PlanetDreamcast | Games | Reviews | Bangai-O

Bangai-O Page 2/2 Collect fruit and blow stuff up. - Review By digitaltaco Look at all the missiles, and this is a tame shot! The game is extremely chaotic. Gameplay involves shooting enemy ships and building throughout the different spaceports and collecting the fruit dropped by your victims. The basic levels start off easy, but ramp up in difficulty nicely as you move along. Before you know it, you'll be clearing blocks from your path and trying to figure out how to take down lasers in narrow corridors. You'll encounter some mild puzzle elements like these in some of the levels, but most of the time, you'll only be concerned with shooting, and shooting fast! The number of enemies you'll be fighting is pretty ridiculous. You better hope you've got some twitch gaming skills somewhere inside of you if you want to master this game. One thing that will definitely help out is the aforementioned super move. When you hit the R button, a rain of projectiles will be released from your craft in all directions. If there are only a few enemies onscreen, the effect is mild. But when there are tons of enemies onscreen, the number of missiles or lasers you will fire is insane. The move essentially clears the screen for you. And you actually get points for the number of explosions that are occurs at the same time. So using the super move at the right time is part of the strategy you'll need to rack up some serious points. At the end of every stage, you are treated to a boss fight and a cutscene. And like the levels themselves, the difficulty of the bosses increasing nicely from level to level. Graphically, Bangai-O has some nice features. Mainly, it has the ability to display an insane number of enemies, bullets, rockets, and lasers all onscreen at the same time. During the super move, for example, the screen can become completely full of little sprites, and yet, there is little or no slowdown. And in normal battle, don't worry about slowdown at all, because it is non-existent. Also, game menus and artwork are all very nice looking, if not a bit campy and quirky. But fans of Japanese humor will not be disappointed. This game just feels right. Yes, that is Ultraman in his hands. A boss who plays with dolls is not one to be feared. The sound effects and music, while not fabulous, work very well with the overall feel of the title. The music has a happy anime feel to it, and it flows quite nicely with the gameplay. The sound effects are clear and crisp. Everything from gunfire to explosions sounds suitable and doesn't get annoying, even after you've heard it for forty minutes of game time. The siren that let's you know you're about to die is really annoying and loud, on the other hand. Letting me know of my imminent demise is one thing. Helping me closer to it is another. Also, the voices were kept in Japanese and help keep the quirkiness intact. It's all good. Besides the siren... That's bad. The Bad Okay, no game is perfect, and neither is Bangai-O. The first gripe is a graphical one. While the game is able to display an absurd amount of stuff onscreen at once, it just isn't that good looking to begin with. Your ship is small, and lacks detail. Enemies and surrounding are fairly boring, and the whole thing just lacks graphical polish. There are pretty much no special effects. Of course, you've got to realize that beautiful graphics are not what this game is about. Even so, there are some beautiful 2-D games out there. This game just feels bland. Nonetheless, the graphics do get the job done, and I guess that's enough for me. The game does not support the VGA box and unlike many unsupported games, you can't trick it into working by pulling out the cord while starting the machine. So, if you're like me, and you play all your games on a VGA monitor, you're going to be in trouble. Luckily, the game was fun enough to make moving the Dreamcast to my television worthwhile. In Bangai-O, the ultimate goal is to get as many points in a given level as possible. Bangai-O is different from most modern games in that getting a certain number of points isn't going unlock anything new, like artwork, cutscenes, or anything like that. While I'm fine with this, some people may have a problem with this classic points-based gameplay. If you do, then this title just may not be rewarding enough for you. That's right folks, the gameplay itself is supposed to be the reward. I would have liked to have seen a two-player, cooperative mode in this game. While blasting enemies and collecting fruit is a blast, doing the same with a friend could only be more enjoyable. And while the omission of a two-player mode doesn't drastically hurt gameplay, it would have been a very nice addition. The Final Word For somebody who doesn't play many shooters and is not "hardcore," I had a blast with Bangai-O. I think whether or not you enjoy this game, will simply be a matter of whether or not you enjoy its gameplay. It does what it sets out to do very well. So if you're even remotely interested, go pick it up now and have fun. I know I did. Developer: Treasure Publisher: Conspiracy Games Genre: Shooter Highs: Great old-school shooter gameplay, intuitive controls, and 40+ levels of gameplay. Lows: Bland graphics and no multiplayer modes. Other: 1 player, VMU (5 blocks). Final Score: (out of a possible 10) Visit this Game's Dreamcast Database Entry Previous Reviews Comments on this review? Mail Feedback.