Osman Longplay (Arcade) [4K]

Game Info
---------------------------------------------------
Developer: Mitchell
Publisher: Mitchell
Year of Release: 1996

Game Review & Impressions
---------------------------------------------------
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

If Osman needed a strapline, I think this would be fitting. It's another game from Mitchell, creators of Pang, which I'd never heard of before. However, it took only a few seconds of actual gameplay to work out I was on deceptively familiar ground.

It's pretty obvious from the outset Osman owes a debt to Capcom's Strider. Underneath the fancy artwork, it's pretty much the same game, complete with emphasis on melee combat and jumping/climbing over the game's scenery. There's surprisingly little to set these two games apart, other than the improved graphics and artwork which, given the 7 year age gap, is the minimum one would expect.

This isn't to say Osman is a bad game, because it's not. The controls and mechanics are implemented well and looks impressive to boot. If you enjoyed Strider, I would suspect Osman might tickle your fancy also.

It does, however, have some problems. The story is almost incomprehensible, and the small size of the character sprites makes it easy to lose track if the character underneath the huge volume of explosions, gaudy colour palette and rainbow of effects vomited liberally on to the screen. Sure, the fidelity of the artwork might be an improvement over Strider, but it's counterintuitive when you have difficulty keeping up with the action.

Despite it's issues, I thought Osman was a pretty cool game. It's fast-paced and, with it's neon-infused visuals, certainly looks different to a lot of the arcade games out there. I'm not convinced it's better than Strider, but it's interesting to see somebody else's interpretation on that particular game style.

Chapters
---------------------------------------------------
00:00 Attract mode
00:17 Stage 1
03:08 Stage 2
05:47 Stage 3
08:16 Stage 4
11:03 Stage 5
15:39 Stage 6
20:24 Ending

#retrogaming #arcadegames #longplay