DoDonPachi Longplay (Arcade) [60 FPS]

Developed by Cave and published by Atlus in 1997.

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Normal Difficulty: 0:00
Hard Difficulty: 26:40

DoDonPachi is a game who's remit is to be extreme in all things: extreme graphics, extreme audio and, above all else, extreme difficulty.

This was my introduction to the manic shooter genre, commonly referred to as a "bullet hell" game. Many shoot 'em ups are difficult, but these particular games occupy a sub-genre that caters purely to only the most dedicated and hardcore of players; life expectancy in DoDonPachi is measured in seconds, not minutes.

Upon placing a coin in the slot, the player is given the choice of three different attack craft from which to choose. Each is equipped with front cannons that have different arcs of fire, from concentrated forward to a more conical arc. A wider shooting arc makes it easier to hit more enemies, but the power of each shot is diminished since the shot spread is more distributed.

Having selected a ship, you must then decide on whether to specialise your crafts power into it's regular shot cannon (good for destroying small enemies) or laser (better for sustained attacks against heavier craft and bosses). Whilst there are pros and cons to both choices, I'd recommend choosing shot power over the laser simply because you're going to need to maximise fire power whilst on the move and using the laser impairs ship manoeuvrability considerably.

In addition to your primary weapons, your ship also carries a number of smart bombs that can be used to get out of sticky situations. Using a bomb by itself eliminates most smaller enemies and all bullets from the play-field, whilst activating the bomb when channelling the ship's laser will create a huge hyper-beam to fire from your ship. The hyper-beam is excellent for dealing extra damage to enemies in front of your craft and will clear bullets in it's path, although it only affects what is directly in front of you.

The main game is set across six stages of explosive action. Although the principle objective is to simply survive, the game is more complex than you might think. There are a number of goals that can be accomplished in order to unlock the game's "hard" difficulty (AKA second loop), which includes the original six stages plus two additional boss fights. Perhaps the simplest way to unlock the second loop is to die no more than twice during the first play-through, although that seems unlikely when you see what you're up against...

Each and every enemy that you face has the capability of reducing you to a smouldering wreck in a matter of seconds. Even the lowliest of tanks or choppers will fill the screen with red-hot plasma and will have you desperately searching for a safe passage through the madness. If you have good reflexes, you might just make it to the second or third level without having to buy an extra continue. Beyond this, expect to die very, very frequently, particularly on the second loop.

As consolation, the game will increase the number of smart bombs that your ship can carry following each death, up to a maximum of six. Dying on your final life will also release a power-up that will fully upgrade you weapons to maximum strength if you decide to continue.

Hidden throughout each stage are a number of bee emblems which can be collected for bonus points. Emblems will occasionally flicker on the battlefield before fading away again, which makes them particularly tricky to see. In order to collect the emblems, you must shoot them with your ship's laser in order to turn them yellow, at which point they fully appear and can be collected. Whilst these award points, collecting all emblems across several stages will also unlock the second loop.

For those of you watching this video and wondering just how the hell I'm staying alive, I was making heavy use of the emulator's tool-assist features that allowed me to pick my way through the hail of bullets. It's also worth pointing out that the actual collision point where your ship registers collisions with enemy projectiles is actually a tiny single pixel zone located in the grey area just behind the cockpit; only when bullets make contact with this particular area will you actually die.

Normally, I'd be pretty disparaging about a game boasting such an insane difficulty level, but for a game who's modus operandi is to be to be this difficult by design, I'm willing to make an exception.

If you can accept that you're going to die every couple of seconds and don't mind pumping coins into the machine, DoDonPachi is actually quite fun. The game boasts some of the best graphics that I've seen in a 2D shoot 'em up and general presentation is excellent.

For those of you with lighting reflexes looking for the ultimate in hardcore shooting challenges, DoDonPachi is definitely worth taking the time to play.
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