Game of the Day - Cosmo Gang the Video

It's like someone sprayed a Galaga '88 game with the remnants of a 10 year old's birthday party.  But it's cool.

Cosmo Gang the Video (there were previous Cosmo Gang arcade machines) is a Galaga style cute-'em-up with style to spare and a myriad of crazy things that happen.

Let's get the bad out of the way...  The cute is too cute sometimes, especially in the sound and goofy quotes.  Luckily, most of the goofier stuff goes away after Gang 4 or 5 - giving your ears a rest.  Also, there is the occasional "challenging stage" equivalent that is useless and easy.  Luckily, I've been to Gang (stage) 20, and have only seen two of these stages.

Now the good.

Cosmo is incredibly playable.  The enemies fly in and attack in swarms from all different formations and at many different speeds.  The collision detection is well done and the shooting is very satisfying while still remaining challenging.  Every level is drastically different.  The waves of dudes attacking you come from anywhere and attack in all sorts of different ways.

In addition to great levels and controls, Cosmo has a VERY deep and wide variety of enemies, graphics and power-ups.  There are power-ups that give you more and stronger weaponry, there are several different types of "bombs" (buzzsaw, clown face, etc) and other strange things to discover.  Some enemies are killed with one shot.  Some with several.  Some change their attack method after getting shot.  There are also enemies that get larger each time you shoot them until they finally explode.  In later levels, some shoot lasers at you and some breathe fire.  I've been to level 20 and am still seeing new types of enemies and/or power-ups on each level.  It is awesome to have this kind of variety.

In fact, on level 19 some kind of chinese parade dragon went across the screen and I didn't hit it.  Don't know what would have happened.  Also, starting at about level 18, there are (sort of) mines that sit stationary in the sky.  If you hit them within a certain amount of time, they "explode" and shoot bullets in several directions.  If you don't hit it within a certain amount of time, it explodes and shoots those bullets at you.

The cutesy stuff doesn't end either.  About level 10 there is a dude that is shooting at you and if you shoot him, he morphs into something else and walks off apologizing.

So, make sure to stick out the first couple of stages with the annoying quotes and silly challenging stage.  There's WAY more to come.