DoDonPachi Resurrection (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.1 Update

DoDonPachi Resurrection, known in Japan as DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu (怒首領蜂 大復活, Angry Leader Bee Great Resurrection), is the fifth arcade game in Cave’s DonPachi series. The game was unveiled at AOU2008 Amusement EXPO

GAMEPLAY

In addition to all 3 ships seen in the original Donpachi and Dodonpachi, there are 3 different ship styles to choose from to suit one’s playstyle. Bomb style, recommended for beginners gives you a stock of 3 bombs that can be increased upon death, the MAXIMUM bonus upon obtaining bombs past your maximum capacity, an auto bombing skill that deploys a weak bomb in case you get hit, and bomb powerups that increase your stock of bombs. To compensate, your firepower is somewhat small. Power style replaces bombs with a Normal/Boost system, where pressing a third button on the controller/joystick would change your style of firepower.

Normal is the same amount of firepower as it is the Bomb style, but Boost doubles the firepower and gives you a larger laser. Strong style (Introduced in Black Label and Version 1.5) gives the player max firepower as well as bombs but makes the game slightly harder. There are now 2 types of bee medals, which are still revealed with the laser-like in previous games. Yellow bee medals give a large score bonus that increases the more you collect without losing a life. Green bee medals give a meager score bonus but massively increase the Hyper Gauge. Once revealed, the bee medals will alternate between yellow and green until the player collects them.

The hyper gauge is the primary method of scoring and has been changed from the previous game as well. Hypers are built up through large combos, attacking enemies at close range, and collecting green bee medals. However, there is only one hyper meter that when filled, the player can activate by pressing what would normally be the bomb button. In addition to increasing firepower even more, hypers can cancel bullets fired by enemies, with each bullet canceled contributing to the combo gauge. This is integral to scoring, as point items would have their value multiplied by how many hits are on the combo gauge, and with enemies firing large streams of bullets at the player, the player can maximize combo scores by learning when to activate their hypers and where to activate them so the enemies don’t get destroyed too quickly.

The game has a second “Ura” loop, which must be accessed by fulfilling 2 conditions: Collect all 45 bee medals in all 5 stages of the first loop, don’t bomb more than twice (including auto bombs), and if the player is playing using strong style, they cannot lose a ship more than once. There is also a secret Ura route in the game. Destroying the large silos near the beginning of stage 1, not only does it take you to an alternate pathway, but all mid-bosses are replaced with those from the first game.

Future releases of the game on consoles and PC have expanded and modified the original arcade release. Version 1.5 is a refined version of the original arcade release, with Novice Difficulty being a version of the game for newcomers. Version 1.51 is similar but with a rebalanced scoring system and bombs now being granted through Green Bees. Arrange A (or Ver L) uses the same hyper system as Dodonpachi Daioujou, with only one ship to pilot (the narrow shot ship from Daioujou, piloted by the element doll Leinyan) Black Label and Black Label novice add a new red gauge for scoring, much harder patterns, and a new final boss encountered at the end of the game if you fulfill certain conditions, Zatsuza.

Arrange B on the PC release is a mode where you can play through singular stages with any ship you like, with altered bullet patterns for enemies and bosses. Arrange B on home consoles as well as Black Label Arrange on PC is a version of the game that uses the scoring mechanics of Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi of collecting score chips, mixed into the combo-stringing gameplay of the original. Smartphone mode, exclusive to the iOS and Andriod versions, includes a new Slaughter-Menace meter that would influence a point multiplier, a revamped hyper system where it increases power by spinning the ship with the touchscreen, and a new soundtrack. A Zatsuza practice mode exclusive to the Nintendo Switch release will allow players to challenge the boss with 3 lives and maximum bomb stock.

PLOT

After the turmoil caused by the assault on Lunapolis which sparked the “Blissful Death Wars” (as depicted in the previous installment), peace seems to have been restored, with the legendary DonPachi Corps retreating to its HQ in a space-time fold. Six years later, anomalies are detected in the space-time fabric, yet tests reveal nothing out of order, with the portals regularly functioning for both teleportation and time travel; also, the leader of the DonPachi squadron Colonel Godwin Longhener (a descendant of the deranged Schwarlitz Longhener who once commanded the Donpachi Corps like he had) dismisses the matter due to the lack of actual danger.

Nevertheless, a technician delves deeper into the anomaly, discovering that something has infiltrated the HQ computer systems and is using the portals to send large quantities of materials and data to the past, spreading out like a virus and quickly evolving. In an ironic twist, the virus is discovered to be the program originally installed in the Element Dolls six years ago, now reaching beyond the DonPachi Corps programming and seeking to annihilate the human race in retaliation for their “enslavement” (after the war, they met a rather cruel demise at the hand of their human creators) by waging war in the past rather than in the present: unsettled, the Colonel authorizes the last transport ship to time jump to fight back the invasion before future changes.

However, he states: “Start over from the past… I never thought of that”, echoing the ideas of mankind’s imperfection which has always been a recurring theme in the series. And once again, the three pilots jump back in time to 2008 and enter the fray, the transport ship being targeted as soon as it exits the portal: the Element Daughters, gigantic evolutions of the Dolls, are awaiting.