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T I T L E : Donpachi
D E V E L O P E R : Cave
R E L E A S E D : 04.26.96
"Donpachi", in case you're wondering, is a Japanese pun. Literally, it means "leader bee," but it's also an onomatopoeia used to represent the sound of firing guns. Why is this such an appropriate title? Well besides the whole bee motif Donpachi is also characterized by the number of bullets and their properties. With this game Cave arguably defined a subgenre of shooters called danmaku (a.k.a bullet hell, and manic or maniac shmups.) It's usually either credited to this or Batsugun, and not surprisingly Cave is lead by ex-members of the Batsugun design team.
So what seperates danmaku like Donpachi from your typical Raiden-style shooter? There generally aren't different types of weapon powerups (i.e. side shot, back shot, homing, etc..) Instead, there are multiple ships each pre-equipped with their own unique weapons. And besides being more numerous, the bullets also move in more complex maze-like patterns and are relatively slower. In order to deal with the increased presence of the bullets smaller "hitboxes" are implemented. Prior to these types of games, if a pixel from a bullet overlapped a pixel from your ship, it would result in a hit. In games like Donpachi, only a small portion in the center of the ship is actually vulnerable to enemy fire.
There are three aircrafts to choose from, each suited for distinct styles of play; a red ship that shoots straight forward and maneuvers quickly, a green helicopter that can change the direction of its attack and has average speed, and a blue ship with a three-way shot and relatively slow speed. In addition to the individual rapid-fire attacks, each ship has a laser weapon that shoots in a continuous stream. It's more powerful than the normal shot, but it'll slow the ship down slightly while firing it. Both weapons can be powered up using "P" icons found after destroying certain enemy ships. There are also two types of bombs at your disposal. Using a bomb during rapid shot will trigger a screen-filling explosion that eliminates all enemy bullets and smaller enemy ships. Using it while firing the laser causes a massive beam that deals out huge damage to larger ships and bosses. You'll start each level with three bombs, but more can be collected by finding "B" icons throughout the game.
Another unique aspect of Donpachi's gameplay is the scoring system. It uses a combo meter comparable to most fighting games (that is, if you hit enemies within a certain period of uninterruption, the hits will chain together.) It's a decidedly simple mechanic, but it allows for a suprising amount of depth. For instance beginners can try and destroy enemies haphazardly or as soon as they appear, and their score will reflect this style of play. Anyone wanting to achieve a decent score however needs to take a more thoughtful approach, such as positioning your ship and/or intentionally leaving enemies on the screen to set up a larger chain. Besides chaining, points can also be collected in the form of hidden star and bee icons. Bee icons are also crucial in getting a high score, as they increase exponentially in value ranging from 100 to 1,000,000 depending on whether you miss any of them.
There are only five levels in the game, but like any good Cave shooter, there is a second loop featuring more difficult enemies and even more bullets. It provides a tremendous challenge and should keep even the most seasoned shmup veterans on their toes. Not to mention you can only see the real last boss and ending in the second loop, both of which need to be seen to be believed (the ending has what must be the weirdest easter egg in a shmup outside of the Parodius series.)
There are a couple of flaws with the Saturn port, just how many relies on how you choose to play. In the default YOKO (TV is stood on base) mode, Donpachi looks pretty horrendous due to issues with the scaling. There are a wide variety of screen options available, but they either look warped or only show a small portion of the screen that makes playing the game in a capable manner near impossible. In TATE (TV is stood on left side) things look much better. Depending on how you configure the screen in this mode scaling will be perfect or near perfect. As far as slowdown and load times are concerned, there's nothing too bad. Slowdown only occurs during boss explosions (non-gameplay) and loading between levels is relatively short. On the plus side, they'll give you some time to catch your breath after a hectic battle.
Donpachi is a hardcore gamer's dream. It's definately one of the classics of danmaku, and the shmup genre itself. The level of innovation alone makes it worthy of purchase. Speaking of which, it's also one of the more moderately priced shooters available for the Saturn. So if you're looking for a challenge (and why wouldn't you be?) and a new addiction, Donpachi is a must-have.
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If you can't tell the jerky framerate in SSF makes taking good screenshots a bitch. Also, I was the one who put the "leader bee" comment on Wikipedia so no I'm not stealing.
Trust me it used to be worse.
