Dodonpachi 1ALL - CL 24.486.510 (ShmupMame 5.4)

Introduction: The Method In my journey through the discovery of shmups genre I'm still trying to understand which could be the most beneficial way to learn a game in order to get the clear, both in terms of efficency and enjoyment. No need to say that the method could be different from person to person so finding what suites better to yourself inevitably pass through a long trial and error process. In this neverending pursuit for this game I've tried to do a lot of practice of all the game sections before even trying to attempt to a run (excluding the first few tries to get used to the game feeling). Honestly I found this approach having its pros and cons. On the pros side for sure I really appreciate how this method allowed me to taste the game step by step, taking my time with it without the pressure of trying to get the clear as a blazing objective impressed in my mind. That led also to a very little time in getting the clear once I started to attempt full runs (I think I made it with less then 15 credits), but it also led to postpone the moment in which start them due to the fact that I wasn't often in the mood to leave the comfort zone of stage practice. Do full runs is demanding and I found myself often reluctant to actually take the plunge and challenge myself in a real test of what I learned in so much time of practice. One thing that I learned about myself in this process (and to be fair I think that it is very common) the moment of starting doing full runs is the most stressful and possibly frustrating of all the process of learning a shmup and so I was trying to avoid it as much as possible. Once I started it showed both the merits and the detriments of this approach: I cleared it fast and I cleared it badly. My clear run ends up to be a really messy one with a lot of mistakes but I still was able to clear it and I regret it a little bit: I end up regretting a little bit the struggle that I was trying to avoid. It seems that this pursuit is really neverending indeed. About the game: What to say about this game that has not already been said? Obviously nothing except for my personal impression of it. On the artistic side is really top notch for my book: the sprites and expecially the backgrounds are really impressing for my taste and the music is superb. My only grip is that the tracks for the stages are only three that rotates two rounds and the bossfight track is the same for all bosses. Comparing it to Futari and EspGaluda the bullets are slow (expecially comparing with Futari), but the patterns are often "ugly": the streams are more similar to chuncks for most of the zako (there are still a lot of streams like the little tanks) and the patterns of big enemies are not so elaborated as the Futari ones could be. For sure there is a lot more emphasis on the routing part comparing to both of those games. The combinations of enemies and the traps that the game sets up are wonderfull: the second half of stage three and stage four and the famous first half of stage five are really timeless moments. That said once you learn a proper route for those moments the game shows how actually forgivable it is: it litteraly showers you with bombs that allows a lot of mistakes if you fail to follow the route, but you still need to know how to perform it for the major part of the game. Stage 5 is almost on pair with Futari Stage 5 for me. It is really a masterpiece. Redirecting the bullet swiping quickly from one side to the other is essential for surviving. At the beginning I tried to just redirect all the chaos through tap dodge (as Futari taught me so well), but here for the enemy spawns it is just not possible: you will end up cornered 100%. But here the bullet are slower so it allows you to really find your way through the various streams and chunks coming from all the sides Figuring out the route for this part was by far the hardest thing that I've done in shmups so far, but after that was not that hard to perform actually. It is really absurd how the major challenge for me in this game was not in the real runs, but in the practices. Shmups are really a wonderful genre of videogames. In conclusion this game is a piece of history that is still able to shine and teach something to a new player, despite having few clears under the belt at this point. Bye