DoDonPachi II Bee Storrm, Bomb Style, 1CC,Type A, (MAME), player JAM

This is a replay of my first clear of DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm without the TLB. The game really grew on me as I worked away at the clear. I've had little time for one credit clears lately, since my focus has shifted to more analogue hobbies, but chipping away at this game over a couple of months has been both fun and rewarding. The run is fairly self explanatory, so I haven't added any commentary to the subtitles. A foolish chain death around the 21-minute mark made the run harder than it needed to be, but it raised the tension going into the final boss, which is always a good time. DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm is an odd game. It was released in Chinese and Korean arcades in 2001 and then later published in Japan by Capcom. It was developed by the Taiwan studio International Games System (IGS) for their PolyGame Master (PGM) arcade hardware. The PGM system being very similar to the Neo Geo arcade system. It’s the third game in the DonPachi series with DonPachi being the original, then DoDonpachi the sequel, followed by DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm. It’s the only game in the series that was not developed by Cave, instead Cave licensed the DonPachi name and assets to IGS for the Chinese and Korean markets. The game occupies a strange position in Cave’s history: it was a commercial success and legend has it this success convinced Cave to remain in the arcade business. Despite this the game is mostly looked down upon by hardcore players because it doesn’t have the polish and nuance of other Cave titles. There is no doubt you can feel the difference. Most of the patterns are static, so mastering the game comes down to a lot of memorisation, but it’s still fun. I think the game is harshly judged, it’s definitely no masterpiece, but it’s still a competent arcade shooter with a unique flavour. The controls are standard STG fare featuring a shot button, focused laser shot, bomb and auto shot button. There a three ships to choose from, Type-A (Red) features fast movement, but a weaker shot. Type-B (green) has rotating options, and Type-C (blue) is the slowest ship, but it features powerful weapons and a useful spread shot. After selecting your ship you must also choose a bomb mode. This drastically alters the game play, making it more akin to a game mode. Bomb Type supplies your ship with a stock of five bombs that can be restocked by picking up B items. The game will give you a steady, and sometimes generous supply of the these B pickups during every stage. Bombs in this mode act like your standard screen clearing bombs found in most shooting games. In contrast Energy Type uses a meter you can fill by grazing bullets. When your meter reaches a 100% you can use the bomb button to release a powerful laser type bomb. Grazing and refilling your meter to 100% is relatively quick and easy, so many players find this mode less of a challenge because it essentially gives you an unlimited supply of bombs. The game has three true game modes: Combat, Practice and Internet Rank. Combat is the standard arcade mode that features a hidden TLB that can be unlocked by simply scoring over 400 million by the end of stage 6. Practice is a shorter, beginner friendly version of the game that only contains the first four stages. Internet Rank is the same arcade format as Combat, but at the end of the game you receive a code you could have submitted to the IGS leader board website back in the day. Scoring in Bee Storm uses a chaining system similar to the other DonPachi games, but with some minor tweaks. I’m purely a survival player, so I won't go into the details here. I urge you to keep an open mind and give Bee Storm a chance. It's not a Cave masterpiece, but you could do a lot worse. I had a blast with this game, it's a unique piece of shooting game history that's worth checking out and suitable for beginner to intermediate players.