Bangai-O

"Another wonderful shooter from the good folks at Treasure"

It's not often that a company can take the tried and true shooter game and totally redefine. Well, Treasure has done just that with Bangai-O, one of the most unique games I've played this year.

Story- The game stars Riki Mikashi and his sister Mami, residents of the planet Dan Star. Your main enemy in this game is a crime syndicate known as the SF Kosmo Gang, who control the Space Fruit trade. They sell Space Fruit on the black market, at super-inflated prices no less, in order to fund new technology and weapons for their regime. In order to defeat the SF Losmo Gand, Riki and Mami take control of the mighty mech known as Bangai-O, an invention of their father, Ban Mikashi.

To really enjoy this game, you have to have a good understanding of Japanese humor, as this game contains plenty of it, not to mention all the charmingly awkward sentences.

Story Score: 7. I mean, come on, did you expect a ground-breaking story or something? Good, because neither did I. As long as you enter into the game with that mindset and a sense of humor, I think you'll find a very amusing and entertaining game.

Gameplay- Wow... Know this is where Bangai-O really shines, this is, indeed, one of the most innovative games (in terms of gameplay), that I've played in a long time. Read on...

There are two control setups you an choose from for firing Bangai-O's main weapon. While using the ''XA'' control setup, the weapon fires in the direction in which Bangai-O is facing. The other control mode (and the one which I personally prefer), is called the ''ABXY'' setup, your shots are fired in the direction of the button that you press (X Button= Left, Y Button= Up etc. etc...).

There is of course another, more powerful, weapon you can access whilst in the giant robot, this is the Scatter Bomb, which is deployed using the R Trigger. Don't waste your scatter bombs, as their is definitely a strategy for using them. The power of your scatter bomb is directly related to the number of enemy projectiles coming towards you. So, ideally, you should only use scatter bombs in a situation where you are faced with intense opposition from the enemy.

Now... Bangai-O isn't your typical vertical or horizontal shooter, no no, it's a far cry from games of that ilk... You fully control the movements of your fighting machine. Up, down, left, right, sideways... Any direction you can imagine, you can go in this game.

You also have the ability to switch between between using Riki or Mami at any point during gameplay by simply pressing the L Trigger. This is an invaluable tool, as certain points in each level require (or are at least made easier), by using either Riki or Mami. Riki fires homing missiles, while his sister uses ricochet lasers. While I find myself using Riki most of the time, there are definitely advantages to using Mami as well, speaking of that...

... This game is a shooter yes, but by no means is it a brainless action game. This game involves quite a good deal of strategy, and making rash decisions instead of thinking things through can often lead to taking severe damage or death. Wow... talk about smooth transitions from one point to the next...

... I'd say the difficulty level of this game as a whole is average, though the individual stages are extremely unbalanced in terms of difficulty. Some of the stages are extremely difficult, while the end-boss is a blow-off, or vice-versa.

Gameplay Score: 10. As I have mentioned before, this is an extremely innovative and fun game to play, the controls may take a little getting used to, but once you do, they'll feel like second-nature.

Graphics/Music- Well, this is a 2D shooter, so the graphics are... WOW WOW WOW, GET READY FOR THIS... 2D!!!! *Ahem*... Heh... I'm sorry, I really don't know what to say here. The background graphics look nice enough, though I have seen 2D done better on the DC. But really, in the end, the graphics don't matter in this game, you'll probably be too enamored with the gameplay.

As for the music... Eh, it's nothing special, though it's not bad either. At times, the music can be entertaining and even a bit strange.

Graphics/Music Score: 8. The graphics and music are nice enough, and provide a good aesthetic to the game.

Replay- Bangai-O definitely has replay value. In each stage, there is a timer, if this timer gets to the negatives, then you don't get a score for the stage, no matter how well you did in all the other aspects of the game. So, if you're like me, and love going for those record-breaking scores in shooters, there's a lot of replay here, especially since this game contains 44 stages.

Replay Score: 9. Lots of replay value for here for the shooter fan.

To Buy or Rent?

It seems that the answer to this question is directly proportional to the scores for replay value and gameplay, and, to a lesser extent, the graphics/music score. So, judging by my scores for those areas, I'll bet you can guess what my answer is. Bottom Line: If you're a shooter fan... Hell, if you're a fan of games at all, get this! It's easy to get into, innovative, and to put in quite bluntly, just plain FUN. We need more games like this on the market.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/01, Updated 10/14/01