just got home from playing a session of dodonpachi 2 bee storm at a friends hous, and i have to say i loved it, the game is fucking brilliant!
looks GREAT with very bright and pastelly colours, it plays exactly like DDP.. great.
now this game seems to have a bad reputation and i was wondering why?
first impressions is i certanly liked it more than daioujou and espgaluda for example.
but i never played further than 4th boss (i just cant bring myself to credit feed anymore ) so are there any big draws that dont appear at first or what?
on a sidenote.. anyone want to sell me a PCB version kit?
I think it gets a bad reputation because it isn't by Cave.
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I played it on emulator and I thought it was fucking terrible. However not everything about it is emulated yet in such a way as the gameplay could change drastically, so I shall reserve judgement.
what do you mean it "just doesnt feel dodonpachi"?
i thought gameplay wise it was VERY similar to DDP, sure they changed some of the scoring system but why does that have to be negative?
maybe the new scoring have some redeeming perks that you didnt think of?
i have a feeling alot of people slate this without giving it a real chance because "its not cave" or they played the shitty emulation (emus are imo a guidetool, at best)..
anyway, ive heard a lot of reports from people that played it and they pretty much say the same things
interesting system but somewhat less appealing in practice, ripped off lazy graphics, way too easy first levels and overall decent game, just not up to cave standarts.
and since the game isnt emulated, i guess reputation spreads pretty fast, there's only a select few who played it after all.
Neon wrote:I played it on emulator and I thought it was fucking terrible. However not everything about it is emulated yet in such a way as the gameplay could change drastically, so I shall reserve judgement.
What emulator did you play it on? I wasn't aware that it was in any playable form on any emulator.
1. There's no sound.
2. Your ship sprite disappears so you control an invisible ship.
3. It's a no-bullet game, meaning you can only die by crashing into enemies since their bullets don't exist.
Its not as good as dp or ddp in my opinion partly because it isn't as balanced as those and partly because it has less variety in the weapons so you don't feel as invincible.
Its not quite as manic but gets a bit mental in the later stages.
I much prefer it to lots of other shooters - DDP-DOJ being one example.
I played it on several occasions, initially found it very impressive, especially soundwise (one of the best shmup soundtracks ever, similarly catchy as that of ESPGaluda), and intrigued by the fact it runs totally smooth without any slowdown. It also has lots of golden medals on screen, something that always tends to make me like a game. Bullet patterns are also rather nice, more modern than DDP´s.
However, playing it a little longer, the following points stopped my enthusiasm and erased it from my wishlist:
- gameplay is just shallow compared to DDP. Whenever pauses between destroying enemies get too long, you don´t lose the chain, it just starts counting backwards. While this sounds fair in theory, practically it means you don´t have to care for a chain at all anymore, and this fits well to the fact that level design is so sloppy you COULDN´T care for a chain if you had to, anyway.
- I know I shouldn´t compare it to DDP all the time, but the fact most graphics were ripped from DDP doesn´t exactly help the issue. Instead, I´m reminded of DDP all the time, and even the greatest soundtrack in the world and a smooth framerate can´t stop me from wanting to play a game which is so clearly superior.
- An honorable mention Bee Storm (DDP2) deserves is the "Energy Mode" which bears some resemblance to Psyvariar´s gameplay. However, in a similar way it can´t compete to Dodonpachi, it also can´t compete to Psyvariar either. The energy mode was something of an afterthought, while Psyvariar is a whole game designed around its concept, and although Psyvariar´s level design is a legend of blandness, the game works in the way it´s intended. Bee Storm has a solid (not good or great) level design in the most basic way to play it without caring for score or anything but survival. As soon as you start trying to care for its specific gameplay, though, you are bound to notice its lack of refinement. The problem is not that IGS aren´t Cave, the problem is IGS have no experience in creating shmups, and it shows.
I really like DDP2. I think the bullet scraping is fun. The closer you are to a large enemy the more points you can score with the laser. In DDP you would try to set up combos by being very precise when you fire. This leads to huge scores. Playing DDP2 this way can be frustrating. In DDP2 you look for large bullet streams, you hit laser+bomb, then fly trhough the bullets to score tons of points and replenish your energy level. This works great if you can be a point blank distance away from a boss when it launches a major attack. Another neat feature of DDP2 is blowing up certain enemies in a certain order will release bombs, stars, or in one case an extra man.
Technically Bee Storm is one of the best shooters ever made (NO Slowdowns throughout the whole game).
If you look behind the scene you will notice all the little problems Raiden is talking about.
Especially if you are a Cavefanboy you will be howling like a wolf:
Buuuuh this game lacks gameplay...buuuuh this games has no perfect placed enemy formations and so on.
I have played Bee Storm after playing some of the Cavegames, and yes you instantly see what this game lacks (yes yes...the cave spirit )
So my tip:
Play Bee Storm as a stand alone shooter...and enjoy the smooth action and the bombastic soundtrack (yes keep on headbanging in front of the cabinet, but make sure, there is no camera pointing on you )
) so are there any big draws that dont appear at first or what?
hehe...
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