Man, heckuva title there huh?  I managed to squeeze two -fications in the same space w/o them cancelling out like a reaction in the Large Hadron Collider.

So the past few days after a very interesting Thanksgiving in NYC (I love that town.  I really do,) I’ve been getting back into my usual shmup gaming and media update cycle.  Thunder Force VI still sits pristine and unopened on my desk.  Someday TFVI, someday.  News of a Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu (”Angry Boss Bee: Great Revival”) soundtrack is good news!  “Shadowed World” (Stage 3) is just lovely — if you like ambient like me.  “Somebody, Save Me!” (Boss 2) ROCKS.

 Then there’s the news that Otomedius Gorgeous for import XBOX 360 has a 115-image gallery of concept art and front images.  That’s on top of the package with a arcade stick + touch pad (gimmick!) and extra console-exclusive content.  Right on.

… So articles make it sound like it’s a unrestricted bonanza of nudie cartoons w/ headlines at Kotaku (safe!) and Sankaku Complex (totally NSFW.)  Taking a look around the other side of the fence at Nicovideo however, reveals artist extraordinaire Mine Yoshizaki’s pen on enemy models, the Riding Viper ships, Parodius penguins, concept Big Core mechs – and lemme tell you, sports stripes and hot rod flames on classic boss mechs = WIN. — as well as the principal characters’ insert images, design sheets and a grand total of 20-30 non-nude but cheesecakey pics.

Yeah, it’s defense of the seemingly indefensible.  Otomedius is far from the pinnacle of the Gradius or Parodius series.  It’s main characters wear ecchi-cut maid costumes while flying about (but there’s beefcake too!)  Most of the game plays as a cheeky pastiche of Konami’s shooting game history.  Twinbee, XEXEX, Salamander cameos on top of remixed tunes, omake endings — fans will readily forgive it’s flaws as it still IS a Gradius game with a healthy challenge and a heap of features.

There’s other equally respected shooting series like the aformentioned Dodonpachi that has recently released — and even it stars bosses that are 10-story tall moe-bots, guns and zettai-ryouki a-blazing.  Deathsmiles is set to release for the 360 in Japan next year, and it wears it’s gothic-lolita fetish proudly as it tears through a Halloween-inspired dogfight.  Trigger Heart Exelica, Muchi-Muchi Pork — don’t even get me STARTED on the juggernaut called Touhou.  Oh, the curtain fire’s not an afterthought.

My argument is this — I understand moe.  Whether it stands to do more damage or increase the longevity of the animation & gaming industries domestic and abroad remains to be seen.  But I’m willing to ’suffer’ meganneko and mecha-musume in my shmups in particular as long as the quality measures up.  Heck, shmups have had a lifelong secret history of lovely Ripley-caliber femmes as well as war-hardened dudes (who do you think pilots those things anyway?)  And likewise in the case of Otomedius’ gallery, if it weren’t for my slavish fandom of the series and lead character designer, I’d have blown the whole thing off and pointed an accusing finger at a shameless quasi-pornographic game as though it were a Leisure Suit Larry title.

 It’s one thing to fault a game, or other media for being poor quality.  Torches and pitchforks for a lackluster anything really.  The Otomedius gallery issue will pass — and those who stick around for the real design sheets will be rewarded — but I hope that good games; really good games that have a tongue-in-cheek or a just-for-fun sort of attitude don’t get thrown under a bus because they’re served with a healthy side of moe.  That’s all I’m sayin’.

Oh yeah, and Minishooter RS Delta.

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Crybringer, Fandom, Internet, games, moe, news, stuff, the Internets. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.