547th played so far
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: ESP Software/D3 Publisher
Right. So I know on some level that we’ve played Bangai-O before, but it took me some time to recall what it was like (the weird storyline style is probably most of what I remember). It’s a bullet hell shooter that gets insane.
This, the game’s sequel, seems to have far less story, and mostly just more shooting. Loads of shooting. What fun we’ll have.
Our Thoughts
Bangai-O Spirits does what it does really well. You shoot loads of bullets to kill enemies n the area, with different bullets having different effects. Levels are small, focusing on short periods of action and sometimes simple puzzle solving. Mostly, though, it feels like insane action.
This time, there’s no (weird) storyline or anything to make it seem coherent. They’re just levels with simple goals, mostly related to killing things. The big selling point of it, really, is that the game allows you to create your own level, while having loads of them predesigned.
And that’s all there is. Loads of shooter levels, no link between them, you can do them in order or skip to see which ones you can finish. True bullet hell, and a game made to match what has worked for decades.
Final Thoughts
I tend to find these sort of shooters a bit boring – they need some filler to work, or some measurable sense of progress. Here, however, it’s just the small levels that, by the nature of the thing, are all challenging without giving you much of a chance to catch your breath in between. It felt like a bit too much to handle.