Any of you know Cave Co, LTD?
The company behind many of the old bullet hells, like Dodonpachi: Blissful Death, Bug Princess, Bug Princess 2, and Deathsmiles?
He recently released a new one: Dodonpachi Maximum, on the app store. It's currently going (until Monday) for a sale price of $6.99 When the sale's over, $11.99
Well, I bought DoDonPachi Maximum. Hoo boy, this one's interesting.
It apparently is a simulation of bullet hell to demonstrate the weaponry a certain company's churned out over the years.
This game is stage based, rather than one-shot-5-stages.
Specifically, each stage has an individual lives and score counter.
Doesn't make it any easier, since there are NO EXTENDS and you only can hold one bomb at a time.
Also, laser mechanic is ignored entirely.
The bomb controls are SO. FREAKING. NICE.
You have two options. Press 2 fingers against the screen (You were doing this already if you've played Dodonpachi on the phone before) or double tap the screen (SO MUCH EASIER)
Alternatively, turn on autobombing.
The bomb has a charge counter. The counter increases by killing things and jumps by a lot when you lose a life.
There are NO CONTINUES. You lose all your lives in a stage, you get to start the stage over from the beginning.
Each ship has its own gimmick.
Each of the stages are callbacks to old ones. Somehow, they replicated the old stages without the old graphics.
Ship A: Shot mode from DOJ/DFK
Ship B: Laser Mode from DOJ/DFK
Ship C: A Lock-On Cursor. When locked-on, all your bullets converge on the cursor. When not, basically ship A (Locked at start)
Ship D:
(Locked at Start)
Ship E: Two outer streams lock on, and Ship A when moving. When not moving, emits a high-powered laser.
You start off in Stage 1-A.
Stage 1-A will look very familiar to anyone who's played Dodonpachi Resurrection. The title under 1-A? 2008 Tokyo.
Now then, if you make it all the way through Stage A without losing all your lives (and let's face it, if you've beaten Easy Mode on a Touhou game, you probably will)
you go to stage 2-A.
However, if you make it through WITHOUT LOSING A LIFE, you go to stage 2-B.
They really replicate the original stage. As such, the FINAL BOSS will also look familar.
That's right, the boss of this stage: Element Daughter A.I. from Dodonpachi: Resurrection
Here's where things get kinda tricky.
Stage 2-A and 2-B are both the same stage.
Battle City is the title.
However, 2-B is a harder variant of 2-A.
Clear 2-B without losing a life, and you go to 3-C.
Clear it without fulfilling this condition, you go to 3-B
Battle City should ALSO look familiar to veteran players, as it is Stage 2 from Dodonpachi: Blissful Death.
Stage 3: Here's where i don't know where it's from. Defensive Line.
Stage 4: Fortress: The 4th stage from Dodonpachi: Blissful Death. Original miniboss included!
Stage 5: The Dividing Road of Fate: This one should look pretty familiar to Dodonpachi Resurrection players. Meet stage 5 from Dodonpachi Resurrection.
special note: This stage is the only one with TWO minibosses!
special note2: Those annoying indestructible floating cannons? Yeah. They're back!
special note3: The miniboss from Stage 4 makes a return appearance in this stage. However, just like in DFK/Resurrection, it's been weakened, and is posing as a regular enemy. Like that's fooling anyone.
special note4: The boss of stage 5 isn't quite who you expect it to be. Instead of the Element Daughter: Shooty, like you'd think, the boss is actually Golden Disaster!
Stage 5 is actually a special case. In the options menu, there is an option for Easy Mode. The story behind Easy Mode is that someone broke in, hacked the computer, dialing down the difficulty, and attempted to clear it, ruining the guy for making it easy. However, this isn't the proper ending. On top of which... Easy Mode has entirely seperate score files. But Easy Mode Stage 5 is entirely different.
Easy Stage 5: I Mr Hacking Program
Unlike the rest of these, this is NOT a dodonpachi stage. It seems like her hacking the system has corrupted the last stage. You'll fight more traditional arcade enemies.
Like the normal stage 5, there are 2 minibosses.
The first one is a battleship.
The second one is some guy flying around laughing like a moron.
You can tell i don't really care about Easy Mode, and you shouldn't either!
When i say they replicate the original stage... i mean it. Especially the boss battles. Same patterns (barring lasers), same music for the bosses, and same voice clips. Literally. Element Daughter A.I. has a very recognizable voice.
I don't have the 4th ship unlocked.
Stages to clear:
1-A2-A2-B3-A3-B
3-C (locked)
4-A4-B (locked)
4-C (locked)
4-D (locked)
5-A5-B (locked)
5-C (locked)
5-D (locked)
5-E (locked, and I'll probably clear it in a week from infinity, if Touhou's highest difficulty is any indicator.)
