Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu 1.5 Resurrection Review

[charlesr]

I'm going to play for a few more hours on 1.5 and go for survival rather than score and then move on to the arrange modes and BL for a few days before writing it up. Those reviews that talk about "only a couple of hours to see it all" make me laugh. I must have racked up 15+ hours just on one mode so far. And I doubt "...it all" includes the secret routes or the 2nd loop or Ura loop

[crocky-chocky]

I fired this up last night after reading Charles' 1CC posts. I bought it along with my 360 in Jan but got wrapped up in Crackdown at the time...

I got to Stage 5 without seeing a continue screen and then those slow rotating lasers completely murdered me. What a spike!

Up until then was just awesome fun. My only other Dodonpachi is the Saturn version, but they just seem to be the best sources of bullet swerving satisfaction. Can't wait to play more, but it does leave me with a nasty case of 'Nintendo Eye'.

What are the differences in Black Label? Is it simply the scoring system and bullet patterns or are there new levels and stuff?

[Silvergun X]

What are the differences in Black Label? Is it simply the scoring system and bullet patterns or are there new levels and stuff?

The levels are the same, BGM is different, but it's a very substantial change in gameplay mechanics to the point where it feels like you're playing a new game.

Going from BL to 1.5 and back screws with my mind. There are SO many differences, so I'll try my best to explain...

Black Label is not about hyper cancelling bullets to add to hit counter. That doesn't happen any more.

You need to build hit by two ways:

Collecting a golden bee - This will wipe all bullets on the screen, turning each bullet into hit counter.

Destroying a cancelling enemy - Certain larger enemies on the screen will now cancel out their own bullets when destroyed, adding these bullets to hit.

Scoring mechanic is now to fill the screen with as many bullets as possible, then cancel them either by picking up a bee or destroying the enemy that fired them.

In Black Label, you have a new addition to the game, just known as the red gauge. You fill the red gauge by holding in A+C shot together. As this goes up and passes a certain threshold, you go into Red Mode and bullet patterns become denser, faster, and the game gets more hardcore.

As a result of being in red mode though, your hyper gauge goes up lightning fast. You want to be in red mode as much as possible to score.

It's very difficult to completely wipe out your hit counter in Black Label - It will ONLY drop if you die WHILST IN HYPER. This is easy to manage, as you can now cancel out of hyper mode whenever you like. Even if you die normally, you still maintain your chain / hit.

Your score and the rate it increases, is based purely on value of enemies destroyed and hit counter. Hyper mode management is much less intensive than 1.5. Hyper is primarily only used to help with survival, or to fill the screen with many many many more bullets to cancel off with enemy death or bee collection.

Hyper mode + Red mode + TONS of bullets all wiped out with one bee is very, very satisfying.

[Silvergun X]

These are old videos - I've since doubled my score since these were recorded, but hopefully they'll show what Black Label scoring is like.

[crocky-chocky]

Thanks man! Black Label looks awesome.

May jump in this weekend, though I should plump for this or Akai Katana, trying to learn both could be dangerous.

[charlesr]

I was hoping to wait till my fighting pad arrived, but couldn't hold back any longer. Black Label is totally mega.

However, my fingers are knackered from holding in the Red Zone!

Also, I've just been playing for 2 hours thinking you said green bees cancel the bullets and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong..... doh! Back to it now to try golden bees!

[charlesr]

That's better. Jumped to 57th on the leaderboards on novice With green ship power mode - I like that combo.

On the xbox pad, I've set up switch to be left trigger and the two buttons needed for Red Guage as A(green button) and B(red button). I need to set hyper as right trigger, because it's X(blue button) and I keep messing up when nudging over to it.

[QualityChimp]

That's better. Jumped to 57th on the leaderboards on novice

I can't believe only 58 people have bought this game!

[charlesr]

[zombie dave]FFFFFFFFFFFFFkkkkkkkkkkkyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr[/zd]

[Silvergun X]

That's better. Jumped to 57th on the leaderboards on novice With green ship power mode - I like that combo.

On the xbox pad, I've set up switch to be left trigger and the two buttons needed for Red Guage as A(green button) and B(red button). I need to set hyper as right trigger, because it's X(blue button) and I keep messing up when nudging over to it.

I've got mine set as X for Shot, RT as Auto Shot. Very comfortable to hold for long periods of time.

One thing you'll find with Black Label is that the majority of your score comes from Stage 4 and 5.

At the start of Stage 4, my score is usually around the 45,000,000,000 mark.
At the end of Stage 4, my score is usually around the 160,000,000,000 mark.

[Atticus]

Can anyone help out with the basics on Black Label Arrange (Ketsuipachi)?

I get the proximity factor to get the high point chips, but beyond that I need to know more about scoring; hyper effects, etc.