Bangai-O Spirits [DS]

[Johnny]

Got this earlier this morning and have played the first 20 or so levels.

First off, everything is in Japanese and there are quite a lot of menus etc so it's pretty hard to navigate.

Gameplay has changed from the N64/Dreamcast games, B is shoot, A is dash (but you can also assign weapons to this button), L is the rapid bullet blast and R is a timer which slows enemies down.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an option to use the control scheme from the DC game where each face button shot in a different direction.

First impressions are a little disappointing but I imagine once there is a translation it will be much easier to get through. One issue is that at the start of each level you can choose which weapon to assign to A which obviously will require certain weapons for certain levels.

[briareos_kerensky]

Gameplay has changed from the N64/Dreamcast games, B is shoot, A is dash (but you can also assign weapons to this button), L is the rapid bullet blast and R is a timer which slows enemies down.

Urgh, that's bad, I'm so used to the DC control scheme that I thought developers would use the same on the DS, with R and L for dashing and bombing.
BTW, other impressions? I'm not expecting anything different from the old Bangai-Oh but deeper impressions would be appreciated.

[importaku]

Can't be bothered translating the whole menus but least i can tell you what weapon is what.

For the Y & B buttons
ナパーム / Napalm
ブレイク / Break
バット / Bat
シールド / Shield
ホーミング / Homing
バウンド / Bound

For the L & R buttons
Same stuff as above plus
リフレクト / Reflect
フリーズ / Freeze
ダイレクト / Direct

[Johnny]

Can't be bothered translating the whole menus but least i can tell you what weapon is what.

For the Y & B buttons
ナパーム / Napalm
ブレイク / Break
バット / Bat
シールド / Shield
ホーミング / Homing
バウンド / Bound

For the L & R buttons
Same stuff as above plus
リフレクト / Reflect
フリーズ / Freeze
ダイレクト / Direct

Cheers mate, that's great

[importaku]

No probs, if theres a certain menu thats confusing you i'll try to decypher it for you but like you say theres a lot of them in the game so it's time consuming doing them all.

[J0e Musashi]

I got these so far:

Main Menu
1. Training
2. Full Game
3. Level Maker
4. Transfer
5. Options

Full Game
(name selection followed by: )
1. 1P mode
A. Level
B. Custom level
C. Watch replay
2. Wi-Fi play
A. Host
B. Join

1P Mode (after a level has ended)
1. Continue
2. Watch replay
3. Save replay

Level Maker
1. New level
2. Load level from ROM
3. Load custom level

(To reach this menu close the editor window)
1. Load
2. Edit
3. Test
4. Name
5. Options
6. Save

Transfer
1. Send level
2. Receive level
3. Send replay
4. Receive replay

[Johnny]

BTW, other impressions? I'm not expecting anything different from the old Bangai-Oh but deeper impressions would be appreciated.

Sorry the impressions haven't been that detailed. In all honesty I haven't really played it since my initial play.
I'd say that it's not a patch on the N64/DC one although having said that, from stage 17 it progresses from the training style levels and onto something more akin to the level layouts from the previous game so I imagine that once the weapons are mastered, the later levels will be a lot more reminiscent of the chaos that the original provided us with.

[J0e Musashi]

I don't get it at all. I've never played the N64/DC one, but I just don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing. I get high scores of 7 and 46.

[Johnny]

J0e, appreciate the menu translations, any idea what the options are in the options menu on the main menu? I've read elsewhere that apparently you can set your health bar before a level which would help for some of the more tricky ones.

[J0e Musashi]

Options only seem to be sound tests and zero data from what I can gather so far. I'll take another look.
Also from what I can gather, the mix option when selecting weapons allows you to use two weapons at the same time by pressing both Y and B or L and R. You can have homing drill shots etc.

[yosai]

Played this for a couple of hours, finished the first 50 levels and really enjoying it. I've played the N64 to death so this felt slightly awkward to start with but once they click it's highly enjoyable.

Some random comments.

All 160 levels are open from the start so you can tackle any them.

Some of the levels are stupidly hard and others require quite a bit of luck. Also, some levels are only possible with certain weapon combinations.

The soundload function is great. You can load/save data (user created levels and replays) between DS consoles using the inbuilt mic and speakers. Reminiscent of when games loaded from tape.

The controls are a bit twitchy and navigating complex mazes at speed is a bit frustrating.

When it get hectic it's very easy to loose where you mech is on the screen resulting in easy death.

[importaku]

If you goto the bangaio website & click on the special button theres a couple of stages to download into your game

http://www.esp-web.co.jp/products/bangai-o/index.html

the download on the left is the stage, the download on the right is a replay.

[J0e Musashi]

It says .mp3. Are they just music?

[importaku]

Yes you load them in like oldschool tape games you can do it in many ways, after you have set up your ds to recieve the level you can hold the ds mic up to the speaker on your computer & the ds will download it via the mic.

[importaku]

If people have problems heres how i did it, using earbud headphones.

1, Download the mp3 from their site (left link)
2, on main menu select 4th option サウンドロード
3, now select top option
4, plug some headphones into your pc hold one of them over the mic on your ds
5, now press either L, R or A to start the ds going into recieve mode (a box will pop up). You have a few seconds to start the mp3 playing on your pc, if everything has gone ok a window will start counting upto 100.

If you get an exclamation point in a triangle an error occured either your volume is too high or low on your pc or the sound was interrupted by you moving the mic, try to be as quiet as possible while its transferring as any sound you make will cause an iinteruption. If you use an audio cable direct to the ds headphone socket this wont be a problem but using the mic is more sensitive.

Once its downloaded its saved to your cart, if you select the second option on the sound download menu it will transmit the level you downloaded, so if you have a friend & he wants a copy of your level just select the level hold your ds to his mic & he can copy it from you.

phew hope this makes sense, it will once you play around with it a bit. If you dont have headphones just hold your ds upto your pc's speaker & keep it very still.