Review: DoDonPachi Resurrection

Like Lazarus

I’ve talked in the past about game preservation, and I can’t stress enough how important it is. While many pine for “the old days,” and are somewhat blinded by impartial nostalgia, there are a lot of incredible works in our past that need to be remembered, studied, and enjoyed for years to come. 

Pretty much all of Cave’s catalog, including DoDonPachi Resurrection, falls into that purview.

DoDonPachi Resurrection (PC [reviewed], iOS]
Developer: Cave
Publisher: Degica
Released: October 13, 2016
MSRP: TBA

Resurrection is the first DoDonPachi title to hit Steam, yet it’s the fifth game in the series. Cave kind of kept making them for a while and no one complained. Now it has to carefully curate what it ports, and it chose well.

If you’re curious, you don’t need any background or primers whatsoever. Resurrection builds upon the legacy of Cave’s prior shoot-’em-ups (shmups), going for a heavy score-attack tint backed by a frantic danmaku (bullet hell) style. There will be hundreds of bullets on-screen within seconds of one another, which, depending on your gaming sensibilities, either frightens or excites you.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m strictly in the latter category because of how bullet hell works after you’ve had that Keanu Reeves moment of clarity. These are actually puzzle games, tasking you to identify patterns with split-second precision, and then subsequently asking you to maneuver in and out of mazes that can change just as quickly. All while you’re trying to take down an enemy or boss.

But Resurrection is about more than mere survival, as it’s meant to be played until it’s perfected. Take the above video of my playthrough of the first stage, for example. While it’s enough that I’m able to finish some levels unscathed at this point in my shmup career, most Cave games are really about the points. So if you’re just into beating games and wiping your hands of them, the 30-45 minute high you’ll get from finishing this will be a short one.

There’s plenty of opportunities for that though, as you battle through the whimsical world of magical girl robots, with three ships to choose from, eight modes (my favorite is Black Label, which adds a new final boss to the mix), and co-op. Cave and Degica might be relatively new to Steam but this release went off mostly without a hitch on my end — I just had one slight issue when changing the screen from windowed to full, which bugged out and required a reboot.

If you’re thinking about picking up DoDonPachi Resurrection, you’re staring down the barrel of one of the best shoot-’em-ups of our time. Don’t hesitate, just grab this one first, then get Mushihimesama, followed by Deathsmiles.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}