Hi everybody,

Finally the Slash Update is close to completion, and it went a little out of my hands in terms on quantity of stuff and changes. Initially, I was going to work in adding new weapons and around 8 challenges. Then as I started including stuff in the game I had the need to change lots of stuff and at the end... the game becomes totally different to the initial release after all this work.

Let me introduce you the changes you will find in the Slash Update release the first week of May:

New Home

The home has been totally changed. Now you will find a simple system to pick galaxies and stages to play on. I made this chance in order to be able to create more and more content in the future while providing an easy way to pick a stage easily.

• Map with unlockable stages  -  Now you will need to complete challenges to open new navigation routes to reach new stages. There will be some parallel routes to reach some stages, while other stages can only be reached by a certain way.
• Galaxies splitting different kind of experiences  -  I created different galaxies that will contain stages with similar characteristics. For example, Sirius Black is a region based on blast weapons, and from there you will be able to access Hard Nebulosa, where lots of machinegun and shotgun challenges will be available, but also if you want to shoot down robots or play dodge games, you will find galaxies for them too.

Two main galaxy branches

There are two main galaxies available from the start, Sirious Blast (it will be the initial galaxy shown in the navigator), and Slash Casiopea.

• Sirious Blast  - Includes the old basic weapon and dodge challenges, while it got extended with a lot more action packed challenges and a lot of surprises.
• Slash Casiopea - Includes a new close combat game system that will focus on frenetic non-stop waves of fast enemy body attacks. Forget the previous bipeds behaviours where you had to get close to them because they kept the distance from you... Slash Casiopea  stages will make you busy destroying lots and lots of biped enemies coming after your skull.

New Challenges

The game includes 21 new challenges, with a total of 41 challenges. The new set of challenges will place you in more aggresive situations, and will let you clash in fast combat sucession with lots of biped enemies using lots of different new weapons.

New Achievements

The total numbe of achievements now is 85. You will have to compete in all the stages and experiment with all the weapons in order to discover how to unlock the Tony Manero, Triangulation, or how to be Just Like Donny.

New biped enemy

A new foe has been added to the enemies roster. The Mercury unit is a fast biped robot that has two different configurations:

Dark Mercury  -  The Dark units will try to slash you with their claws, and in case their arms get destroyed, they will try to hurt you with their feet.

Crimson Mercury  -  The Crimson units will attack you using their feet only, and you will have to take care with their acrobatic kicks.

New biped frenetic combat

Bipeds behaviour has been updated. In the two old biped stages, they will keep peaceful trying to attack you from the back trying to shoot you and letting you get close to attack at your own peace. However all the new Slash stages will introduce a more aggressive behaviour. Bipeds will run to you in groups and you will be attacked continuously. Now you will not need to move close to them, but be sure they don't get a direct punch to your skull.

New Weapons

You will find a lot of new weapons with their own feeling, advantages and disadvantages.

• Shotgun  -  The shotgun is a powerful weapon that shots  lots of projectiles at the same time,  but with a random spread and a short range, so it may be used with care. The shotgun must be reloaded by pumping it before each shot. You can shoot so fast as  you can pump it.

• Longinus  -  The longinus spear main advantage is its length. It will allow you to attack enemies from afar, but take care because battles in 360º environments can be tricky and you never know when somebody will be at your back.

• 360 Shield  -  The 360 Shield looks like a purple maze, but after you grab it its pole will get extended. Then you can pin it with a strong movement to the floor, and a 360 hex composed shield will appear around you. Each piece is only able to stop a single bullet, and there are gaps among the shield cells, so don't get too confident even if you deployed it. It will be a big help, but will not make you invulnerable.

New Weapons System - Omeha Hands

The Omega Hands system is included in this update, and provides a new kind of combat mechanism where you only need to close or open your hand to use edge and blast weapons.

When you close your hand, an edge weapon will emerge, and when you open your hand, you wil be able to use a short/medium/long range blast weapon, but they require energy. Slash enemies to get energy, and destroy it piece by piece to increment the total energy bonus you get!

In the current release, the Omega Hands challenges come in two different flavours:

• Claws + Shotgun + Buster  -  This setting includes claws in both hands that will appear whenever you close your hands. Also, while your hand is open, if you got enough energy by slashing enemies or waiting a time energy reload, you will be able to  trigger a shotgun shot with your left hand, or a buster shot with your right hand.

The buster can be charged, and a longer charge will increase the energy consumption but will also shoot a bigger energy bullet. Charged shoots can pierce enemies.

The shotgun requires a larger energy ammount than the basic buster shoot, but will help you to destroy enemies spread around you easily. 

• Shield Disk  -  The shield disk doesn't consume energy and have a passive and active mode. While the grab button is not pressed, they will remain at your forearm and can be used to stop bullets (they explode and regenerate after each bullet hit). When you press the grab button you active the active mode, and they will move up over your hand making easier to slice enemies. Moreover, if the disk is in active mode and you ungrab while performing a fast movement, the shield disk will be thrown as a flying edge, and a new one will be regenerated in your wrist in passive mode.

Ingame Combat HUD

The combat HUD has been modified to provide a more clear and easy to check information. Look sligty down anytime and you will see the life metter, energy metters for the left and right hand if using the Omega Hands, and a targets alive counter that will let you know if there are [0-5] enemies alive  or more. For example, if you are playing a snipping stealth stage and you don't know if there are enemies pending, just look down and you will see the number of units remaining.

New Combat Environments

There are new stages, and some modifications to allow different kind of combat in old ones.

Dojo (new)  -  The dojo will be the place fast action combat will take place. Distances are short and enemies will fall from the sky close to you.

The Cube (new)  -  The cube is a middle range action combat stage. Enemies will appear in surrounding platforms, and will jump or run close to you to attack. The surface is bigger so you can move around to keep then under visual control.

Temple (new)  -  The temple is used in a new bonus stage and will provide a different kind of challenge for the shuriken.

Slash combat city (mod)  -  The far city stage has been modified and surrounding platforms have been placed for middle-short range biped slash combat.

Slash snipping space (mod)  -  The previous space snipping stage has been modified too for the slash challenges. You will have surrounding platforms that will allow you to play agains biped enemies who keep you under heavy shoot in a all out snipping war.

New Music

The great music created for the original release by Angel Salazar has been extended including 6 Creative Commons music tracks created by very talented musicians.  So now, there are 10 stage tracks plus the home one.
Each music track authour is credited each time a stage using their tracks is played. I though it was the best way to greet their great help making this wonderful themes CC. If in the future Omega Blade makes some money, I would like to give more than credit to them... because their music is awesome.
If you enjoy listening to the songs,  I'm sure their authors will be pleased if you search for them in SoundCloud or any other social media and follow them.

Fast Retry and Combat Info Skip

Now you can press a "skip" button if you don't want to see the rival intro or the wave results. Also, now you have the chance to retry the challenge without going back to the home.

Pick a World Rival, or a Friend Rival

From the main menu, you can decide if you want to beat a friend score or a world match score. Decide with one will be your next target to chase.

Enemy Bullets Look and Feel

Basic enemy bullets have been modified inclusing a trail and a proximity sound that will help you to notice, locate and dodge them.

So, after the Slash Update, Omega Blade becomes a totally different experience that I hope will make you all happy, or at least will make it easier to free you from some of your daily stress.

My intention is to keep working in so much futures updates as my night time allows me to, as I enjoy a lot playing it. Who knows, maybe if enough players  support Omega Blade I will be able to sleep for some months and work on it durying daylight... Never lose hope ;D