Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 15, 2016

  So I'm going to start off by saying I'm not a guy who plays OG arcade ports of these games so I am not going to compare them to that seeing as how it would be freaking impossible for these guys match slowdown from static hardware to that of dynamic hardware. You ask most people who have bought this game who aren't elitist diehards who own PCBs of the originals and they will tell you that this is an awesome game. And THAT is all you need to know. You have people who don't want others to enjoy a different version of DoDonPachi, because to them it's some kind of sacrilegious act since scores from this version can't be compared to scores from other versions. I sort of had this mindset with Cave's first release on STEAM with Mushihimesama and I quickly learned to just look at these releases as stand-alones. It causes less stress and it helps me enjoy the game. Cave is releasing these games so that they can hopefully bring in thousands of new fans instead of pleasing a handful of grumpy elitists. They need to continue going this route. DoDonPachi Resurrection is a fantastic package offering up numerous modes of play that I still need time to explore. Each mode brings different dynamics that require the player to put in more time to master. Patterns are different, ships are different, scoring mechanics are different, speed is different. You're basically getting thousands of dollars of arcade games in one neat bundle for around $26 (during the sale). You've got fantastic art direction with all the designs of the enemies, backgrounds, player's ships, bullet spreads, sparkly bonus items, and debris/explosion. Every thing is just a joy to behold while playing the game. It's pretty destracting, but in a good way. I'll end up losing concentration and getting destroyed because I just want to take the time and enjoy the hard work that went into creating these wonderful designs. Music and sound design are also top notch. The music helps me focus while the sounds from attacks and explosions help me feel like I'm an unstoppable force of complete annihilation. Technically this game does have it's issues in terms of a boss disappearing on stage 5 of BLA and some unwarranted slowdown (this I don't care about because I never played the original releases and could care less). But if you've bought products from Degica before they are quick to release patches. Hell, they've already released 3 patches since the game's release YESTERDAY. Even on just now as of writing this to fix the sound tracks. When you buy from Degica you know you're going to get support for your software. Unlike other companies like Koei Tecmo. If you're hesitant about buying this game don't be. Don't listen to the elitists. They are just angry people who don't want others to enjoy a different version of their precious games. Hopefully Cave releases something brand new on this platform so they can argue about nothing.
• gamedeal user

  May 5, 2017

  First of all, I'd just like to state that I freaking ADORE this game (and I've played this soooooooo much more than my hours here show, over the course of years, via other versions). As those who know me are surely aware of, I've played about 80 squillion shmups, usually of the bullet hell style, and I tend to favor Cave's games over most others. As far as I'm concerned, THIS is the greatest of them all. Period. This is, probably, the single highest bit of praise I could ever give to a game. However, I'm still going to review this in a more objective way, and some of this WILL sound negative. Dodonpachi is a long-running bullet-hell series, which tends to showcase very well the excitement and absurd levels of challenge of the genre. Simple idea that any shmup fan is used to: 5 stages, a nasty boss at the end of each.... try not to die. Preferrably, try to score high in the process of continuing to not be dead. Also like most games of this type, the difficulty can be extremely brutal. Bullet hell games are famous for their insane difficulty, with 10 squillion glowing death balls flying all over the screen at once in different directions from a ton of different sources. When I see a new player going at this type of game for the first time, the reaction is usually "OMG WTF WTF WTF" along with lots of random flailing, bombing, and dying. A bloody miracle if they beat a boss without getting melted. That's just how this genre goes. This game, however, is by far one of the more approachable (in it's main mode... I'll get to that later). The game features "hyper mode", a state you can enter whenever the meter for it fills. While in hyper mode, your shots will CANCEL enemy bullets, turning them into stars that then earn you tons of points, and raising your combo meter. Aside from being buckets of fun to do (I love "cancel" mechanics in these), this also gives newer players a way out of bad situations. Things getting overwhelming? Hyper mode! Of course, using this mode as a panic button usually results in a low score... as you increase in skill, you'll preferrably learn to use it at the times that are best to score high, rather than best to just keep you from dying. This type of game really is all about DODGING, after all. But the existence of and focus on this ability means that the game is great for beginners. The actual difficulty of the enemy patterns, also, isnt THAT hard. Most other Cave games (and most bullet-hell games) are outright murderous compared to this. Well, until you reach stage 5, which is a horrid difficulty spike.... you'll see what I mean when you get there. I hope someone got fired for that. That, however, is just ONE mode, specifically, 1.5. The game contains EIGHT seperate modes. Each one uses different scoring systems, mechanics, and can have wildly varying levels of difficulty. For example, Black Label mode, played with a Strong type ship, and with the meter at the top kept filled (I call it the Pain Meter, because the higher it is, the more berserk the patterns get), the difficulty is outright absurd; the patterns are insane, the bullets start to resist cancelling, they cancel into MORE bullets which then also resist, and all sorts of crazy stuff happens. Or there's something like Arrange B, a mode with a whole different idea, which constantly intensifies the patterns over the course of many runs depending on how you do. When that mode is getting loopy, it redefines the word "insanity". With so many modes, this game has something for everyone. Not just in terms of difficulty, but in terms of gameplay styles as well. There is even a mode often called "Ketsupachi", which combines this with the scoring mechanic of one of Cave's best games, Ketsui, and also has you piloting the helicopter from that game instead of the usual ship. It's like a love letter to the fans, and it is brilliant. It'd take a LONG time to explain every mode whatsoever... just know that there's quite alot here. Overall, fans of the genre are going to find so very, very much to love here. Of course, this game being what it is, if you DONT like playing games for score, you're definitely going to get much less out of it. Most shmups are designed from the ground up for score-based play (as such, Score Attack is where you'll want to be most of the time, regardless of mode). This also means no continues. You have the option to play with continues if you want, usually for starting out and learning the game, but when in Score Attack, you wont have any, and that's probably best... a game like this isnt ACTUALLY beaten until you can do it without continuing. And even then, chances are, there's still probably more to it, like a second loop and some sort of ultimate hell boss. Fortunately those arent required for victory, and only the most hardcore of players will ever see them. For normal play, there's no need to worry about them (and some modes dont have either). Also know that even though this game is "approachable", newer players are still probably going to die alot. Expect some possible frustration. Onto the bad stuff. There are two main issues that I see with the game. First: The replay system is utterly and completely broken. Dont even bother with it, because much of the time, it doesnt work at all. Oh, it'll save your replay. But when you go to play it again, there's a good chance that partway through, it'll "desync", and you'll start seeing your ship do things you didnt actually do, smacking into things at random and running out of lives, not showing what ACTUALLY happened at all. Secondly, there's the slowdown. As a rule these games have slowdown when there are too many bullets on screen. It's rather expected with games from the arcade, and in other ports, they do a good job of replicating it properly. But THIS version screws it up all over the place. For those players that learned the game through a different version, this can be a huge problem. Not to mention that some things that were never in the original arcade version are balanced around the original type of slowdown. They can break down quite hard in this version. I see it most often in Arrange B, where patterns with a kersquillion tiny shots that previously were slow moving are flung at the speed of sound. Or other spots may have funky "micro slowdown" in odd spots, creating wonky jittering effects. This all can differ from one PC to the next, I hear. But even on an ultra high-end machine, you're going to get some weirdness. I dont think this detracts from the game as a whole, but it's definitely something that needed to be mentioned. There are a few other issues with the port, but they're much more minor than these. And of course, this has a mean learning curve... "approachable' is relative to the rest of the genre (and again only in specific modes). This is for players that are after a true challenge, for those that get satisfaction out of improving their skill and overcoming great difficulty. So... definitely not for everyone. And as always with this genre, dont expect a story here. But if this is your type of game, well... yeah. As I said, there's no higher recommendation I can give. And really, I could rant about this game for pages and pages. If you like bullet-hell games, do yourself a favor and grab this one right away. They really dont get better than this, in my opinion.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 10, 2023

  OST so good it made me buy the game lmao
• gamedeal user

  Oct 14, 2016

  Before you question the purchase price, consider that the game comes several different and previously-unreleased game modes, including Black Label mode, both of which are things that Cave could have sold separately as DLC. Resurrection is one of my favorite shoot 'em ups of all time, so my review will be a bit biased here. I've only played the 360 version at conventions and rarely at friends houses in the past, so to have the game to play whenever I like is a boon. I've only ran through the game once, but it plays fantastically-- 60fps with no lag (other than the pre-programmed lag that Cave puts in, which is totally acceptable.) For those that have never played a Cave shmup before, or for those that aren't into the shmup genre as a whole, I don't really know if I'd recommend it. But for someone that's either a shmup fan or looking to get into it, this is a great place to start-- the music is memorable and addictive, the game as a whole is challenging but not COMPLETELY impossible, and the game is much-better built on launch than Mushihimesama was when it first came out. [spoiler]Now to grind until I can face Hibachi.[/spoiler] EDIT: If you're having trouble getting used to the Z/X/C/V four-button setup that is the default with the keyboard, try rebinding V to the spacebar. Using space to hit hypers is a lot easier if you're more used to the Touhou style of "holding in one button for constant fire and holding in another to focus your fire & slow down movements" like I am. EDIT 2: This initial review was written before the details of the soundtrack being free DLC for the first week were announced. Because of that, I've retracted that part of the review.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 13, 2019

  We need ALL Cave shmup on Steam. Who agrees ?
• gamedeal user

  Mar 31, 2022

  Ketsupachi is worth the price alone.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 8, 2022

  Bring DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou to Steam platform, please.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 11, 2017

  The world of DonPachi is a tragic one. Though I suppose it had to be for battalions of mechanized armies, swarms of aircraft squadrons, and super weapons of all sizes to be mobilized. DoDonPachi Resurrection is the fourth in this saga of cyclical violence. After the most violent event in its history, the Blissful Death Wars, one would hope for a true lasting peace...though it was never meant to be. The vengeful shadows of the Blissful Death Wars now invade the past, forcing the elite DonPachi Corps' hand into action to preserve the course of human history. A single fighter craft exits the time portal to a past Earth and is immediately beset by legions of foes... welcome to the past, dear pilot, but it's time to die. I've enjoyed these styles of games casually. They provide a formidable challenge for the uninitiated whilst for myself getting one more stage or wave of bullets further without continuing is reward enough. The essence of the game is shooting for high scores, chaining score boosting hyper charges, and maintaining large multipliers. With 8 modes of play available mastering one version of the game leaves you plenty to look forward to if this is your sort of challenge. New to the series are lasers, that you can block with your narrow beam Shot, whilst bullet cancelling is accomplished with your wide fanning Turbo Shot whilst in Hyper mode. You'll appreciate these tools (even if some veterans found it to make it oh so easy) as you weave into the gaps of wave after wave of bullets. Stages that start quite tame suddenly become quite lively as larger foes step forward to protect their lighter brethren. You'll be in quite a zone of focus to succeed even as wave after wave of enemies brilliantly explode at the hands of your arsenal. Speaking further about your arsenal, there are three ships to pick from: the red Type A with its powerful narrow firing weapons, the green Type B and its movement controlled weapons, and the blue Type C that fires with the widest fan of bullets. Even after selecting your craft you have three styles of operation to choose from: Bomb Style which emphasizes the availability of bullet discarding Bombs, Power Style which allows you to immediately toggle the strength of your Shot weapons, and finally Strong Style which combines the advantages of the other two styles (at the cost of a higher difficulty). DoDonPachi Resurrection gives the player many choices in how they want to tackle its challenges. There's a large array of bosses present in DoDonPachi Resurrection. Not only are you fighting androids styled after those that served in the Blissful Death Wars, there are also returning super weapons from previous Donpachi titles, some are even hidden on exclusive Stage Routes that can only be uncovered by meeting certain conditions in the stage itself... Depending what route you take and how well you struggle a timeless enemy awaits for you at the end of this war displaced across time: the Golden Disaster Hibachi. Will you be able to overcome the final onslaught and see what lies beyond it? The emulation of this beloved title is apparently not precise in places. Slowdown that might have been present in the arcade either doesn't happen at all or the speed changes too suddenly, with often fatal results for those that burned the original game to memory, I do not feel it's a make or break issue for someone new to the series. To me the privilege to see DoDonPachi on Steam at all is blessing enough. Maybe, one day, I will die blissfully in a clutch victory of my own. "At last, it's time for you to die. Farewell."
• gamedeal user

  Dec 4, 2022

  Yes it's true I can 1cc this on novice sorry ladies I'm spoken for.