I've said it before and I'll say it again, the main reason, if not the only reason, why I have an Xbox 360 are shoot em ups/2D shooters. Otomedius Excellent was my second Xbox 360 game (my first Xbox 360 game was Lollipop Chainsaw), and sure, after this game, I got other 2D shooters for Xbox 360 (recently I got Mushihimesama Futari). Otomedius Excellent is one of many games that, in my opinion, gets more hate than it deserves, I can't say that this is the best game of its genre, but I really like it, more or less. With a Metascore of 48, I honestly think that this game isn't as bad as some might think, perhaps it's true that some people partially hated this game because of the characters and obvious suggestive content, and, yes, Otomedius Excellent has a lot of fanservice, even the cover already tells you that this game contains fanservice, which is another way of saying that it's a little suggestive...at the same time, however, Otomedius Excellent is a game with a T rating and two of its three content descriptors are ''Suggestive Themes'' and ''Partial Nudity'', what can you expect with a game with those two content descriptors? a game for kids? Of course not. Would an M rating be more fitting for this game? I don't know, but no one can deny that this game isn't appropriate for kids and that it deserves at least a T rating. I know of someone (Ser Flash of Studio Mudprints) who was especially...disgusted by Poini Kune, and yes, she looks like a little girl...without being a little girl (like Mirai of Senran Kagura), it definitely seems that the girls of Otomedius Excellent attend something similar to a high school, so, if we know that she isn't a little girl, even if the ages aren't mentioned, and that Poini Kune only looks like a little girl and is actually at least a teenager...what's the problem? I...I don't know, maybe it's just me and i'm completely indifferent when it comes to character designs like that, but...people have to remember that it doesn't matter how much they complain about that kind of character designs, someone at the ESRB looked at this game and said ''hmm, it's definitely suggestive and it's not for kids, but it's not something only appropiate for adults either, a T rating is fine''. Regardless if the female characters in an anime style game look like little girls or teenagers, the ESRB usually gives these games a T rating, people have complained about content that sexualizes minors in the Atelier games, for example, but even if that's true, usually those games get a T rating here in America which means that they aren't seen as games only appropriate for adults...let that sink in. I have to side with the ESRB regarding those games (and many others), they rate the impact of the content...a female character that looks like a girl of the age of 9 wearing suggestive clothes isn't more gratuitous than a female character that looks like an adult wearing the same kind of clothes. Anyway...this is my review.

Story: Regarding the story, this is exactly what's written in the manual: ''It's been months since the Gofa Sisters' invasion. It has been a time of tranquility, though several new members have joined the secret interdimensional anti-Bacterian organization ''G.'' However, during that time, a powerful dark force from deep space was preparing for an assault on Earth. Now, the war of Angels is beginning again.'' Considering that Otomedius Excellent is the sequel of a game that, sadly, won't be released in America (Otomedius Gorgeous), it makes sense that the manual says that ''the war of Angels is beginning again'', this isn't the first time that the sequel of a game that wasn't released in the American continent gets a release for this continent, however, the same thing applies for Conception II, for example. I guess that the story works, it's another story of saving the world, and it's there...that's it, like other games (Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg comes to mind), the game has a story , the story works and, not much else, it's true that this is a 2D shooter, and 2D shooters aren't known for their stories, but there are examples of 2D shooters that detail the story more than this game in the manual (Akai Katana), there is even at least one 2D shooter that actually has a story that I like. I would have liked that Konami had translated the game into Spanish, they used a tiny mexican flag on the back of the box and the text is translated into Spanish, they said that ''Hasta 3 jugadores juegan simultáneamente'' (totally true), even the manual is (badly) translated into my first language, because of the fact that they bothered to translate the back of the box and the manual into Spanish, one might expect that the game is translated too, even if the game doesn't have a lot of dialogue, but no...this game and its dialogue are only translated into English...oh well, at least the game doesn't have a lot of story.

Graphics: Otomedius Excellent is a game that definitely doesn't impress. For some reason, the game doesn't run perfectly and it has moments of slowdown, which are a little annoying but don't affect the experience that much. The 3D graphics look okay, maybe, and the water actually looks nice, that said, the water is usually one of the most attractive things in this game (seriously, it looks better than almost the rest of the game), and although I like the 2D art, I can't deny that I like the 2D art of pretty much every anime style game, there is a reason why some people say 2D > 3D. Overall, it looks like a game that could run on the Playstation 2 or Dreamcast, it doesn't help that the 2D art is more generic than the art of other games, even though as I said, I like the art of this game. Many 2D shooters have better graphics, Deathsmiles has better graphics, Akai Katana has better graphics, Dodonpachi Saidaioujou has better graphics, Raiden V has better graphics, I think that even R-Type Final on the PS2 looks better than this. At least the images of the bosses that appear during the game are animated, and that's something great, especially for its time considering that this game came out before Dodonpachi Saidaioujou, animated 2D art in a 2D shooter during the gameplay was something new, and that was introduced with this game, or the previous one, Otomedius Gorgeous. I can't say that the graphics are horrible, but I can't say that the game looks really nice either, Otomedius Excellent...looks okay, I guess.

Sound: In my experience with 2D shooters, these games often have a soundtrack that is mostly okay, and Otomedius Excellent is one of those games, if it wasn't for the song used during the opening (fly) and the song used during the credits (OTOMETIC), I would have given this category a 6, the sound effects don't stand out, and sometimes, it seems that there aren't enough sound effects. The soundtrack, as I've said before, is mostly okay, the themes aren't unpleasant to listen to and I wouldn't say that the music sounds bad, it's just that, for the most part, the music is there and it's okay, the vocal songs and the music used in the seventh level (The Movement of Water on Earth) are, in my opinion, the best music tracks in the game, those are themes that I would actually describe as ''good'', at least. It's funny that I've said before that 2D shooters often have music that doesn't qualify as ''good'', considering that many people (I think) have said that 2D shooters have had amazing music...I've listened to the music of the Shikigami no Shiro games, Nanostray 2, Life Force, Fullblast, and...all of those games have acceptable music and I'm sure that other people agree with me. Otomedius Excellent doesn't have an English dub, which I do not like, if I seem like a person who prefers to play Japanese games with an English dub that's because I am, I openly admit that I am more of a dub person, and personally, I'd rather have a poor English dub than no dub at all. The lack of an English Dub is even more irritating when one remembers the fact that this game was developed and published by Konami, not only that, but there are 2D shooters that were dubbed into English and the publishers are or were much smaller than Konami, Every game in the Shikigami no Shiro series was dubbed into English, Castle Shikigami 2 has a lot of voiced events and the game was published by XS Games (a defunct video game publisher, maybe), in my opinion, the voice acting is occasionally decent, then we have the sequel, Castle of Shikigami III, which was published by Aksys games, that game has a better English dub than the previous game and it's one of several games that Aksys has dubbed into English...Raiden V was also dubbed into English...yeah, I don't like the fact that this game doesn't have an English dub, unlike the games I just mentioned...

Addictiveness: It's not the best 2D shooter of all time, but that doesn't mean that this game isn't very fun, maybe it's because I'm a fan of 2D shooters (even though I'm very bad at them). Otomedius Excellent plays like a Gradius game, I haven't played a Gradius game before but anyway, you control your ship or character in a horizontal perspective, during the levels you destroy waves of enemies, and you can also change your weaponry on the fly, during the levels you can upgrade your shots or add missiles, you can even activate a shield if you feel the need. Most of the abilities you can use during the gameplay (your options) can be customized before you start playing, and that customization is something that many people will appreciate. It's true that the backgrounds can be blinding in the sense that at times, it's hard to see missiles or small bullets, but, not only that can be applied to other games in the genre, it is also rare, I'm not going to lie and say ''that never happens'', but...as someone who has played this game many times, I would say that it's something that happens 3 or 4 times at worst, missiles or bullets hard to see in this game are rare, and overall, it barely affects the experience in my opinion, I honestly think that people sometimes exaggerate that aspect of the game, Otomedius Excellent is not unplayable, and in my opinion, this game is really fun. The game also has local multiplayer and up to three players can play simultaneously, something rare in 2D shooters, of course, the game can be (or is) chaotic if three players play simultaneously, but at least as a single player game, Otomedius Excellent is fun, very fun, this is one of my most played Xbox 360 games.

Depth: This is a 2D shooter, you can literally beat this game in less than an hour, however, the game has several playable characters and depending on who you are, you might want to beat this game with every character, especially considering the fact that this game has a gallery with images to unlock, you can unlock all the images in the gallery in less than 12 hours, perhaps, but the 3 difficulty levels are also a reason to come back for more, even if you play the game with a character you have already used. I think I have beaten this game with every playable character on all difficulties, and even so, I still play this game, simply because it's fun, I like it. The game certainly doesn't offer much, but it's a 2D shooter, and for what it is, it's a nice package.

Difficulty: I'm not good at 2D shooters, and I admit that this game initially was difficult, fortunately, Otomedius Excellent, like other 2D shooters, has unlimited continues, which means that anyone can beat this game. The game is less challenging than other 2D shooters, it might be a difficult game at first, but with some practice , you should be able to beat this game without problems, after all, Otomedius excellent is, so far, the only 2D shooter that I have finished without continuing (the use of shields also helps), an achievement commonly called ''1CC''.

Even if you haven't played a Gradius game before, I still recommend this game, and if you are new to the genre, this is a good starting point thanks to its low difficulty compared to other 2D shooters, overall the game is very friendly for new players, especially compared with something like Akai Katana, a bigger challenge and also a game with complex gameplay. You can easily get this game for $18 or less, with a price like that, it's worth it, I have no doubts about that.