SHMUP fans are no doubt already waiting for this game to come out since the genre has been so sparse in recent years. If you’re not a SHMUP fan, there’s a chance you’re thinking “what the hell is a SHMUP?” Well, fear not. It’s modern shorthand for “shoot-em-up” – games like 1942, R-Type, and even Space Invaders are all classic examples of the genre. Usually, you take the role of a ship fighting wave after wave of aliens, but Omega Five looks to shake up that formula a little.

Essentially, Omega Five is a sidescrolling shooter where you’ll continually press to one side of the screen in order to achieve victory. While in essence it fits right within the traditional SHMUP formula, there’s a ton of new stuff going on here that will definitely be a treat for fans.

First of all, there are only four levels in this Xbox Live Arcade downloadable title. Each one lasts a good while and provides a huge amount of challenge. Each stage has a final boss, and most of them have a mid-boss as well. You’ll have a few continues to try to get you through the challenge, but chances are you’re going to need to try a few times because this game is relentless. Maybe not Ikaruga relentless, but close. As I played the game in Hudson’s northern California studio, I was told that only one person on the staff has been able to make it all the way through the game. If that doesn’t sell the challenge, nothing will.

You start off with two playable characters to select from in the beginning of the game, although two more are unlockable. Ruby is described as the “somewhat scantily clad female” character, Tempest is the defensive powerhouse, RAD is similar to Ruby but faster, and Sensei is an old ninja who has a sword instead of a gun (although the swipes of the blade emanate waves that function as bullets). Each character offers a totally different set of weapons, a different type of strategy, and very different gameplay.

Each character has three weapons that you’ll switch between by picking up powerups. In addition to that, each weapon can be leveled up twice by picking up additional powerups, and your leveled weapons will persist even if you pick up a different gun on accident. For example, if you have a level three Type-A and pick up a Type-B, simply pick up another Type-A powerup to get back to full power. Also, every weapon has an alternate fire type. For example, Sensei will send his dog to lock onto an enemy and then use ranged attacks to take them down. STILL more comes in the form of a dodge attack. Only Tempest can use this move as an offensive attack, and it takes away a little health when you use it, but it will certainly save your hide in a sticky spot. EVEN STILL MORE comes in the form of the pink triangles that dead enemies expel. Pick up 100 of these, and you’ll earn a satellite that will either take some damage for you, or can be detonated to clear all enemies on screen. You can earn up to three of these at once, and they’re tracked by a very efficient little counter in the bottom left corner of the screen.

The levels in Omega Five are only going to add to the challenge, because they look so good you may just get distracted. I’ll be honest – in my short playtime I couldn’t get past the second (extremely challenging) level, so I can’t vouch for 3 or 4, but the first two environments are very different. Level one is a snowy blizzard where the weather actually gets worse as you progress through the stage, and level two is a sort of jungle level with lots of foliage. They tell me this game is less than 50mb, but with visuals like this, I can’t believe that until I see it on XBLA. (No, I really do believe it, but the quality to filesize ratio is simply astounding.)

If you manage to complete the campaign, you’ll unlock ++ Mode where one hit kills you. Trust me – this is going to kick your ass, no matter how good you think you are at SHMUPs. Also unlockable is Challenge Mode and Challenge Mode ++. Challenge is a single-level romp that’s unlocked when you clear a stage, and Challenge ++ exactly what you think it is – Challenge Mode with one-hit deaths for you.

Two players can go at the game at once in an effort to defeat the relentless difficulty, but don’t expect a lot of help. Both players must share continues, and it’s this reason that onlince co-op wasn’t implemented. Since one player can easily ruin the game by dying too many times, the developers told me that you need to be able to punch the person you’re playing with, and that’s just not possible on Xbox Live (yet). However, if you play the game for a certain amount of time, you’ll get some extra continues to help you along your way.

SHMUPs may be few and far between in this day and age, but Omega Five is a brilliant example of how this genre can continue to evolve on next-gen consoles. Look for this downloadable title early ’08, and stay tuned to Game Almighty for all the latest news on the title.