Otocky can be described as a musical side-scrolling shoot 'em up. The player's spaceship has a ball for a weapon, which can be fired in eight directions; each direction corresponds to a different musical note. The note plays when the player presses the fire button, and is also quantized in time so that it matches the beat playing in the background. By using the weapon selectively the player can improvise music while playing.
Reviews View More
insanely cool gameplay idea but it gets a lil repetitive and that final level is kinda balls and i didn't feel like finishing it. absolutely worth checking out at least a little bit of it though
A novel idea to complete a catchy melody via your own projectiles but as the notes that are produced can't be used by the player when he wants, unless it's done sticking to a rythm, the music that ends up as the final product of the set rythm and the input of the "player-artist" are technically random noises that are not able to consistently be replicated to make music that can be used to communicate something.
This is just nice sounding noises, though I commend the programmers to be able to make them at least sound nice in the first place even for players with the worst sense of rythm of the world, and it's very amusing to hear those noises despite the fact you are trying to dodge a lot of things on screen that forces you to be pragmatic instead of artistic... Despite the fact you can only shoot in rythm.
Yeah... I don't think it's that good of an idea as everyone claims it is despite the originality. Just play well to unlock the level beats in the music maker mode because there's not a lot of value in the shooter half of the experience
This is just nice sounding noises, though I commend the programmers to be able to make them at least sound nice in the first place even for players with the worst sense of rythm of the world, and it's very amusing to hear those noises despite the fact you are trying to dodge a lot of things on screen that forces you to be pragmatic instead of artistic... Despite the fact you can only shoot in rythm.
Yeah... I don't think it's that good of an idea as everyone claims it is despite the originality. Just play well to unlock the level beats in the music maker mode because there's not a lot of value in the shooter half of the experience
As a music toy, it's great. As a scrolling shooter, it's pretty bad.
A SHMUP on the Famicom where you’re effectively making the music as you play it. Something like that for the time has to be experienced to be believed, it's extremely cool. Gameplay-wise it’s only ok and a little too hard towards the end (I technically didn't beat it), but it’s worth experiencing.
While the gameplay is somewhat shallow and contrived, the star here is the BGM Mode and Music Maker, which—overall—contribute to a fun little package. This amounts to Otocky playing more like a toy than game, which I'm glad Toshio Iwai embraced as a concept in the culmination of Elektroplankton. A historical oddity, for sure, and worth checking out.
Nonostante il gameplay ripetitivo, ma va beh ha tipo 30 anni sto gioco, mi sono decisamente divertito. Gli sfondi così come i colori e la musica sono tutti molto stralunati e particolari, il concept dietro è sicuramente interessante e penso la base per tanti giochi musicali venuti dopo. Impossibile non premiare la lungimiranza e la creatività di Toshio Iwai