Bangai-O Spirits (DS) Review
It’s very common for someone to pick up a game and play it, find it too hard and put it away. With many Japanese developers now releasing their much more obscure and/or harder titles in the West, many players have put games like Bangai-O Spirits in the too-hard basket, especially when they get killed within the first five minutes. With Bangai-O Spirits, however, Treasure have constructed a brilliantly crafted game that at first appears to be quite mindless and impossible, but proves itself to be intensely rewarding in the long run.
Bangai-O Spirits doesn’t feature much of a storyline, and that’s good, since it keeps in tune with the previous games in the series. The only real narrative presented in the story is during the tutorial mode, in which the two Bangai-O pilots, Masato and Ruri, converse with a wise old professor about how to control their Bangai-O robot. It cannot be stressed how important these tutorials are for newcomers, as they really do lay out the gaming mechanics for the player and prevent them from feeling overwhelmed – and I assure you that the game will seem near impossible at first. Although there isn’t enough narrative or character development in Bangai-O Spirits, what’s presented is quite decent.
Bangai-O Spirits feels like an old school arcade shooter and is presented entirely in 2D. The graphics aren’t really that great, but that’s not really important. There’s so much stuff going on at the same time, with minimal slowdown, that the quality of the graphics really don’t matter and it’s not fair to judge the game based on the way it looks. The sprites are small, sufficiently detailed and the animations are very smooth. All-in-all, Bangai-O Spirits has very average graphics but it really doesn’t affect the quality of the game.
When we say that Treasure developed this game, many gamers will automatically think of Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun, games in which the player is forced along the screen. Bangai-O Spirits is different in this regard, offering the player full and complete movement. Players control a miniature (well, on the screen) robot who can move both horizontally and vertically at will, although gravity is still in effect, so players have to continually control their character with the DS’s directional pad to keep him in the air. The levels that the game takes place on also scroll horizontally and vertically, but at the players will, with no forcing between directions. The player has complete control over their movement, although it’s not a good idea to ever stay still during Bangai-O Spirits. The game, however, lives up to typical expectation from a Treasure game, and boy is it hard. There is not a moment during Bangai-O Spirits where the screen isn’t filled with missiles or bullets – and that’s what makes it so enjoyable.
One of the unique aspects of Bangai-O Spirits is the weapons system. Players can select from four different types of shots, as well as two types of melee attacks, a sword and a bat. Up to four individual weapons can be assigned to the DS’s face buttons. Each weapon has a normal firing mode as well as an EX mode (controlled by the shoulder buttons), in which the player can charge up to shoot up to 100 bullets at a time. Here’s where it gets interesting though – if at the time of charging an EX move, there is more enemy projectiles surrounding the player, the amount of shots expelled by the EX Attack will double – essentially rewarding players for getting into dangerous situations. In addition, since each weapon has its own unique strengths it is quite important to use the correct weapon during a specific situation. For example, one weapon has the ability to fire through two enemy shots, whereas another can fire through four. In a situation where the player is in a narrow space, the weapon that can fire through four shots would be more useful as it would clear a path faster. The manner in which you use weapons in Bangai-O Spirits definitely makes it feel a lot more like a puzzle shooter – there are specific ways to complete each level using certain kinds of weapons. It certainly gives the game a lot of depth.
As if the game’s main round of levels isn’t enough (they will keep you busy for a fair while), Bangai-O Spirits implements a rather innovative level creation and sharing system. Upon creating a level using the game’s built in creator, players can export the level to a sound file. Upon being exported, if a user wishes to import the file, they can hold their DS’s microphone up to the sound source and receive the level. It’s a rather interesting way to pull off level sharing, but unfortunately after a few trials I found it to be rather hit and miss in its execution. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t, even when I was going through the exact same process. Regardless, it’s definitely one of those features that I want to see more of on the DS.
Something that definitely adds to the experience of Bangai-O Spirits is the music. The pieces that Bangai-O Spirits plays are fast paced, upbeat and very electronic in nature and really suit all the destruction that takes place. Although they are very well performed and definitely add to the action, making players feel cool as they destroy countless objects, they can get rather repetitive and this may really put some gamers off playing for extended periods. With that, though, it’s pretty hard to put the game down no matter how annoying the music may be.
Bangai-O Spirits is a brilliant shooter that almost every gamer should try. Although it may present itself as an impossibly hard and mindless shoot-’em-up from Treasure, it’s actually a fairly deep and engaging title that requires a bit of time to get the hang of the gameplay. Once players put the time in and learn the mechanics of the game, it’ll become apparent that Bangai-O Spirits is really a game worth buying.
