, that didn’t stop players from coming and pumping their coins into the game, making it a qualified success for the company to the point that, three years later, a console-based sequel to the game, Otomedius ExcellentThe only sequel to the schoolgirl arcade shooter Otomedius, this was another game in the same vein, featuring similar gameplay. Released only for consoles, it was panned by critics and audiences alike, sinking the series., was released.

Sadly, even this game couldn’t revive the franchise’s prospects in arcades. And, at this point, it’s unlikely any game will.