Bangai-O INFO BOX SYSTEMS N64, Dreamcast RELEASE DATES (N64) Japan - 09/03/99 RELEASE DATES (DC) Japan - 12/09/99 Europe - 10/20/00 NA - 03/21/01 PUBLISHERS Crave Entertainment (NA) ESP Software (Japan) Swing! Deutschland (Europe) TRANSLATOR (English) Conspiracy Entertainment OTHER TITLES Bakuretsu Muteki Bangai-oh! There's nothing like Bangai-O. Well, there's lots like Bangai-O, but there's nothing quite like the pure joy Bangai-O brings when you play it. There's just something fun about blowing everything up all the time. 44 levels of simple blow everything up on your way to the boss action is all this games offers, and it's all you'll ever need. Ok, so there's nothing quite like Bangai-O. You are but a wee robot on the game screen, of course, compared to the background objects you're apparently the size of a house, or an apple, but when pretty much every game object is the exact same size as your robot, it's not like it really matters. Having such a small character on the screen allows for more carnage to fill the rest of the screen. This is good. So anyway, you are a robot, you fly through a level, blow stuff up and defeate the boss 44 times and then you've beaten the game. Done and done. It really is this simple, but how could it possibly be such a great game? Umm, just trust me, it is. Well, I suppose the sheer amount of enemies and enemy fire help keep things exciting. You rarely have a moment where you're not dealing with enemy fire while you're blowing stuff up. It's doubtful you could actually dodge ALL those little pink bullets either, so of course, you have your all around blow the crap out of everything bomb. Of course, you were already blowing the crap out of everything, but now you can do it on a much larger scale and much faster. Depending on the danger you're currently in, the amount of lasers or missiles you release will vary. If lots of bullets are about to collide with your little robo then you will release lots of bullets. This will make you happy. You can end up releasing anywhere from 40 to 400(!!) missiles at a time. There's other stuff too, like two modes of fire, a story, and many entertaining dialogues betweent the characters. Who are you exactly? Well, Riki and Mami are the son and daughter of Ban (the designer of the Bangai-O) and also happen to be the pilots of the Bangai-O! You pilot the Bangai-O! You are Riki and Mami, both of whom will meet many interesting characters (I love you Mrs. M) as they fight their way through the SFKosmo Gang's forces collecting the stolen space fruit to eventually face off against their final foe. Such is the story. Also of note is the excellent music. It's honestly not often that I truely enjoy the soundtrack to a Treasure game, but there's some great variety here. There's some quirky tunes, some serious tunes, some happy tunes. There's some good stuff here. Mami, Riki and the bosses all have their own little grunts and groans as well, which I appreciate. There happens to be two different version of this game, one for the Dreamcast and one for the N64. There are slight differences between the two besides the obvious improved graphics and sound for the Dreamcast version. In the N64 version you charge up your counter bomb by collecting fruit left behind from all the carnage, while the Dreamcast version you simply charge it by blowing stuff up. You are also awarded powerups in the N64 version for the more explosions you can create at one time, while the Dreamcast version presents you with larger fruit for more points instead. There's also a few minor gameplay tweaks, and a couple different levels designs, but nothing too major. Personally, I find the faster pace, and more mindless gameplay of the Dreamcast version to be more fun and exciting, but there are plenty of others who find the N64 version is superior. Either way, you shouldn't be disappointed no matter which version you pick up.