Right, avid followers of my reviews here on WonderwallWeb may remember me alluding to Mega-Drive “classic” Space Harrier when reviewing Screwjumper, now I’m going to admit right now, I may have jumped the gun a little - how on earth was I supposed to know Omega Five would come along? Yup, from my point of view, Omega Five is Space Harrier - in 2D!?

Omega 5 (which is how it will be referred to from now on……) is basically a side-scrolling shooter put out by Hudson. You don’t pilot a ship, you’re merely wearing a jet pack. You have the choice of two characters at first, did I note down their names? Did I hell as like…..You get to pick between a young lady, who’s nimble, versatile with an impressive shooting distance, or you can be the big burley guy, who’s not as quick and his attacks don’t quite carry the same distance, but for all of that - his attacks are more powerful. Being the cynic that I am, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the lady is ‘easy’ whilst the guy is ‘hard’. For as powerful as his weapons can be, I found him to be pretty useless when faced with a screen filled to the brim with enemies, by contrast the lady faired much better, wiping out hoards of nasties with….well, not ease, but with less effort.

Each character starts of with your generic run of the mill gun, there are however three levels of power up; A, B and C, there are also ‘special’s’ to utilise, these need to be built up by collecting the pink triangles that spawn from the defeated foes. To defeat said foes, your main control scheme is simply the left stick to move and the right stick to fire and aim. It’s a system which is rapidly replacing the bog standard ‘A’ or for the next gen amongst us ‘Right Trigger’. It works remarkably well here. Playing as the lady, you’ll get the added bonus of a (what best I can describe) swinging claw. When I say “bonus” that’s exactly what I mean. I had a go with the male lead, and just couldn’t cope with out my swinging claw. Activated using the Xbox 360’s favourite nubbin - the right trigger, the claw will grip onto larger enemies sending electro waves through their mechanically goo filled bodies and taking them out pretty swiftly. When not in use via RT, the claw will rotate around your character offering a little bit more protection…..Protection that you’re going to need if you’re not a shooter obsessive.

I’ve trawled several forums in research for this review, and the opinion seems to be split. Shooting buffs have been beating the arcade mode in a few hours, some, even quicker. Those less committed to the shooting genre have been struggling. - much like me. The arcade mode has 4 levels, which again, for shooting veterans will be a breeze. For less skilled players, it’s 2 levels too many….You are allocated 2 continues after your power bar has been reduced to nothing; 6-7 hits will put you down. There are health powers up’s which appear sporadically, but not enough for my liking, even more so when you consider the fact that you have to go through all four levels on what is basically 3 lives. Dipping into my dustbin of information, I believe you can get yourself more continues by playing Omega 5 for a set number of hours. You can also unlock two more characters.

I personally like to follow a rule when reviewing, I like to finish the main game before going to ’print’. I’m not going to shy away from admitting; I just couldn’t beat Omega 5. The incident mentioned in the first paragraph turning my dial to boiling point. I do not think this harms my own judgement of the game, nor the validility (is that even a word?) of this review. The basic mechanics are the same throughout, just with a different backdrop, speaking of which….

Much was made in the press release that Omega 5 has “3D environments”. Whilst not a lie, it’s a very un-needed exaggeration. Some enemies do appear from the background, but they are immune to any kind of damage until they reach the 2D play environment. The backdrops and incoming enemies do look OK, though - not mind blowing by any means, but pretty nifty all the same. Enemies repeat themselves often, but this is in no way a worry - these aren’t humans, they are an army of savage, flying, missile launching, laser shooting bad mother crushers who no doubt sleep with their cousins more often than not. Saying all of this, the smaller baddies, as well as your chosen character, are the weakest link on the graphical front.

Along with the single player arcade mode there is a co-op option, but if you’ll allow me to crush your dreams all in one go…….it’s only local co-op, which simply put means; you can’t play online. This is a shambles in this day and age. There are leaderboards for the arcade mode and also for the ‘Challenge’ modes which are just a high score run on each level, unlocked on completion of said level.

Omega 5 hasn’t left a lasting impression on me, it’s a very niche game and whilst it’s controls are simple, I found the game to be very tough and unrewarding. By all means download the trial - I know it’s a cliché, but it feels very appropriate; Try before you buy.