DS Game Review: Bangai-O Spirits

Last year when I was told this game was coming out I did not believe it. There was no reason for me to believe it after all. Bangai-O was an obscure action title for the Nintendo 64 (in Japan) and the Dreamcast (International release) and the Dreamcast version was the one I had originally played. It doesn't look like a Dreamcast game with tiny little 2-D sprites and fairly mediocre graphics but once the action starts to ramp up you realize why serious hardware is required to play it.
The game was developed by Treasure, a small privately owned developer in Japan. Ever since one of my favorite games, Gunstar Heroes, Treasure has dedicated themselves to making the games that they want to play, catering to a hardcore video game crowd not just by making difficult arcade style games, but making difficult arcade style games that reak of quality. Their shooter hit Ikaruga has made them synonymous with oldschool style games. Though it wouldn't be fair to say they're trapped in the past as they take old concepts and twist them with new and innovative game mechanics and graphical experiments to create something positively unique.
Though they often times make licensed games, or even work as a second party to big companies like Sega, Nintendo, and Konami, Treasure has even managed to make excellent games with licenses and under pressure from much larger developers. They're the little team that could, and every once in a while one of their sought after original titles is released. Unfortunately, Treasure games are targetted at a niche audience, so often times they're not produced in high numbers and quickly become rare. In any case I could talk about Treasure for hours, but I'm here today to talk about Bangai-O Spirits.
Up until about the Gameboy Advance era, Treasure wasn't known for releasing sequels. Their policy was that once a game is finished, it's a complete work, and there's no need for a sequel. This changed a bit as Treasure said if they feel like they can improve upon a game they're revisit it. Though you can argue whether or not they have improved upon past games with their sequels is up for debate, but we'll save that for another time.

Bangai-O didn't seem like an obvious choice for a sequel. It was well recieved but not very widely known. There was room for a sequel with more levels and what not but it was also fine as a stand-alone title. The premise of the game is that you fly around in this little (at least the sprite on the screen) robot and you'd launch either homing missiles or reflective lasers at your enemies. The gimmick was the more danger you put yourself in the more missiles (up to 400!) you could launch when you used your special attack. The sprite-based game could cause so many bullets and explosions to fill the screen that it would even cause the Dreamcast to grind to a hault with slowdown. Some people would say this is a bad thing, but when you're playing a Treasure game you'd feel ripped off without slowdown because it means they weren't trying hard enough. It also helps you adjust to the frantic pace of the game so its mostly intentional. In any case the game was also filled with horrible Engrish which was hilarious and a, well, sort of a story? All that mattered was that the game was ass seeringly difficult yet it was one of the funnest, most addictive, and unique games on the Dreamcast.Bangai-O Spirits isn't a direct sequel, but it expands on the original in almost every way. Obviously, you've got more levels and new weapons which make the game a bit deeper and more strategic than the original. The weapons allow you to mix and match like Gunstar Heroes with varying results and melee weapons like the sword and the baseball bat change the dynamic of the gameplay completely. Some weapons are perfect for one level, and completely useless in the next, forcing you to use your head and promoting trial and error. For most games trial and error sounds like a bad thing, but in Bangai-O and Spirits the levels short enough that even if you die for the umpteenth time you don't get frustrated and you usually know what you did wrong which is amazing in a game where most deaths come from being swarmed by bullets. Another interesting thing about Bangai-O is that not all levels are balls-out action, but rather slower paced puzzles, which really helps mix things up and keep it interesting.
Besides your regular shots which you have a selection of mixing and matching now with the regular homing and bounce shots to the more exotic drill-tipped break bullets or napalm missiles, you can do the same for your special "EX" slowdown-creating-screen-clearing-blast-of-death. Reflect works sort of like the game Giga Wing where instead of launching your own missiles you send the enemy projectiles back at them. There's also an EX move that lets you freeze time for three seconds which doesn't seem like a lot but in this game it's an eternity. Direct is another EX choice, which clumps all your shots together for one devestating forward blast. The game's tutorial references the "Wave Motion Cannon" from Space Battleship Yamato when explaining Direct EX. The EX attack works a little different from the original game. Not only do you have to put yourself in direct danger to make a bigger blast, but also you need to have a few seconds to charge up before releasing in order to get the full potential. Because of the DS's graphical limitations it can't do the 400 missile shots, so instead it makes your missiles larger and larger for the maximum of 100 of the largest missiles that are about three times the size of Bangai-O itself and it's truly a sight of devistation to behold. In the original game you also refilled your EX bar simply by causing explosions, here however the "space fruit" isn't just for points, and you need to collect it in order to refill your EX bar making things a little more challenging.
Unlike the original game there isn't really a story, which is fine because there really shouldn't be one. The tutorial introduces a few characters and makes some self-referential humor, definitely displaying that they know what kind of gamers they're targetting with this niche game. It's pretty amusing I don't want to spoil it, and there's even an "ending" of sorts after you beat the "Treasure's Best" levels. Speaking of levels, I didn't count, but there's apparently over 160 in the US version which has been tweaked and improved over the Japanese one which is also common for Treasure titles.

I haven't tried to multiplayer yet, but it exists, and the game also comes with a level editor which is Treasure's wat of addressing the original game coming to an end. Interstingly, the game uses a "sound transfer system" and you can save custom levels to your computer by recording the sound, then put them on the Internet for other people to download by playing the sound through headphones over the DS microphone. I have tried this with some custom Japanese levels and it works great. Lots of American levels are popping up on Youtube already and I hope the trend continues so I'll have an excuse to keep playing this game for years to come.
Treasure has delivered one of the best titles on the DS, though it isn't for everyone. Casual gamers might find themselves scratching their heads at the difficulty, the unique gameplay elements, and non-linearity and lack of any kind of story. Hardcore shooter fans and even puzzle-gamers might find a lot to like about Bangai-O Spirits however. Though it doesn't replace the original game, it makes a lot of adjustments and improvements to the formula that really makes this a must have for fans of the first Bangai-O. At first I griped because it doesn't control the same, using two x/y axis in a sort of Smash TV or Robotron sort of way. Once you get used to it though it becomes second nature and the game gets a bit easier. Once you learn the pros and cons of the various weapons and attacks and the weaknesses of the enemies the difficulty shouldn't scare you away like it would for say, Contra 4, though this game was designed with Treasure's fanbase in mind, so expect to die... a lot... Unlike Contra however the deaths never seem cheap or frustrate from the addicting gameplay.

In any case don't be afraid to try something new and support one of the most dynamic privately owned video game developers in the business. I've been getting reports that this game is difficult to find in stores due to it being a niche title and not being heavily produced, so grab it before it becomes rare! Trust me, if your mind is sharp and and your reflexes are in need of a workout then Bangai-O Spirits will deliver. BANGAI-O! GO!
Score: 10/10, it's not for everyone but it perfectly achieves what its set out to do and is one of the best, and most unique, games on the DS.

Giant Robot Review: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

As a fan of anime mecha I have of course known of 2007's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TTGL from now on to save on typing) for some time now. It's been getting immensely popular, not just among fellow mecha fans but surprisingly among general anime fans. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I don't know. Mecha anime usually has its strict niche audience but TTGL has managed to transcend that subset of anime geeks.

I shouldn't be that surprised, as Gainax is responsible for other popular mecha titles like Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion which have also made a big impact on anime, especially Evangelion which is perhaps one of the most popular and influential anime series in existence (even though I personally kind of hate it).

TTGL is set in the far future where humans are forced to live under ground. We don't know why right away and I don't want to give much away since there's still quite a few people who haven't seen the series yet and are waiting for the soon to be released DVDs. At the beginning we follow around Simon the digger, a young boy who... well... digs. He digs to help expand his village and does so dutifully, believing that digging is the only thing he's good at. Then there's his "big bro" Kamina with crazy sunglasses that end up becoming the icon of the series, and a hot blooded attitude that parodies/pays homage to super robot heroes of the old days. Kamina's dream is to break through the ceiling of their cave dwelling and reach the surface, something to pair achieve at the end of the episode after being introduced to robots designed around giant heads called Ganmen (or Gunmen I'm not sure what the proper romanization is yet).

The story that follows is filled with great super robot action, entertaining commedy, and heart wrenching drama. It takes the formula of the common super robot show, twists it to suit its needs, and creates an excellent show. The problem with a lot of super robot shows is they're really over the top, but their stories and characters leave something to be desired. There's always a sense of cliche especially in the OVAs based on older shows. This isn't always a bad thing, and there's a lot of purposely inserted cliches in TTGL, but they've managed to make a show that's both absolutely absurd with lovable characters and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat at the end of each episode.

The first half of the show progresses predictably where an enemy shows up, the heroes scream really loud and through courage and hot blood the enemies are defeated. You never really see them as evil though early on they seem to fight for no good reason like most super robot bad-guys you learn at the epic climax of the show's first half that there was some method to their madness. The second half of the series takes a dramatic left turn and everything changes. In a way the show's plot covers a lot of ground in terms of anime mecha history, paying homage to a lot of old sources and deriving its story and design from them while somehow being fresh and original. Everything in the show ties together and even when things get really ridiculous or come out of nowhere there's usually a reason or the event was somehow foreshadowed.

That's enough about the story though as I really don't want to say much. The show's animation is superb, done sort of in the same style as Gainax's popular show FLCL while at the same time also resembling old style super robot anime. The result is a very kinetic show, especially the action which is frantic, breathtaking, and downright insane. It's full of eye candy for mechaheads and general anime fans alike.

There's really not much else I can say about this show other than kick reason to the curb and pierce the heavens! Go and watch it right now, you're in for a ride.

10 out of 10

Giant Robot Review: Tetsujin 28 (2004)

Giant robots started as alien threats or destructive weapons in pulp science fiction stories. This all changed in the sixties with Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28 (literally Iron Man 28). In the West most people would more readily recognize the name of this robot as "Gigantor." This time the robot wasn't the villain, but a super hero, controlled by a young boy who worked to defeat evil robots and other various threats to peace. Thus Tetsujin 28 launched the genre we all know as giant, super robots.

In 2004 a 26 episode series was produced in the same vein as the original series. Unlike the 80's remake that I know and love which was more of a re-imagining of the original, this series would stick close to the original manga, and use all of the admittedly dated original designs and the original story. When Tetsujin 28 was originally brought to the States as Gigantor, the story was completely changed since it involved a post WWII Japan and didn't really show the West in a positive light.
The new Tetsujin 28 series makes it across the ocean in an era where we all have the Internet so you can't lie to us and we live in a culture where censorship isn't quite as prevalent as it used to be. As such it's untouched and in its original form. The story takes place in 1955, the end of American occupation and the start of Japan's rising new economy. It's interesting to watch this show simply because you're watching post WWII Japan from their perspective and you meet all sorts of characters with different ideologies about the war, and the new era of peace. Interestingly enough though, you never hear the word "atomic bomb" muttered even once though the bombings of Tokyo play a role in the story.

That post war theme is at the core of Tetsujin 28. The early episodes deal with Tetsujin's sudden appearance which explains how it was a secret Japanese weapon developed for use against the United States before the end of the war. At the same time new dastardly secrets and immorally created weapons of mass destruction are uncovered and while people debate over whether Tetsujin is an anachronistic weapon no longer needed in the current Japanese society or a tool that can help Japan's rise, it's put to use to put Japan's other dark secrets of WWII back to rest. The debate of what a weapon is, and if weapons can be used for good or evil purposes is also a major part of the story, and you get the feeling that they're probably talking about the atom bomb here. Japan is portrayed as a nation confused about it's identity, its place in the word, and it's people are justifiably afraid of weapons that could bring even more pain to their defeated country.
The hero is Shotaro Kaneda who is forced to control Tetsujin, the creation of a father that he never knew. Shotaro is portrayed as maybe a bit too perfect in terms of personality as he's a "genius boy detective." He is however, fallible, and makes rash decisions that a young and confused boy his age would make. Tetsujin is practically defeated as many times as he succeeds and Shotoro is locked in a constant moral struggle over whether Tetsujin should be used in combat at all. One thing he becomes certain about is that weapon or not, Tetsujin is the only thing that's left of his family. The supporting characters and villains are all excellent as well, constantly shifting sides and motives as situations change and battles are won and lost. The series is directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa who is also responsible for the anime classic Giant Robo which itself is nothing more but a gigantic tribute to Mitsuteru Yokoyama's creations, including Tetsujin 28. As such anime fans who have seen Giant Robo will see a lot of familiar faces in this, like the pink jacket and fedora wearing Kenji Murasame. The show moves at a decisively slower pace than Giant Robo, but much of the same melodramatic tone and insane plot twists that made Giant Robo so popular is present here. In fact you'll probably have a few deja vu moments in this if you've seen Giant Robo.

The animation style as mentioned before is a retro art design taken straight from the original from the 60's. I've heard a lot of complaints about this, but it's beautifully animated, and personally I prefer the cartoony old-style of anime to the generic look of today's shows. If you don't like the retro look then this will be a problem for you, but for me it's one of the reasons I wanted to see this series. Giant Robo has the same look, though it's not animated quite as well as that even though it's several years newer. They weren't trying to go over the top and I think they did a good job of keeping the classic integrity of the original.
The opening story arcs really set things up for things to come, with the first half of the show dealing with the secrets and tragedies from the war that are still lurking around, threatening to slow or stop the progress of post war Japan. The second half of the show deals with new threats, outside influence and competing economies with groups that threaten to reignite war, or possibly destroy the entire world itself with Japan's most secret of WWII weapons. The show lags a bit in the middle, with filler episodes that both introduce and kill a baddie in one half-hour. The show picks up again at the end and relentlessly throws drama onto poor Shotatro, perhaps a little too thickly. After that the plot twists and bends until it builds up to the final encounter, and the ultimate fate of Tetsujin.

If you're here for mindless giant robot action, there are better places to look. The action that we do get is excellent and well animated, but the action sequences are few and far between compared to some other shows. Tetsujin 28 is also from a time before robots had all sorts of powerful and exciting weapons so lots of hands on metal crunching is involved. The robots are also all admittedly ridiculous looking, including Tetsujin, but that's part of the charm especially when you consider these robots are being built in 1955 and they should look ridiculous.
It's not the greatest anime ever, but if you were a fan of Giant Robo you should find a lot to like here. It's a fitting tribute to the original boy and his robot show that was the basis of inspiration for an incalculable amount of fiction including things like the absolutely excellent Iron Giant. It's so important that Akira, one of the most important manga and anime works ever is basically one giant homage to Tetsujin 28. If you were ever wondering about the origin of giant robots but you find the old show a bit too corny to stomach this might be a good show to look at. The story that hooks you with its lovable characters, twisting plot line, and post WWII drama from the perspective of Japan was enough to keep me watching and the giant robots and science fiction themes just wound up being a nice bonus.

Even though it's slow at times I think this is a real A-list anime that everybody has overlooked because they want their shows with the generic mass produced modern look that made anime popular here in the United States, or maybe they just thought this was another generic mecha show. I think if it would've been shown on TV here that it probably would've gotten a cult following like The Big O. Either way it was enjoyable enough for me to marathon all day and even though I don't think it's as good as or as important as its predecessor, Giant Robo, the new Tetsujin 28 is a fitting tribute to its late creator, and a look at historical aspects of Japan that you don't often hear about, or want to hear about, here in the United States.

I give it an 8.5 out of 10

Who Digs Giant Robots?

I thought I'd make my first real post about what I've been obsessed over the most lately, Giant Robots, Super Robots specifically. My interest in heroes of the technological nature started with three separate cartoons if I remember correctly. The first was Iron Man, on the Marvel Action Hour which also featured a great Fantastic Four cartoon that for whatever reason just didn't interest me as much. I don't know what it was about Iron Man, maybe I just didn't find other heroes all that believable. Cosmic Rays weren't going to turn me into a Stretch Armstrong and getting bitten by a radio-active spider would probably give me cancer instead of allowing me to stick to walls. Iron Man however was born of technology, an armored suit that gave an otherwise ordinary man incredible powers. That I could buy, that I believed in, and Iron Man became my favorite super hero from that point on.


Next came The New Adventures of Gigantor on the Sci-Fi channel. At this point I didn't even know what anime was, or Japanimation as my friends and I originally called it, and just saw the show as any other normal cartoon. There was really nothing shocking or out of the ordinary for American television and it could have easily passed as your average cartoon. Gigantor (Known as Tetsujin-28 back in Japan) was my first giant robot, and my first foray into the Super Robot genre. Every episode was predictable with young Jimmy Sparks and his remote control commanding a mechanical behemoth to pound the living hell out of whatever giant robot was unfortunate enough to be the villain of the day. Though simplistic and silly, I was young and impressionable and Gigantor hammer punched his way to my heart. I just recently got to see a bootleg of this series again (since sadly no official DVD exists) and I was surprised by how much I actually remembered about this show. It struck the same cord as Iron Man (coincidentally Tetsujin-28 is Japanese for Iron Man-28), technology seemed the most plausible way for me to dream about super powers which probably branched off into my interest in science fiction in general. The impression this show left and the idea of fighting the forces of evil with a giant mechanical titan stayed with me for a long time, and was only strengthened by a brief obsession with Saban's Power Rangers like most male children my age. Despite not being as complex I still think Gigantor is cooler than the Megazord.


The third and final reason for my giant robot obsession was Robotech. Cartoon Network wasn't carried by my cable network for very long before the block called Toonami was created (It was much better in its original form than it is today). Robotech had been around for a while before then, but this was the first time I was able to see it. I know you otaku out there are screaming, "But it's three bastardized anime that are inferior in their Robotech form." I understand all that but for nostalgia purposes, the Robotech version of Macross is what influenced me, not the original (Which I also enjoy but that's not the point right now). I don't feel like explaining what all that means here so check out the wiki if you don't know what the heck I'm mumbling about. Despite Toonami showing another Super Robot show in the form of Voltron it was Robotech that caught my interest, the first Real Robot show I was ever exposed to. The soap opera like story telling was different than anything Western animation had provided me with thus far. Robotech challenged my beliefs in hero archetypes. This was a cartoon where no one was perfect, the bad guys weren't outright evil, and the goodguys sometimes lost or even died. This was mind-blowing for me at the age I watched it, almost incomprehensible. The action was fast and vicious and anything could happen to anyone. The robots themselves were as vulnerable as any other war machine instead of the invincible techno-gods I was used to (and the fact that they transformed into cool jet fighters didn't hurt either). After Robotech my love for all kinds of robot heroes flourished, in the hope of recapturing some of the magic I felt watching those earlier shows.

So let this post serve as a warning, if I ever get bored you might find me writing some reviews for robot shows or video games and rambling on about rocket punches and invincible super alloys.