Review – DoDonPachi Resurrection

Vertical-scrolling Shooter

Bernard, I ate all your bees.

Rich

Aw man, I hate reviewing shoot ’em ups, especially the Japanese “manic shooter” type. Not because they are difficult (although they are, staggeringly so) but rather that you really need to know your stuff if you want to review them and not get the various shoot ’em up communities up in arms because you didn’t mention that revision A’s bullet patterns are from v1.08’s second loop fifth-stage mid-boss but can be countered with the mega-hyper-laser-plasma-gun if you’ve got a 95% shot-down rate and haven’t used a continue or something. For a genre that, for the most part, is about a little ship at the bottom shooting lots of ships coming in from the top, these games are complex. Like, hardcore.

Lots of bullets fucking up your day.

Well, I’m not an expert and you’re not an expert. You just want to know what this game is about and whether or not it’s worth buying. Anyone wanting to know about every nuance of the game should probably check out a specialist site but if you’re like me, a half-decent gamer who plays too much shit to specialise in one game, or even genre, for too long, you’re in the right place.

Dodonpachi Resurrection Deluxe Edition is, as previously mentioned, a vertically scrolling shoot ’em up. Although the Donpachi series dates back to 1995 (with this, the fifth game in the series, hitting the arcades in 2008) even then things had progressed remarkably from the early days when such sedate titles as 1942 and Xevious ruled the genre. Those games, while suitably challenging in their day, are like the early levels on Trials HD. Playable and tough enough for normal gamers, but experts always want more of a challenge and Japanese games dev Cave specialised in giving them just that.

That little bit of blatant Wiki research aside, Cave games as a rule tend to feature screens full of enemies and ridiculous bullet patterns that at first glance would look completely impenetrable. However, the best games in the genre tend to get you into the zone where your skills, aided by strategic system slowdown, see you escaping apparent certain-death by pixels. This is further aided by your ship usually having a tiny hitbox. In this game’s case it is a mere five pixels squared. However, even with those advantages, the sheer destructive force aimed at you can be utterly demoralising and personal success will come from just trying to get a bit further each time you play it. Get to the end and the quest for perfection then focuses on your scoring.

Lots more bullets fucking up your day even more.

DoDonPachi Resurrection’s story, some bollocks about weaponised fembots and angry bees from what I can tell, isn’t going to interest you if you are just picking this up for some arcade thrills but the vivid, detailed graphics, smooth movement and ridiculous pyrotechnics will. You’ll be better off getting acquainted with the game’s manual as the initial simplicity of the game is soon replaced with a level of complexity that is quite surprising (and daunting). From the combo chaining system to the various weapon modes available to you, mastering this game will take some major homework and that’s before you get a radioactive spider to bite you in order to quicken your reflexes enough to survive level four.

As with Cave’s other console ports, DoDonPachi Resurrection has a few extra modes included (although two more are available as DLC which is a disappointment for what is supposedly a ‘deluxe’ edition) and these all offer a different twist on the core gameplay. Arrange A seems to be the basic arcade mode (listed in the menus as 1.5 L mode whatever that means), Arrange B is a very nice mode where you replay stages over and over, increasing the rank of the enemies in it and therefore your scoring possibilities and the Xbox 360 mode is a twist on Arrange A (or vice versa, whatever) but with the option to pick different ships and customisations.

Each mode feels sufficiently different to make them valid inclusions but nothing stands out as much as Guwange‘s wonderful Xbox mode (which adopts a twin-stick control scheme that is massively improved, in my limited opinion, to the basic arcade control method). A Novice Mode is included as well although when you’re on the game’s fifth and final stage, it feels anything but novice. Xbox and Arrange A both have conditions that when met allow you onto the game’s second loop. These conditions are way beyond my skills though, given that they involve 1CCing the game. Not in this lifetime, Cave.

Despite the literally horrific level of difficulty, I really like Cave shooters. I hope to improve at them but for now I’m happy to slowly plug away at them while regularly crashing and burning and the great graphics and precise gameplay are enough for me to keep going. Besides, this is a niche genre and we are incredibly lucky to be getting these games over here in Europe. If you’re a very casual gamer then DoDonPachi Resurrection may just be a bit too tough for your tastes but Cave are the masters of what they do and if you’re open to new experiences (well old ones really) and don’t mind being humbled, then this is well worth the budget asking price.

Rating: 8/10

(note:  this score reflects the value and experience a regular gamer can expect from the game.  Shoot ’em up experts mileage will probably vary somewhat)