Bangai-O Spirits (NDS)
2008 Treasure/D3 Publishers
The Short Version: BOOM BOOM BOOM RATTATATATATATATATA ZWMMM ZWMMM KABOOOM WHOOOOOOSH KABOOOOOM!!
The Long Version: I suppose it’d be pretty trite to start this off with an entire paragraph that amounts to pantomiming jerking off Treasure, since about every other game site introduces every other one of their games’ reviews with their life story. I’ll spare you the history lesson and OMG GENIUS! gushing for this one and say that once again, this game showcases what makes Treasure a great studio: they know how to take a basic premise, then add some gimmicks and quirks to keep their new creation from being born stale.
Bangai-O Spirits, the somewhat downsized DS remake/port/sequel of the old Dreamcast/N64 game, could sort of be described to the layperson as Missile Command, only you can move around freely. Your tiny, tiny mech employs a vast arsenal of bombs and missiles that you’ll be using more often than not for self preservation rather than offense. Built on good old anime sensibilities, the titular Bangai-O cuts loose with 360-degree sprays of missiles, beam sabers, and even an armor-piercing machine gun that shoots little drills. You have two weapons and two EX weapons mapped to the shoulder buttons. Their effects can be combined and customized, Gunstar style.
Missiles out the wazoo is the order of the day for sure, and though your bombs are as limited as many shoot-em-up games, their use is an essential skill to getting very far. Holding down the L or R buttons starts up a counter that runs up to 100, representing the power/bullets about to let fly from your blast. And if that weren’t enough, letting enemy projectiles close in on you and releasing at the last moment increases the size and power of your warheads to a ridiculous extreme. Your main ‘guns’ can combine their power into a ‘MIX’ attack, somewhat like Gunstar Heroes’ weaponry system. Then there’s the beam saber that you can use to push on through a storm of firepower, the attack reflecting ball bat, and a hovering shield. It’s pretty much all covered in the tutorial in helpful/amusing dialogues between The Professor and the pilots Ruri and Masato.
Rather disappointingly, once you get past the tutorial levels, BOS doesn’t have the zany/incoherent plot of the originals. Instead, it’s all a series of free play stages you can challenge in any order. Of course, it’s not a big let-down. The levels are more akin to highly explosive puzzler stages than straight on action, which makes you use your head quite a bit to pair your weapons up in the best possible ways then figure out the ideal order of attack or whatnot. The stages available range from ones designed just to show off how many projectiles can come flying your way at once to falling-block puzzles, to some stages that are best played slowly and strategically.
Bangai-O Spirits is a game that just plain belongs in your DS library. It isn’t a ten hour epic, but it is an engaging, deceptively deep little shooting game that has a way of vaporizing your spare hours. Even if you do clear the 130ish levels, you can edit more or download more off the internet (mp3s of modem racket) via the Sound Load system.
(If this review sucks more than normal it’s because the time I spent on it is time not going into playing the game. I think that should pretty much say it all.)