Bangai-O

"Twitchy fingers."

Bangai-O is everything that was once right about gaming. At first glance the game looks very much like a two-dimensional platform shoot-em-up. The platforms, though, are never used in the same way as most games of this genre. Instead the protagonist’s ability to fly negates these sensibilities and sees the game play more like a sprawling Asteroids or Smash TV. Of course, gravity does take its effect, so the game is saddled with a somewhat cumbersome genre.

Bangai-O itself is an immense robot controlled by the brother-sister pairing of Riki and Mami Makishi - respectively. That is, it would be immense, were it not for the camera’s extremely wide-angled shot. On our screens it is minuscule, which can cause problems at times of heavy action, but it’s all for the best, as Bangai-O certainly throws some weight around in terms of the number of enemies on screen at once.

Riki and Mami – you may have guessed - are off to save the world. The world of Dan Star, which plays host to the most moonstruck cast of loons ever to grace a video game. Bangai-O’s plot doesn’t make much sense at even the most lucid parts of the narrative - the basic gist is that a group of space pirates are invading Dan Star to sell fruit illegally - Instead, it is all out comedy of the most irreverent order (the best kind!). Take the boss who only communicates via scribbled pictures. Or the game’s help boxes, one of which is situated in each stage. These dispense absolutely no help at all. Bangai-O certainly doesn’t suffer insanity; it revels in it!

And this maniacal nature extends wonderfully to the gameplay. Each of the forty-four stages begins with Bangai-O standing alone. Mere moments after its first, precarious steps into the unknown it is assailed by a few scavenger ships. They swoop like angered birds, fixated on their prey, yet too frantic to connect a shot. But accuracy is a skill they care little for, for soon the hoards come. And it’s then that players find themselves pinned down by innumerable bullets and missiles, both too fast and too plentiful to escape.

It is all for the best.

All of Bangai-O’s glory comes from the sheer subtlety of its play. The ship is controlled with the d-pad while each button fires in a different direction, allowing the freedom of fleeing attack while shooting in any direction. As the enemy craft fall in battle and shrapnel from buildings rains across the screen a gauge in the lower left of the screen will steadily rise. Once this bar is filled players may perform a counterattack (a maximum of five are allowed, so as to keep an even playing field). Once launched, Bangai-O will unleash a ferocious volley of shots, firing out towards every compass point, decimating anything in their path.

Nothing new here you may think. Every shooter has a bomb for those “hell’s kitchen” moments. Well that’s where the game exceeds expectations and ascends from mere gunplay to a delicate art. The size of this attack is dependent on the immediate danger surrounding the ship. As such, players can manoeuvre Bangai-O into perilous situations in order to necessitate victory. In fact, it is positively encouraged. A counter at the top of the screen records the number of explosions on-screen at once, with health power-ups and invincible status being rewarded when it clocks certain numbers. Although the maximum number of bullets - and therefore possible explosions - produced by a counterattack is four hundred, it is possible to repeat the attack to kick the counter to ever-higher numbers. A four hundred bullet attack truly is a thing of beauty, especially when the player responds to one of the bosses’ similar attacks. Imagine two expanding planets falling into each other, one swallowing the other in a brilliant eclipse. Albeit a pink one.

With such an imaginative and unique gameplay mechanic as this, the rest of Bangai-O’s arsenal seems a little dry by comparison. The two characters can be switched instantly at any time, with Riki firing homing missiles and Mami using a straight laser capable of bouncing off walls. Now normally this would be a severe disadvantage in this type of game. However, thanks to the counterattack, and the pace of the action there’s far too much happening to bother with just what weapon you should be rampaging through the amassed legions with.

The two-weapon system does cause some problems, though. Or, at least highlights some missed opportunities. Players will find that each character is better suited to certain types of level. As Riki uses a homing shot it’s impossible for him to counter in an enclosed space, as the walls would stop a good portion of the bullets. That’s okay, though, as most of the game’s stages are home to playing fields big enough to incorporate his style. Mami on the other hand, is almost useless here. Her bullets run the risk of missing enemies, leaving the player without suitable protection and the counterattack gauge worryingly low. Which is where the problem lies. The closed-in areas in which Mami would flourish are infuriatingly spaced apart. Impatient players may even find themselves switching to her, not because she’s needed, but just out of some sense of guilt that she’s idly twiddling her thumbs and pondering how much fun Riki is having.

As can be expected, traditional sprite-based graphics have been used to better capture Bangai-O’s intense, twitch-gaming mechanic. And while aspects, such as the streams of discharged shells and floods of debris add to the fevered pace of the game, the plumes of anaemic, mono-coloured explosions and often drab background detail offer little to catch the eye. Still, the game’s niche of throwing enemy craft at players by the barrel-load is quite impressive, if somewhat tainted by slowdown.

Melodic J-Pop style tracks seem an odd choice to accompany such explosive action. True to form they do little to effectuate the essence of Bangai-O, but are nonetheless listenable anyway.

To all who would want it, Bangai-O is heaven-sent. A furore of action that will captivate those with twitchy fingers for weeks on end – because God knows, they don’t make them like this anymore, so make the best of it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/02, Updated 08/04/02