that's the beauty of "scraping" bullets to build the "M" bar, and then unleashing the freakin' Hyper Cannon. Once I started getting the hang of it, it's just... wow.
Have to get better at this! lol The game actually doesn't look half-bad on an iPhone 4 and of course no slow-down whatsoever.
touhou / bullet hell isn't for everyone Bullet hell games are different from other top-down shooters precisely *because* the focus is on the bullets, not the enemies. The lasers filling up the screen is the whole point. To see if this kind of game is for you, I'd recommend (as others have said) to try "Rrootage", I believe it's a free (if not free, it's got to be cheap) download; it's the bullet-hell shooter in its most pure form. Once you get the hang of that game and if you like it, then you can understand the difference in focus between bullet hell and regular shoot-em-ups. This game (Dodonpachi) actually has some rather deep gameplay; by changing to the "laser" weapon you can deflect all the enemy purple lasers that become a rather large problem from lvl 3 or 4 onward; though this is at the cost of your bullet spread. Also, instead of just twitch shooting everything on the screen, to really get everything out of the game you need to NOT shoot everything to death and intentionally BARELY miss the bullets the enemy is shooting at you ("scraping", I believe it's called). This builds your "M" gauge, which in turn causes your Hyper Cannon to be a much more effective weapon in a pinch, even more so than a bomb. The fact that you can aim and control the point spread of your hyper cannon is a genius touch, I don't think I've seen it in a game like this except for Cave's earlier game "GUWANGE" (arcades only, not on an iDevice - you can play it in MAME, and it's a classic). Anyway, the point is there's all kinds of subtle levels in this shooter - if you just blast through and try to shoot everything on the screen you're missing 90% of the game. Again, though - bullet hell shooters aren't for everyone, they're most definitely an acquired taste. Give Rrootage a try!
That would be rRootage Online, free and works on iOS3 or above. Gameplay is monotone (not a negative adjective), but it is fun. It is not just dodge the bullets and have 4 modes to keep you entertained.
How many levels? Can anyone tell me how many levels there are in the game (original or this one since they're probably the same) Thanks.
Woooo buying now! I'm going to be putting that otterbox defender case to good use when I throw my phone across the room after dying repeatedly
I just bought this, but am definitely disappointed it doesn't run completely smoothly on my iPhone 4 (first boss battle literally dumps the framerate, and when the boss ends it boosts back up to 60fps it feels like). There's some obvious slowdown that's not there in Espgaluda. Boo. Otherwise, another great Cave title.
I've only had a couple of hours to spend on this so far as i'm at work, but I have to say - This is absolutely amazing. Figuring out the scoring hooks is really, really good fun. Though if you're playing for score on Arcade mode, i'd strongly recommend turning your Hyper Counter to manual. Once you've used your hyper to build up a substantial hit count, storing a full hyper and not using it will give you a massive score multiplier as long as you can maintain the chain. Currently rank 6 with Type C Strong Style, 4,585,758,717 I *really* want to get better with Power Style, as it seems to be the easiest style to build your Hyper up with: Normal shot is brilliant for adding to hit counter but not for hyper building. Boost is brilliant for hyper building but not for adding to hit counter. So you boost shot until you have hyper, Use hyper, go into normal shot, cancel all the bullets you can, Go back to boost shot to build up another hyper gauge while keeping your chain rolling max out hyper gauge, don't use it, switch to normal shot and keep chain rolling. = big score.
play on my touch, runs smooth. occasional slowdown but not much and does not effect gameplay. but it sure drains battery. much.
Oooof. It's amazing how reliant on autobomb I am to get through the stages! 3rd on Openfeint for Type C Power Style. 2,573,769,651. It can, and will, get much better.
I agree, it feels like ESP is smoother or something, not sure if its because the ship is faster in DDP but definitely doesn't seem as smooth as ESP.
so is this one the one to get or is Espgaluda, all things considered, the better game? if there are slowdowns, that's a major negative, isn't it?
They're both individual games with individual scoring systems. Get them both but if you must choose one, Dodonpachi is more accessible in my opinion. I'm playing both on iPhone 4 and haven't noticed any slowdown issues myself unless things get busy, which is when it should kick in anyway.
Just played a bit. Impressive, although I don't see anything of the landscape and enemies. Is there a way to stop shooting manually? And it's butter smooth on my iPhone.
Am I supposed to spin my bullets around like a nut when hyper cannon is activated? It seems like the only way to build up the massive cannon but it seems really silly to spin the handle around instead of facing forward to hit enemies. I'm in iPhone mode btw
