The name means nothing.
I have only recently taken a look at the state of Sega Dreamcast emulation, knowing that I'm heading into that part of video gaming history. I didn't have a Dreamcast. I couldn't even tell you anyone who did have one - none of us needed one, the PlayStation 2 was just fine, thank you very much. But the PlayStation 2 didn't have Bangai-O, and that makes me... well, I don't know yet.
It looks like you're a little Mech shooting far too many rockets at something, and going by that alone, Bangai-O should be smashing. But I'm not going to go by that alone. It's time to fire it up and find out what's going on.
Frustrations
Whoa there, Bangai-O. Steady on. How 'bout we just chill and work out what in the hell is going on...
We are Riki, a blue child of some kind who gets beaten up, along with his father, by a group of bandits who are illegally trading space fruit. Revenge will be sweet, however, as our father has found the blueprints to - and subsequently created - a giant Mech with which to kick criminal arse.
You know when you're told to write something down in your own words so that it makes more sense to you, and thus you remember it better? It's just not working here.
It's worth pointing out that I kind of loathe this style of animation. I don't know what you'd call it, other than 'distinctly Japanese'. To me, it's a style that makes me wary of what comes along with it. I dislike the way it looks, the way it sounds, and I think even the translator agrees with me when I say I don't like the way it reads, and so I'm really hoping that you can strip all this nonsense away to reveal a rather neat game - a 1001 entry, no less.
After such an intro, I was surprised by what I saw when loading into a level. As you may have guessed, I had no knowledge of Bangai-O before playing it, to the point where I didn't know it was a shoot 'em up.
Fun Times
Nor did I know that it was a shoot 'em up that gives players the ability to fly where they want, however they want, with absolutely no fuss. No jump or glide buttons, no gauges or fuel meters, just pick a direction and move there.
Freedom of Mech movement - has Bangai-O redeemed itself after that atrocity of an intro?
Further Frustrations
Why am I blowing things up and collecting fruit? Why do all these things contain fruit? Are these fruits exceptionally large, or am I piloting a Mech the size of a fruit?
Such questions don't need to be asked, but they are on my mind as I try to figure out just how I've mapped the controller. I'm not 100% convinced I know how best to fly this thing, and shoot at the same time.
It is possible, of course, it's just that I'm currently using the left analogue stick to move and the d-pad to fire. I think. Anyway, moving and shooting and blowing up everything with a barrage of rockets is fine. Sometimes it looks better than fine, especially when the rockets home into their target on nice curves and spirals. But I'm still just collecting fruit.
Eventually, some bandits show up to take some shots at me, which is better gameplay than destroying buildings or whatever it is I'm doing.
Punctuated in between all the pondering are moments of visual wonder, especially when you unleash a practically screen-clearing attack that emerges from you as a giant shell of rockets, which then burst out and hit home. But then it's back to fruit. I'm missing something.
Oh. Maybe I was missing that. A floating 'M' more or less right at the start of the level - something I avoided by immediately flying to the roof.
Well, thanks for that. Low on health and lacking any direction, I go back to destroying buildings looking for fruit.
It's not long before I pretty much walk into oncoming fire, however, and lose whatever life I had.
I doubt that, Mami. I doubt that very much. Also, this is perhaps the most revolting image I've posted to this blog. I shudder just thinking about it.
Final Word
I clearly haven't played the majority of the 44 levels to be found in Bangai-O. I haven't even finished the first. I am missing out on some things, though. I know these things having watched someone with patience for fruit-based gaming to play the game themselves (and they aren't even going for all the fruit!).
First off, the second level introduces a laser beam weapon that bounces off walls at right angles. It looks awesome. I mean, I thought rockets going in curves was neat, but this laser beam malarky is the shit.
No, I've got no picture of it... that'd be smart of me. I'm not smart these days. I'm all over the place, I can't cope.
The Dreamcast version of Bangai-O isn't the first, having been released in limited numbers in Japan on the Nintendo 64. This second outing switched the gameplay up a little - something to do with your getting more powerful as you get closer to explosions. I think I've got that right. Hard to see if that's going on when I haven't got a clue what I'm looking at half the time.
Stages are giant rooms full of fruit and enemies and boss fights, with backgrounds that vary from the bright and blue of the first level to starfields and space stations with looming planets in the background in later levels.
Bangai-O, in parts, really is a looker. I would love to actually play this game if all the crap was taken out of it. 'Crap' is subjective there, obviously, but in its current state, I just can't get past the bad writing/translation, the overly Japanese presentation, the ludicrous plot, and the bloody fruit just hanging everywhere in space.
It doesn't take itself seriously - hence the fruit - and for that, I suppose it gets a pass. You should play Bangai-O because there is a nice little Mech shooter here, full of flashy graphics and explosions aplenty. Shame it screams Kawaii, if that's the word I'm looking for. Ugh. Just too much.
Fun Facts
The Nintendo 64 original allowed you to fire 100 missiles in a single attack. The Dreamcast release upped that to 400. You've got to work for it, obviously, but daaaamn.
Bangai-O, developed by Treasure, first released in 1999.
Version played: Sega Dreamcast, 2000, via emulation.
Version watched: Sega Dreamcast, 2000 (World of Longplays)