Go Strike!
Omega Strikers is a top-down Animesque Sports Game developed by Odyssey Interactive, releasing in beta on September 16, 2022 and releasing fully on April 27, 2023. It is available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, and Android.
Omega Strikers is a 3v3 hockey-focused game consisting of players taking control of one of the many characters (dubbed "Strikers") to score goals via hitting the "Core" in the game known as "Corestrike".
On November 11th, 2023, the dev team announced that Omega Strikers would no longer be receiving major developer support after the start of 2024. The game is still playable and receives balance updates as of writing, but new content is not being made. However, it is also confirmed that their next game would be set in the Omega Striker's universe.
The playable teams and their Strikers include:
- Frostfire (Juliette, Dubu, Estelle)
- Ember Monarchs (Kai, Era, X)
- SSR (Juno, Asher, Luna)
- Maelstrom (Rune, Atlas, Drek’ar)
- Byte Breakers (Zentaro, Ai.Mi, Finii)
- Clarion Corp. (Rasmus, Kazan, Nao)
- Demon Drive (Octavia, Vyce, Mako)
Omega Strikers contains examples of:
- All Your Powers Combined:
- Nao of Clarion Corp has a moveset that's essentially an amalgamated version of Atlas, Era, Juno, Rune, and Vyce's abilities.
- The "Clarion Test Chamber" arena has five different layout variants that change upon each round. It's main gimmick involves the various setpieces on the map utilizing certain Striker abilities.
- "Project BASS DROP" references team Demon Drive and the Demon Dias arena. Four speakers appear on each corner of the arena push away the Core, as well as any other Striker, upon contact.
- "Project EXPANSE" has a device that triggers Atlas' "Cosmic Expanse" ability on contact.
- "Project MAELSTROM" contains a set in the middle of the arena that grants Era's size buff powers for any Strikers that are successful in securing it before their opposing team can.
- "Project OBSCURA" has two small areas that have a similar effect to Rune's banishment. Strikers can knock opponents into these mini-fields to cripple them.
- "Project XENO" has two red pads on opposite sides of the arena that grant any Striker the same invisibility powers as Drek'ar's "Xeno Cloak" ability if they step into it.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The mysterious energy known as Omega has been observed to cause extraordinary events, like turning Rasmus from being physically incapable into a Corestrike player.
- Animesque: Look, if a character artist of the game
describes making one of the game's models as "Learning how to make anime waifu models has been a blast", the game is probably Animesque. - Batman Gambit: The predictability of the core's movement (...with some practice) can allow crafty players to intercept and avoid the opposing team's attempts at plays.
- Beach Episode: Season 2 is this, with a Visual Novel based around a beach party, some characters getting beach-themed skins, and a new beach map with large map-spanning water cannons.
- Bloodless Carnage: Despite many forms of violence being possible in the game up to Luna appearing to drop mini nukes with her Special ability, any logical signs of bodily harm from suffering these attacks do not appear in the game.
- Break Meter: Players have a number and a green bar above their head for the "Stagger". The bar getting completely depleted causes them to be "Staggered", making them far more vulnerable to being knocked back while Staggered and very liable to be KOed from further attacks, but otherwise does nothing to them aside from perhaps activating or deactivating certain Awakenings while also probably making them prefer to hang back to let Stagger regeneration kick in to end being Staggered.
- Casting a Shadow: Rune utilizes the dark power of Obscura to teleport and banish opposing players.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Frostfire consists of Juliette (red), Dubu (yellow), and Estelle (blue).
- Combat and Support: The Ember Monarchs consist of Kai and X as the combat and Era as the support, or rather, X as combat, Era as support, and Kai as actually playing the game. Era is acutely aware of this and wants to remain the support so she can remain out of the spotlight.
- Confusion Fu: Finii’s modus operandi. This is especially apparent with her Misdirection ability which fires a projectile that almost immediately changes direction.
- Cute Giant: Dubu is a 7-foot-tall fluffy hamster who has a hearty appetite. What's not to love?
- Elemental Punch: Juliette can unleash a flaming punch and a flaming kick as two of her abilities.
- An Ice Person: Estelle and her attacks have an icy motif as the “frost” part of Frostfire.
- Fictional Sport: The sport that the game consists of is called "Corestrike". The rules of the game seem to be two teams of three players (one goalie, two forwards) trying to the rounded "core" into the opponents' goal to score a point, up to a limit (with certain modes having up to five sets) - and it is possible to score on one's own goal, giving the other team the point. Players do not appears to be allowed to hold onto the core or hit away off airborne, ala air hockey, though they do appear to be able allowed to hit it in any conceivable way and the ''Energy Burst/"Core Flip" mechanic does cause the core to be flipped and spin upward into the air for a moment before falling back to the ground, giving the flipper momentary control of the core up until it hits the ground/they hit the core. That aside, the sport's idea of Unnecessary Roughness appears be about non-existent - it's just the players can't actually kill each other with the variety of fireballs, blades, guns or missiles they might use, only knock each other out of the playing field to force a short reprieve before they are teleported back in a corner to play some more. Also, it clearly does not disbar giant hamsters, aliens, oni or people possessed by insidious shadowy creatures from playing.
- Friendly Fireproof: Fire off your guns and lightning strikes as much as you want with your allies in the way, you can't harm them anyway.
- Heal Thyself: Power Orbs periodically spawn in set spots on all maps, restoring the Stagger of the next player who moves over them before they disappear to wait for spawning there again, in addition to giving that player experience and energy.
- Instant-Win Condition: No matter how many players are currently on the field or what their levels are, putting the core in the opposing team's goal is all that matters. This can make it possible for the enemy team to have scored even while their entire team has been knocked out.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Zentaro is described as a feared opponent with his katana and is able to fight against even the most composed players.
- Limit Break: Energy Burstnote . Each player has a three segment energy bar that builds up when they hit the Core or collect health orbs (with some Awakenings also granting energy). They can consume one segment to become Elusive to evade enemy attacks, but when all three are filled, they can use Energy Burst to blast away nearby enemies, instantly stop the Core's momentum, prevent anyone but the user from interacting with the Core for a brief moment, and greatly increase the speed the Core is launched by their next attack within that moment.
- Non-Lethal Warfare: Despite it being possible to attack enemy players in many, many different ways, players apparently do not actually die. Their green bars above their heads are not a Life Meter but actually a Break Meter named "Stagger" and being temporarily eliminated from play is a "KO" (knockout) that only occurs if a player is knocked into an edge of the playing field, which also means no matter how much punishment a player takes, they will never be eliminated unless the attack knocked them into an edge. This indicates that players are only removed from play due to a Ring Out.
- Playing with Fire: Juliette’s attacks are wreathed with flames, and said attacks’ names have a fiery motif. Kai instead hurls purple fireballs and has them coil around him to improve his speed.
- Pokémon Speak: Dubu can manage other intonations, but otherwise can only say his own name. Of course, given he's supposed to be a hamster, the fact that he can say words at all is impressive on its own.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Vyce is the energetic and loud red oni to Octavia’s calm and precocious blue oni. Bonus points for the two actually being oni, though the skin color of them are both red.
- Regenerating Health: Stagger is replenished automatically if a player avoids taking Stagger damage for a while.
- Ring Out: How players are eliminated from play, because despite the methods you can have to attack them, you can't actually kill them - only knock them into an edge of the map to eliminate them, even if their Stagger bar was completely full beforehand.
- Shrinking Violet: Era would rather stay in the shadow of her teammates than in the spotlight. She even sounds surprised if she manages to score a goal.
- Sibling Team: Octavia and Vyce are this, though the two have only begun rebuilding their relationship after their past fallout.
- Starter Mon: Juliette, Kai, Dubu, and Ai.Mi are immediately available upon starting the game for the first time.
- Theme Music Power-Up: During Normal and Competitive matches, the player who earns the most XP for the team that wins the round will have their theme song played through the next round, and will also get first choice of Awakenings.
- Trademark Favorite Food:
- Dubu, though he loves food in general, prefers tofu. Dubu ended up eating so much tofu after Juliette brought him into her grandmother's friend's soondubu restaurant that he grew into the giant he is currently.
- Juno seems to love ice cream, as she asks Asher if the team can get ice cream if they win near-constantly.
- Unnecessary Roughness: Beyond the simple rules of “hit the Core into the goal”, anything goes. Players are routinely punched, kicked, sliced, and bombarded. Drek’ar even carries a laser shotgun into the field and might ask if guns are allowed (apparently, they are!).
- Vague Age: While characters' biographies will even list their height in centimeters, they conspicuously leave out their exact age. While a few facts about that dimension might be gleamed from the biographies (such as, Kai is certainly older than the fifteen he was when he entered the Pro Leagues and lost to Estelle's team), what age the characters are now is pretty much up in the air.
