Criminally Overlooked Games #9: Osman

Osman is an excellent Strider clone.

I could just stop there, but i'd be doing the game a disservice. Osman is not just a clone, it's a pseudo-sequel. The game was designed and programmed by many of the same people who worked on the original Strider, and they put a good effort forth to ensure it was an improvement on their past work. Somewhat surprisingly, it actually is.

The animations are fluid, the control is near perfection, throws and new power ups were added, and the designs are extremely well detailed. There are a lot of subtleties to master in this game.

So, why hasn't anyone heard of it? There's a few reason it's overlooked. For starters.. though Mitchel Corp was not exactly a new manufacturer they were certainly not large. They produced very few of these units, and when the game was released there weren't many very enthusiastic vendors looking to buy them. The game suffers partly from dated hardware, but mostly from tragically small production values.

To add to it's woes, Osman is not exactly a pick up and play game, some sections are outrageously hard even for an arcade game - good luck making it through on one quarter. Neither does it help to have such low quality music and sound effects, well done as they are, and the background story is an absolute mess.

..Not that story was real concern back in the nineties.. but.. yeah. The length of the game could also be considered a bit on the short side, but it's a fun ride while it lasts.