Bangai-O (Dreamcast Shooter)

Bangai-O is a pretty amazing shooter. Produced by Treasure, a company I have yet to find a bad game from, it has a surprisingly simple setup. Your character is a small mecha, with the ability to move and shoot in 8 directions, and switch between 2 modes: homing missles and bouncing lasers. Moving direction is independent from firing direction, as in games like Smash TV or Robotron:2084. Most enemy fire is in the form of missles that an be shot down, and you have a decently sized health bar. However, the game does not hold back on filling the screen with things that shoot at you, enemies that fire large numbers of missles at once, or give you any invincibility period upon being hit. Due to this, it is quite the challenge, at least after the first few levels.

Your only weapons are your rapidfire 8-directional missles and lasers, and a sort of "alpha strike" in which you fire a large number of shots in all directions. The alpha strike is limited in uses, and you gain more power in a charging bar which gives you more uses as you hit things with any attack. You start each level with 2 full charges, and can store at most 5.

It does not automatically scroll, so you are free to move where you will. At the end of each level is a boss of some sort, often a mecha that is similar to your own in most respects. Each level is played independently, as one discrete unit. If you die, you must restart the level from the beginning, which gets frustrating sometimes on easy levels with truly difficult bosses.

The graphics are good, but pretty simplistic. The style is an anime sort of drawing style, and the game is depicted in a much more cutesy format than most serious shooters. Every sprite is quite small, which is an advantage as it allows you to see more of the screen at once. The levels can be quite expansive, and tend to be well thought out. There are 40 in all, and you can play any level you've previously beaten and the next one in the order. The music is quite good as well, not getting in the way of the key action of the game.

All in all, this is a game built on gameplay and level design, with simple yet strategic action. No complex power up systems here, just what you start with and how you use it.About the only complaint I might make about it is the severe difficulty jump: the first 7 levels are remarkably easy, and level 8 is really easy until the boss, but levels after that are uniformly very, very difficult. This works in an almost tutorial-esque fashion for a first time player at times, giving you 7 levels to get used to the controls and "rules" of the game, then tossing you into a far more difficult boss battle than you've so far encountered. For a seasoned shooter player this isn't too annoying, but it would likely turn off a casual player.

This is one of the best shooters I've played for any system, for the serious shmup fan. I would highly recommend it to any shmup fan, and recommend that a casual player try it first before tracking down a copy. Obtaining a real copy of it is somewhat difficult, but if you don't mind piracy, any Dreamcast game is quite easily obtainable for play on the original system.