Posts with tag bangai-o
Friday Video: That's some Spirited gameplay
TGS07: Bangai-O Spirits dazzles IGN
IGN's Craig Harris had never played a Bangai-O game when he stepped up to the TGS demo of Bangai-O Spirits. The game he described, which was new and mysterious to him, sounds comfortingly similar to classic Bangai-O to us: he describes enemies turning to fruit when destroyed, 100-plus bullets on screen at once, and even the slowdown that was found in the other versions during super attacks-- and that we honestly can't distinguish as being a feature or a technical problem.We sympathize with Harris. By virtue of being there, we played a lot of stuff at PAX that we didn't really know anything about. Not everyone can be intimately familiar with every game, you know? Even if he doesn't quite have the historical background right, he did a good job of describing a Bangai-O game in a way that's meaningful to Bangai-O fans. He says that "a brief hands-on is clearly not enough to get a solid grasp of the title's concept", but he pretty much nails it. There's a lot of stuff on the screen, and you shoot it, and the shooting makes your future shots bigger. Also there's fruit.
Not everyone is as big of a Treasure fan as this guy.
GameCrazy predicts U.S. Bangai-O
With the game just now announced for Japan, it's a little premature for American publishing announcements for Bangai-O Spirits. But it's never too soon for rumors! (On that note, Bangai-O Spirits 2 for Dreamcast 2, coming 2009!)
GameCrazy, whose mystical fortune-telling computer broke the news of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, now lists a DS Bangai-O. No information about publisher or release date, but it shows a price of $29.99.
Since D3 Publisher is releasing the game in Japan, we asked the U.S. branch of D3 if they were going to publish the game over here. Unfortunately, the D3 rep told us that they don't comment on unannounced games, and that D3 "will only focus on what makes sense for the Western market." Whether Bangai-O falls into that category or not is strictly a matter of how much insane hype we can generate on DS Fanboy.
GameCrazy, whose mystical fortune-telling computer broke the news of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, now lists a DS Bangai-O. No information about publisher or release date, but it shows a price of $29.99.
Since D3 Publisher is releasing the game in Japan, we asked the U.S. branch of D3 if they were going to publish the game over here. Unfortunately, the D3 rep told us that they don't comment on unannounced games, and that D3 "will only focus on what makes sense for the Western market." Whether Bangai-O falls into that category or not is strictly a matter of how much insane hype we can generate on DS Fanboy.
Small sprites, big spirits
Just looking at Bangai-O Spirits makes us cheer-- yes! The Nintendo DS exists and Treasure got a development kit for it! And we also have a Nintendo DS! The world is an excellent place! It's not a catchy cheer, but it's heartfelt. We can close our eyes right now and imagine huge missile volleys flying out in 100 different directions, turning gun turrets and little houses and other missiles into gigantic fruit.It's the same heartfelt feeling that compels us to share these screens from Famitsu with you. They're the same screens seen in the "scan" before, with the added benefit of being clearly visible. We think that's kind of important! Speaking of visibility, we worry a little bit about being able to see what's happening on the DS's smaller screens-- teensy sprites and chaotic bullet patterns don't seem like the best fit for a portable system. But we'll put our eyes right up to the screens if we need to. It probably won't be a problem; Treasure generally knows what they're doing.
We must be dreaming: Bangai-O for DS
Of course, there's always the chance that it'll be a spinoff puzzle game or something, but we doubt that kind of behavior from Treasure. No, get ready for tiny sprites and huge chain-reaction explosions.
For those of you unfamiliar with Bangai-O, it's a free-scrolling shooter originally for the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast, in which players, as a pair of mecha-piloting kids, shoot thousands of missiles and laser beams at tiny enemies. Special attacks gain power based on the number of bullets and explosions on the screen, leading to a constantly-escalating feedback loop of super attacks.
If this DS game is a real Bangai-O with multiplayer and a level editor, then the Nintendo DS will have crossed the line as the best game system ever released. Whatever it is, it's got a level editor and 4-player mode. Cheer and hurrah past the post break for a scanned page from Famitsu showing off the first screenshots for the game.
