Customer Reviews

Bangai O Spirits

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

More of what you'd expect if you own the Dreamcast or N64 versions. The first thing you'll notice upon playing the game is the improvements to weapon types and gameplay, especially the dash ability. Soon after, you'll notice that this game is extremely difficult, bordering on frustrating. Overall, it is very challenging at first, but once you learn what you're doing it isn't as bad as it seems. The challenge level on this game actually makes it more addicting than fun. It's hard to put down. Unfortunately, most of the levels are extremely short. Don't be surprised if you beat all 150 levels in just a few days. If you're a veteran of this title, it won't take long. I'd have to say that this installment in the series is slightly more difficult, and also slightly less fun. But for a hand-held, this game plays just like a console, with the exception that there are simply no massive levels. If you're a fan, you'll soon get over the difficulty level, and find yourself playing over and over to achieve new high scores and times. If you get extremely bored, you can resort to using the level editor, but personally, I haven't found the need for that yet.

This game is the new Robotron. What Robotron did was put an insane number of enemies and bullets on the screen and challenge you to find a way to overcome. Bangai does the same with better graphics, better weapons, and better levels. Its always doable, but the number of objects on the screen gets utterly ridiculous. This is a certain game design/mentality (think robotron, R-type etc.) taken to an extreme and somewhat absurd level. A thing of beauty indeed.

If you have a Nintendo DS, you must have this game.
Bangai-O Spirits keeps up the fantastic Treasure tradition, and brings it to a new world via the NDS. There are long, very colorful levels, over the top visuals, and a sweet soundtrack. The difficulty curve starts easy enough, so it's a good pick up and play game.

The price tends to fluctuate a bit, as for right now, in January 2010, it's less than $10.00 for a new copy!! Grab it while you can. It's worth a gamble at twice the price.

There is no more fun way to waste time, than with a well done shooter. Games like this are unfortunately, in the minority.

If you like fun [and who doesn't] and beautiful graphics, near perfect sound, you must own this game.

I hate the hyperbole that some reviewers put in their reviews, but with a piece of silicone perfection such as this, you have little choice!

Bangai O' Spirits is a fabulous game. It is a game that obviously very few are playing. Some games get about 100 reviews a month after their release, while this game gets 4.... It's just one of those game that no one really knows about and as a result miss out on some amazing gameplay that Bangai O' offers. This game was developed by Treasure and Treasure is highly regarded as one of the best developers in the industry. They were behind the creation of some of the best games in the 16 bit era and they graced us with some other great games right now, like Ikaruga and the Bangai O series. Why is bangai O' so good. Well it's unique in it's own right. It plays like a shooter, yet when you do play it you will find that it has very deep gameplay, allowing for multiple strategies to beat every level. You can't just run around guns blazing. One actually has to think through how they will beat the level and attempt to do it that way. There are numerous amounts of levels to play and it saves your time and score for each level which gives you an incentive to replay the levels. Many of the levels are short, but that doesn't matter when you have over 200 levels to choose from. Also, because of Bangai O's great challenge, the short levels make replaying the level you keep dying in less daunting. The game has a level editor. You can make your own levels and let your friends try them out by downloading them from you, and vice-versa. What is so sad about this game is that many will not play it and as a result, many will miss out on a great game. Don't pass this one up. You will never play another game like this one. I guarantee it.

I've been a fan of Treasure ever since I've played Gunstar Heroes 1 and 2 along with Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Bleach, Silhouette Mirage and of course, Astro Boy: Omega Factor. Treasure does it again with Bangai O Spirits on Nintendo DS and the results are nothing more than stellar. You gotta love Treasure for it's devotion to ingenuity and fast-paced gameplay mixed with cutting edge graphical special effects and it's one of the reasons why it's the most beloved game developer by legions of fans worldwide and it's a blast to play with a buddy and online. And that's not all. The game has a meaty level editor so you can rest assured that even with 100+ levels, there's more meat and potatoes than you can shake a stick...err laser cannon at and it's got a dose of tactical and strategy to boot. But like most games in Treasure's library, the difficulty may be too overwhelming for casual gamers and because this sucker is long may have you reaching for the Visine; especially when the phrase "Twitch Gaming" comes to mind. I love this game and it's great to see Treasure back again to deliver that sense of gaming nirvana that's all but disappeared. Can't wait to see what they're gonna do next!!!

Fantastic little game. The levels tend to be equal mixtures of bizarre, wacky, and frantic. Gameplay is genuinely challenging at times.

What really makes this game, however, is the level creator, where you can create and transmit home-made levels online in one of the most innovative uses of the DS's hardware that I've ever seen.

Two things made me deduct a star:
1) No story mode/main set of missions. Missions are randomly selected from a large preformed database. You can also, of course, create and play your own levels, or the levels made by other people on the internet.

2) So much information is packed into one tiny screen (the other screen is used as a level map display) that it can frequently freeze for several seconds at a time in order to process the information. Not a huge bother, but very noticeable nonetheless.

simple and extremely addicting. a lot of fun. but the amount of stages will leave a lot to be desired of. I just dont get it, are the makers too lazy to design more stages? I finished the whole game within 2 weeks.

Wow! This is what old school shooters are about! All I can say is this is where gaming is at! I can't stress enough that buying games like this is what is going to keep the gaming industry alive! To not buy this would be a disaster to getting more releases like this!

To sum up.... Awesome game! If you are on the fence, GO FOR IT!! I give Bangai-O my highest recommendation!

If you are a fan of the original release, THIS IS STILL WORTH BUYING!!!

I've never played the original Bangaio on the Sega Dreamcast, but I'd seen glowing recommendations. Unfortunately, the DS version makes me doubt the validity of those accolades. Certainly the DS version has several marks against it, the biggest being the tiny screen. One of the two screens just acts as a map during gameplay, so all of the real action is confined to a single, low-resolution screen. The programmers even admit in the game that the screen is too small to fit the hundreds of bullets and contrails, so they work around it by making the making the bullets larger; if you release 100 bullets, it will display as one or two really big bullets. Nice idea in theory, but in execution it's lacking somehow.

Perhaps its because shooters are generally about flying, shooting and evasion. Instead, Bangaio Spirits is about finding enough time to charge up your cannon so that you can release a hailstorm of bullets to counter the enemy, who is also firing a hailstorm of bullets at you. In some early levels, your survival requires you to charge your cannon from the moment the round begins, and to release the cannon-load in 1-2 seconds, or you'll die. On many levels, it's not uncommon to die in 3 seconds!

Like most Dreamcast shooters, Bangaio Spirits believes that the fun in a shooter is avoiding millions of bullets coming at you in all directions. However, I believe the real fun in a shooter is when the player is the one annihilating his enemies with an endless array of power-ups and colorful weapons, not the other way around. If you're like me, you'd best avoid Bangaio Spirits.