For almost as long as video games have been around the shooter has been around, too. Tank, Asteroids, Missile Command. The shooter addresses the "one vs. the world" mentality more viscerally than any other genre can, and I think that's a big reason that's it's been able to stick around for as long as it has.
Unfortunately, as of late, the shooter doesn't seem to be getting much support. However, on the last few trips I've made to Japan, the arcades have been dominated not by the beat 'em ups of the past, but a revival of the shooters. Ikaruga dropped over there sometime last year, and I'd see small crowds huddled around the machines watching a particularly good player show their stuff.
Later on, I encountered this game, DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou, and after hearing about its transition to the home console, picked up an import copy of it on Ebay.
Story
I've beaten the game with one character so far, and as far as I can tell they're called "Elemental Dolls" or cybernetically enhanced or something. Each of them has a different story, and affect the way your ending plays out differently. Aside from that...I mean, it's a shooter. I don't think there's ever been a real effort to put one in them. Sometimes you get token efforts, like the ones they had in R-Type, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Einhander, and Gradius, but for the most part it's always something like, "Hey we're being attacked...and we only have 1 fighter left in our entire fleet."
The story, for DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou revolves around a war they had in the past where machines were used instead of humans and everything got really brutal. The world agreed to seal the technology and everything was cool for a while, until robots reawakened and started an assault on humanity. To combat then, humanity has created these Elemental Dolls as pilots. Kind of "anti-machine machines". This seems like a bad idea for humanity, and once I can translate the endings, I'll know for sure if it is or not.
Game Setup
"Hail of bullets" does not do justice to the amount of firepower you and the enemies are going to be pouring out. Your weaponry seems bacterial in the sense that you swear it's reproducing and dividing from the time it leaves your cannons and makes it's way across the screen to whatever enemies happen to commit the cardinal sin of getting in their damn way.
You've got two different firing methods, Auto-fire (The O Button) and regular fire. Auto-fire fires a quick "spread" type weapon, and the regular shot fires a more concentrated beam. Your power-ups simply increase the damage laid down by your weapons, and don't change the shot type. You also get Bombs which don't do too much damage in and of themselves, your main guns are going to be the things doling out majority of the damage. Instead, the bombs perform the task of converting the enemy projectiles into like bonus stars that you pick up for points.
Personally, I maintain that auto-fire is one of the big downfalls of the modern shooter. However, I do understand that people must not have liked the fact that their arms were cramping up as a result of playing a videogame, so I guess I'll let it slide.
There are also "Hyper" power-ups that you can pick up which, I believe will take your guns one step beyond their normal maximum power-up level, but I'm not sure because i really can't read all the Japanese in the manual. (Which basically consists of a poster, and 6 frames on the back of the poster.)
In DoDonPachi, you get a combo system that works in one of two ways. If you're using the autofire method, as long as you score a kill in a given period of time, that kill will be added to your combo counter. So, once you run into tougher enemies (mini-mini-bosses), it's likely that your combo will end with that particular weapon. With the bigger beam, as long as you're constantly doing damage, the combo counter keeps rolling, which is more useful against the more powerful boss enemies. Big combos net more points. More points...those are always good.
You have two different fighters to choose from, and 3 different Pilots that will affect the shot types you get. This means you'll have 2 * 3 = 6 different weapon layouts that you'll end up with. Just count them! I know you won't, but there they are.
Gameplay
This game's got a very steep learning curve. From the first half of the first level to the second half of the second level, the player gets a very strong feeling that the game hates them. To give you a better example, in the arcades, I beat the entire first level without dying, and then lost all the rest of my lives within 45 seconds of the second level. The sheer number of bullets coming at you make your odds of survival fairly low.
The way this game works, if you have medium-speed moving projectiles that unfold themselves into a tapestry of death. There's a way out if you're looking for it. Can you get to it in time? That's the trick. So, if you're a bigger fan of the small, precise, twitch, dodges you're probably going to be a bigger fan of this game than someone who's more used to the faster paced, enemy threat (where the problems aren't really the enemies shooting at you so much as it is the number of them coming straight at you.) shooters.
Graphics
The character artwork looks really nice. It's also fairly, erm, risqué at times. I'm not even sure there's a reason for it, I guess the people drawing it figured if they were going to draw someone, they might as well be in their underwear or something. Ship design, effects, the avalanche of weapons fire, that all looks very nice.
In addition, someone certainly took their time making very, very pretty patterns for you to deal with. You have your standard "pinwheel" and "sunburst" type designs, but there are a few that I've never seen before. They use some 3D effects to make some "wave" and "whip" type patterns that are really cool. I was very pleased and impressed by the effort they'd put into this.
Audio
Bah. Can't say anything really impressed or under-whelmed me. There's too much stuff on the screen to see to bother listening to anything. Although the voice for the narrator doesn't really fit the game. You get a message telling you, "Just a few more shots" when you're about ready to finish off a boss.
Extras
The game comes with a DVD of someone who had the joy/pain of playing the game and beating it without continuing (they do die a couple times.) so if you're really looking for a challenge, or inspiration that DVD should satisfy your needs in that category.
Bugs, and Gripes
I'm not sure if this is just the TV I'm using or the fact that I'm not in 16/9 mode, or what, but it seems that if I'm moving sideways when something's about to hit me, unless I hit that thing dead on, I live. Maybe glancing shots don't count or something, but it kinda screwed me up, as I wasn't sure when I was actually dodging and when I wasn't.
I also think that there shouldn't really be a mode to the player right off the bat where they're allowed to continue infinitely until they're done. Especially since that means they've got bombs and a couple seconds of invincibility to dish out a bunch of damage die and then repeat. This way, you're basically guaranteed to win if you just keep hitting the Start button to continue. I say give the player something to aspire to. 7-8 continue cap from the get go, and let them fight their way through it.
Overall
I'd have to say this is still a fun shooter for you to check out if they're your bag. The game is fairly short, but there are a lot of goodies for you to mess with, and 6 different fighter/pilot combinations for you to work your way through the game with. This isn't going to beat any of the greats for the genre, but if you're a fan of the new school efforts like Gunbird 2 I think you'll be very happy devouring this one.
