Played on:
DS
Ok, pop quiz—what's Bangai-O Spirits? A) A professional curling team, B) A new sake-based cocktail mixer, or C) A Japanese leprechaun?
Stumped? The answer is...none of the above! And no, smart guy, it is not how people in Asia spell Bengay.
Bangai-O Spirits is the latest 2D shooter from Japanese developer, Treasure. Gamers can't be blamed if they're a little leery of Treasure's games; after all the company has something of a storied past. Their titles represent some of the best and the goofiest of their kind, ranging from the entertaining Astro Boy: Omega Factor and Gunstar Heroes games, to the unplayable Stretch Panic, and the inexplicable McDonald's Treasureland Adventure. Yeah, that's McDonald's as in “Ronald McDonald”. Doesn't that paint a picture?
In spite of its somewhat uneven track record, Treasure is known for having made 1993's Bangai-O, a solid 2D arcade-style scroller/shooter named after its mech 'bot hero. Bangai-O Spirits is the considerably overdue sequel to that game and builds on some well-established mechanics. Those of you familiar with Bangai-O's chaotic running and gunning will be happy to hear that while the game has inherited the potency of its forerunner's genetic soup, it's evolved into something even more intense.
New to Bangai-O Spirits is the ability to dash. By holding down the A button and using the control pad, you can use your mech like a battering ram, smashing through turrets, enemies, and rows of what appear to be Mentos, like they were so many bowling pins. Actually, it's surprising there aren't any bowling pins in the game because periodically, basketballs, soccer balls and baseballs appear with a typical Japanese randomness. Then there's how when enemies explode, they turn into fruity treats that power up your omni-directional EX missile attack. Oh and remember to collect those score-multiplying objects that might be a thick stack of Benjamins...or a slab of spam musubi. Hey, don't ask for explanations because there aren't any. It's like David Hasselhoff—no one knows why, but it works.
In addition to dash, another new feature allows you to choose and combine a range of over-the-top homing, bounce, break or napalm missile attacks to blast your enemies to the next starfield . Or if you like things up close and personal, use your sword, bat and shield to slash, whack and reflect your enemies' missiles right back at them. And if they still won't be neighborly, hit the R button and teach 'em some manners with a barrage of your ridiculously huge EX attacks.
Now evolution isn't always about adding attributes; sometimes it's about subtracting them, too. Treasure evidently thought the game didn't need a story element because it's notably absent. The previous Bangai-O had character exchanges within the levels that gave the game context and humor but in Bangai-O Spirits, what little there is exists only in the tutorial. It's a good place for it because otherwise the tutorial might put you to sleep.
If you have the attention span, three characters—old Professor, pink haired Ruri (named after “an idol-girl anime character one of the programmers is enamored with”) and emo-boy Masato (named after Treasure's president)--blah blah you trudge through no less than seventeen clunky tutorial stages. Most of these are designed to teach weapons usage but some cover level editing as well.
The level editor is a definite Bangai-O perk, giving you a respectable number of elements to make maps from: 46 different backgrounds, 9 different soundtracks, objects like turrets, mines and buildings as well as enemies like tanks, ants, bots, bosses, and some dudes that look like samurai in baseball uniforms who I swear came from that 70's movie “The Warriors”.
Once your map-sterpieces are done, it's easy to share 'em and test 'em on some willing guinea pigs—er...friends—in multiplayer mode. If technology scares you, no worries because Bangai-O's sharing tech hearkens back to the kinder, gentler, some might say “Norman Rockwell-esque” era of '70's data cassette technology. With this method, you can share maps by slapping two DS's together face to face and playing the map sound file from one DS into the microphone of the other. Awesome! Looks like not everything that came out of the 70's was bad. And if you're going for a little more updated technology, you can upload the sound files to the internet or even turn them into audio-only, black-screen Youtube videos if you're feeling frisky.
Making your own maps is cool but it might be some time before you even bother. The 27 Treasure's Best stages, 18 puzzle stages and 122 imaginatively-named “Other” stages are likely to keep you busy for quite a stretch. Treasure's Best mode features a variety of maps with varying objectives like breaking through gates, navigating mazes or surviving gauntlets of falling blocks. These have puzzle elements to them but are primarily shooters. If you want a much more puzzle-centric experience, the puzzle stages offer slower-paced maps that require more thought and object manipulation to complete. Both of these modes are fun but by far the best of the three modes is the one called “Other”.
Map names like, “3 Br Apt”, “Bunch O' Drills”, “DS of Doom” illustrate the inventiveness of Treasure's designers as well as the diversity of gameplay possible with even a simple editor. It doesn't have to be just a shoot 'em up, no sir. The same tools can be used to create unexpected map objectives like erasing an image, revealing a text message, or playing Pac-Man, Bangai-O style.
Yep, Bangai-O Spirits has a lot going for it but no game is all rainbows and candy corn. What's the one thing that could hose an otherwise awesome action game? Aside from removing all the weapons, it's bad performance. Action games depend on fast motion, near misses, big explosions—and a bad frame rate kills the fun faster than you can say “What's this game's trade-in value?.” Bangai-O Spirits isn't quite that bad; while bad performance affects most levels to some degree, it only makes a handful of them unplayable. Lucky for us—all modes and levels are open at the start so you can skip the ones that grind to a halt.
Another problem with the game is the wacky difficulty curve which careens up and down like a hamster on Red Bull. Some levels can be finished in ten seconds or less and others finish you in ten seconds or less. Oh, and let's not forget the visibility issue. During the craziest battles, the graphics are so busy, your mech can get lost in the shuffle. Not to worry though; none of these problems is serious enough to drain the fun out of the game; they just water it down a little.
The Good: Manic action, level editor, a grillion explosions, more maps than you can shake a mech at.
The Bad: Uneven difficulty, too-busy graphics, slowdown on dense levels.
Bangai-O Spirits has inspired me to break with tradition and summarize its essence in the form of a haiku:
Giant mecha fires
Missiles turn up many fruit
Bangai-O Go Go!
