DoDonPachi Resurrection: Deluxe Edition

In a games industry that is shifting in scope, shape and structure with more speed and significance than ever before, few would have expected a company like Cave to be flourishing. The diminutive Shinjuku-based developer’s primary business was founded in the arcades, crafting shoot-’em-ups defined by screen-filling showers of bullets that look, to all but the aficionado, to be entirely unnavigable. The amusement arcade was arguably the first fatality in the industry’s evolution. Cave’s output is, then, a niche within a shrinking niche and for any business fuelled by the small change in arcade-goers’ pockets, that is an alarming proposition.

And yet, by being flexible in embracing Apple’s iOS devices, the developer has managed to expand its audience and adapt to the new landscape of games in a way that Japanese studios many times its size are still struggling to. This is not the first time that Western players have met DoDonPachi Resurrection – originally released in the arcades as Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu (which translates rather wonderfully as Angry Leader Bee Great Resurrection). Last year, Cave released a re-crafted version of this, the fifth entry in the company’s best-known shmup series, onto Apple’s handheld devices, where it received renewed acclaim.

This version of the game, however, is truer to the arcade original, allowing players who don’t have the cash, contacts or hardware necessary to buy the original PCB to experience a near-perfect port of one of the most desirable arcade boards around. It’s also a dip back into the console middle-ground for the developer – away from the coal face of Tokyo arcades and the remote, newly-formed smartphone plains – allowing home players to experience the game without having to compromise on control or fly halfway around the world to do so.

For newcomers to Cave games, or indeed the bullet curtain/bullet hell avenue of the arcade shoot-’em-up in general, this style of game can seem literally impenetrable at first, thanks to the sheet of bullets that cascades down the screen. In truth, your ship isn’t as susceptible to the barrage of death as might first appear, as only the cockpit at the centre of the craft, five pixels by five, is vulnerable to enemy bullets or contact.

The much larger sprite that represents your vehicle is primarily there to allow you to monitor the position of your vulnerable core from the corner of your eye as you focus on perceiving a route through the onslaught. The benefit to this design approach is that it allows the coders and artists to orchestrate screen-filling pyrotechnic displays that make you feel a little like Neo, dodging bullets with prescient coolness – at least, until you misjudge your position or lose your flow for a moment, and the screen judders to a standstill to mark your failure.

This article was first published on Eurogamer here.