Omega Boost

Omega Boost was a highly popular rail shooter that debuted in the late stages of the original Playstation. A fast-paced game, it was hailed as having one of the best graphics engines for the system, and is considered by many to be one of the best Macross-style mecha games produced, though it was a short game. It is considered a Sleeper Hit due to poor marketing but high game ratings.

Tropes used in Omega Boost include:

• A God Am I - Alpha Core's ultimate plan in the game; integrate itself into ENIAC, the first human computer, and attach itself to humankind's computer development. As human computer technology builds over time, as does its influence over humanity.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot – Alpha Core itself. Given that the opening CG shows Omega Boost being launched to counteract it after its forces just got done wiping New York City off the map, this counts.
  • Subverted in the Backstory. Alpha Core had been in the "Network" longer than humanity had, and is in fact older than humankind. Once it discovered humankind's presence, it decided to aid humankind's progress so they can expand into the Network as much as it had, and had actually nourished human technological development for a long time. When humankind discovered it, they reacted disagreeably and tried to destroy it in their fear. Alpha Core was pissed.
• Attack Its Weak Point - When fighting bosses and minibosses, your Scan ability will lock-on to numerous targets on them which can be fired upon with your homing lasers. The more lock-ons you get, the more damage you can inflict upon. Also, the only way you can deal serious damage on Zone 8's boss is by attacking the red crystal on it's back. You can only target when its ejected though.
• Attack Reflector – Alpha Core, in the final timeshaft. It and all eight of its little buddies surrounding itself. The trick is, the Core only reflects your homing lasers, and the smaller orbs only reflect your machine gun.
• Badass – 1st Lieutenant Lester J. Hemming, who is the Omega Boost’s pilot. Not that you would ever know that.
• Battle Aura – Omega Boost glows blue upon activating Viper Boost.
• Battleship Raid - Zone 6's miniboss is a literal example.
• Beam Spam – Omega Boost is capable of launching homing lasers at its enemies. Complete with Roboteching.
• BFG - The weapon of the titular mecha.
• Camera Lock On – The Scan ability. Also doubles for keeping the player’s motions two-dimensional for moving down timeshafts.
• Cool Bike - A miniboss in Zone Seven. And it splits into two other minibosses upon its defeat, who happen to be its wheels.
• Cutscene Power to the Max - The opening CG, when the Omega Boost uses its BFG as a shoulder-mounted weapon to fire a gigantic laser cannon which takes out a whole fleet of ships in one blast. You never get to use the weapon like this... but by the time that fleet actually shows up in the game, a fully-charged Viper Boost can wipe them all out.
  • Before that part, Omega Boost guarded itself from one of the battleships's Wave Motion Gun with an Energy Shield. You don't have that shield ingame. In Zone 6, you actually get to fight one such battleship as a miniboss. Said battleship's Wave Motion Gun will vaporize you if it hits.
• Cyborg - Remember that Sand Worm you fought before? Fast forward several hundred years into the future where planet Eta is now a Cyberpunk planet. That worm is now a space-dwelling cyborg worm!
• Earthshattering Kaboom - Hope you're not too attached to planet Eta.
• Flunky Boss – A few.
• Gainax Ending: Not in the Japanese version, at the very least, which is DEADLY tied into the plot; but the US version shows an supercomputer operation footage coming straight from 1946, with some J-pop as a background theme. The reason why it's here, though, is because it is ENIAC itself.
• Humongous Mecha – Pretty much everything. Omega Boost is a very large robot. Most of the enemies it takes on are also more or less its size, and all of the bosses are bigger.
• We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill - Part of the backstory. Alpha Core was actually quite nice, and aided humanity for a long time before it was discovered. But then humankind tried to kill it.
• Laser Blade - Several enemies make use of this.
• Level Up - Perform well enough in a level, and you gain an upgrade to your Boost Level, which makes Omega Boost stronger. You'll generally need them.
• Light Is Not Good - Alpha Core's One-Winged Angel form. Your Mileage May Vary though, considering what humanity tried to do to it that made it hold a grudge.
• Limit Break – Viper Boost. Even comes with its own charging gauge.
• Mirror Boss - Kind of. One of the bosses is pretty much bigger version of Omega Boost. You fight it twice, and upon defeating it the second time, it activates its own version of Viper Boost as a last ditch effort to take you down.
• One Robot Army
• One-Winged Angel – Alpha Core. Once you defeat it in the timeshaft, you have to take it on one more time, except this time, it’s in a golden angelic form with wings.
• Our Angels Are Different - See One-Winged Angel above.
• Ramming Always Works – The Viper Boost ability, in which Omega Boost simply rams itself through the enemies attacking it. Which is powerful as hell, and can clear the screen of enemies. Can’t use it very often, however.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni - Omega Boost is the blue oni while the rival mech (boss of Zone 2 and Zone 7) is the red oni.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience - When activating the Viper Boost, Omega Boost's Battle Aura is blue while the rival's one is red.
• Sand Worm - The second miniboss in Zone 4.
• Sequential Boss
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong – Actually, you’re going back in time to prevent a rogue artificial intelligence from altering ENIAC, the first computer.
• Shout-Out - Planet Eta itself is a shout out to both Dune and Transformers, both prior to and after traveling down the timeshaft. Before the timeshaft travel, the planet has a strong resemblance to the sand planet Arrakis, the titular planet of Dune, complete with it's own Sand Worms. After the timeshaft travel, the planet is completely cyberized and now looks more like Cybertron.
  • Omega Boost's booster pack is similar to that of the Crossbone Gundam's.
  • Omega Boost's homing lasers functions pretty much the same way as those in the Ray Series games.
  • Zone 3's miniboss definitely has Macross written all over it, right down to it's ability to transform into a jet and using Macross Missile Massacre as it's primary form of attack.
  • The Viper Boost bears a strong resemblance to the V-MAX system on the Layzner
• Smart Bomb – Technically not a bomb, but Viper Boost counts.
• Recurring Boss - A couple. Remember the sand worm in Zone Four, and the larger robot that you fought in Zone Three? Remember how you never actually saw them blow up in those levels? You'll be seeing them again.
• Reset Button – At the end of the game, you stop Alpha Core from altering ENIAC. This solves all of the problems in the game.
• That One Level – For many players, it was Zone Five, where Omega Boost heads down a timeshaft buried on planet Eta’s surface. Of course, it got much easier once they discovered the Scan button.
  • Honestly, that wasn't particularly hard. It was fighting Beta Boost in a Time Limit Boss fight where the boss repairs itself that was hard. After that? You have to fight another boss with the time leftover. Better make it count.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth – in the final level, Alpha Core tries to eat Omega Boost. Of course, the pilot isn’t having any of that.
• Wave Motion Gun - Zone 6's miniboss, a battleship as seen in the intro cinematic, has one mounted in it's bow. It tries to fry you with it before you fight it and tries again after you defeat it, by teleporting directly behind you so that you're in the gun's path.
  • A couple of bosses have these as well.
• Worm Sign - Watch for those waves in the sand in Zone 4. Those a nasty subterranean critters running around.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle - Lester activates the timeshaft on planet Eta in Zone Five, which is supposed to take him to year 1946. It teleports him a few hundred years into planet Eta's future, where the planet has been completely cyberized. And it's got a brand new battlefleet.