Bangai-O

"Take Mami. Defeat the SF Kosmo Gang. Save Dan Star! SUPER EXPLOSIVE BANGAI-O, GOOOOO!!!"

”This time I'll report what I have learnt of passionate Bangai-o-Fans.” –Mrs. M
“Wow!? Fans!? Do we really have fans?” –Riki
One word describes the splendor of Bangai-O: fruity. By that I mean that everything in the game is “different”; it’s a huge change from other recent games. What other games have you collecting fruit to save a planet? Not many… Of course, that’s Treasure’s whole purpose. Through the years, Treasure has been known as one of the last vestiges of classic fruity shooting gameplay, the saviors of 2D; making games like Mischief Makers and Silhouette Mirage when others have surrendered to 3D. If you’ve wanted classic 2D shooting action (which I assume you do, if you’re reading this review), you buy a Treasure game. It’s that simple. Everyone I know that loves 2D is a Treasure fan… How could you not be, when they make wonderful games like Bangai-O? And what makes Bangai-O so wonderful, you ask? Read on, my faithful 2D warrior.

Story: 9/10
”Well, you’ll have to get through the People’s Police first!” –Riki
You are Riki Makishi, proud and not-so-powerful (at first…) member of the People’s Police! One day, after being beaten up by a gang member, Riki comes home to find the SF Kosmo Gang, a famous space fruit smuggling group, has broken in and attacked his father, destroyed their computer, and forced his sister Mami to hide. He starts to leave to enact vengeance, but his father holds him back and explains that he has stolen the blueprints to the SUPER EXPLOSIVE BANGAI-O! His father shows Riki the robot, and he and Mami leave to destroy the SF Kosmo Gang and reclaim the space fruit…

”If you drink a fizzy drink, After a shake, allegedly almost 80% suffocate…” –Mrs. M
The story in Bangai-o is told in delightful “Japlish”, the English which is badly translated from Japanese. There are many instances of misspellings and humorous grammatical errors throughout the game; I’m not quite sure if they did it on purpose, but it’s still very funny. Also, the dialogue often rambles into such subjects as fizzy drinks, Mrs. M’s husband’s health, and Riki’s skipping of school. You’ll be laughing all the while, shaking your head because it doesn’t make any sense. But for a game of this sort, that’s definitely a good thing.

Gameplay: 9.4/10
”So the situation is, That we are surrounded by enemies?” –Riki
Flying the not-so-huge robot Bangai-O, you’ll go up against literally hundreds of enemies in your quest to liberally kick the SF Kosmo Gang’s slimy arse! Bangai-O can shoot in 8 directions with the use of the face buttons on the DC controller, in either Riki (homing missiles) or Mami (reflecting lasers) mode. Riki ends up being used more for large areas, and Mami for small. The one beef I have is that Riki’s missiles are practically dumbfire; they quite often hit walls, so that the majority end up being useless. Both of them fire the weapons extremely quickly, so that the whole screen ends up being covered with gunfire. That makes the gameplay less precision, but more Smash TV style; you end up just shooting blindly, and hitting by covering a whole area.

”I don't understand! The Kosmo gang has an advantage!” -Riki
The Kosmo gang has numerous devices to stop you, and as Riki explains, it’s an uphill battle. One annoying contraption is a generator, which makes mechs; they are produced so quickly that it’s difficult to destroy. They also have blue and green crystals; blue crystals only let Riki’s and enemy fire pass through, while green only let enemy fire pass. Being surrounded by green crystals make it very hard to escape. One of the other devices are the blue and red doors; blue doors only open when a sufficient amount of enemies are destroyed, and red close after you pass through them. In addition to all of this, they have damaging laser walls, bombs, and the aforementioned mechs, among others.

”I take it you are the boss of this station! The boss, or maybe?” –Riki
At the end of every level, you fight a boss; some hard, some very easy. Most “fighting” bosses have some sort of spaceship which follows you around and shoots energy beams. Unfortunately, that’s about all the variety of boss fights there is. Once you get down the pattern of dashing from their beams and hitting their unguarded backside, it’s simple. It’s a good thing, though, that there aren’t too many variations. They’re hard enough as it is! The “non-fighting” bosses are just green balls that neither attack or defend, but slowly regenerate their health. These bosses are generally the end of extremely difficult levels, as fighting through a ten minute level just to lose in five seconds against the boss would be extremely aggravating.

”How you destroy everything in one go using an all-round attack.” –Mrs. M
Don’t panic that you have all this against you, though! You have an attack similar to the one in The Last Starfighter in which Bangai-O fires out as many bullets as there are surrounding you. The closer the enemy bullets are, the more you fire. Timing is critical; if you hit the button a millisecond late, you’re dead. To power it up, destroy objects and fill up your power meter. This attack also greatly increases your Baku count…

”All-round attacks and energy are related to some extent, aren't they?” –Mami
“Although I don't understand it, It's totally interesting! Really!” –Riki
Keeping track of the high number of explosions you create is the explosion, or Baku, count at the top of the screen. By creating over a hundred explosions (with the use of the all-around attack) you get a health boost, which is supposedly created from the excess energy. For each increase of one hundred explosions, you get another. If the count reaches five hundred, a V-Invulnerability is granted. With a V-Invulnerability (other than the obvious advantage) you destroy everything immediately around you. This way, you can keep the explosion count rising, and get even more items.

”If there is no civet fruit, then I don't want to go on!” –Riki
Another fruit of destroying tons of enemies is the space fruit they leave behind (yes, pun completely intended). Unlike the Nintendo 64 version of Bangai-O, where the fruit powered up your all-around attack, the fruit is only good for points. The fruits, from lowest point value to highest, are mandarin oranges, apples, bananas, pineapples, and water melons (no civet fruit). If you destroy an enemy with an all-around attack, the fruits left are often of higher value than normal.

”Excuse me, we have points, but we have no money.” –Mami
In addition to getting points from fruit, they are available from destroying the various buildings scattered throughout the levels. These buildings are completely harmless and only used for raising the power meter and getting points. You can also get points after the level by not getting hit once, or destroying everything in the level. Both of those are extremely hard to achieve, and the point bonus reflects that. However, if your time meter runs out, you will lose a huge amount of points. Finishing with more time left, though, unfortunately doesn’t give any additional points,.

Control: 9/10
”Turn to dust, you perverse teacher!” –Riki
The control in Bangai-o is excellent and responsive in almost every instance. The one exception is when you are firing the all-around weapon, which uses the R button. The R button, being analog and pressure sensitive, doesn’t always respond immediately. This is not a fault of the game, but the controller, but nevertheless is worth mentioning.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
”Oh man, life is bitter!” –Riki
In the beginning of Bangai-O, enemies are few and in between. However, starting in around level 19, the difficulty sharply escalates. Once you reach the late 30’s, it’ll start taking you several tries to finish a level. The missions begin to take longer, the amount of enemies multiplies, and the bosses are faster and fire more bullets. At level 42, you’ll have take dozens of tries, and at the final boss of level 44, it will take you even more times.

Graphics: 8/10
”We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain.” –Riki
The graphics look wonderful, with one exception: the Bangai-O itself. The Bangai-O is extremely small, so that it’s composed of only a few sprites. This makes it so that it’s hard to see, and if you do see it, the Bangai-O looks extremely grainy. Other than that, though, the graphics are excellent. One nice touch is that tiny shells come out of the Bangai-O when it fires; it looks quite cool. Also, the apparently hand drawn backgrounds are wonderful. Unfortunately, most of the levels are in space, and just have tiny stars, so you don’t get the full display of the artwork.

Sound: 9/10
“Hey! Don't mock the ice-cold inventive troop” –Mrs. M
The background music is soothing, and thankfully not really fast, as that combined with the frantic gameplay would make your brain pop! Also, the explosions sound pretty good, which is nice, since they’re what you’ll be hearing the whole game! I do wish that they were a bit soft compared to the rest of the sound; it can really grind your nerves. The rare voice samples, such as evil laughter, are great. It’s too bad they hadn’t voice-recorded the whole game…

Value: 7.5/10
“Do you do business while we're fighting?” –Riki
“Well yes of course, and good children must by no means copy it.” –Mrs. M
There are 44 levels in Bangai-O, but they’re pretty short; most levels can be gotten through in around five to ten minutes. Once you’ve finished, all you get is some extra options. It’s really too bad Treasure hadn’t incorporated a multiplayer mode, or a level editor. I can just imagine fighting against friends and getting 999 explosions! Bangai-O does have old-school replay value, though; by that I mean that you can always improve your score. If you’re one of those kind of people, this is your game.

”The beautiful world of 2D! The tension is getting good! Three cheers for Bangai-o!” –Riki
Bangai-O is a rare game in this modern world of dark gothic worlds; it’s definitely worth a purchase if you love 2D. Support Treasure! If not enough people buy their games, they won’t be able to keep making these games, and that’s definitely an awful thing. Also, supposedly only 10,000 copies of it have been released in America. It’s rare… If you don’t purchase it soon, it may not be there by the time you decide to buy it. Can I say, Panzer Dragoon Saga? And as a friend of mine once said, “No one should go through life without once playing Bangai-O…”
Pros:
+ Japlish
+ Frantic destruction!
+ Old-school replay value
Cons:
- Bangai-O is really small
- Later levels extremely difficult
- Old-school replay value

Overall Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/01, Updated 11/08/01