Games of the Abstract: Bangai-O (1999)

 

Developer: Treasure

Publisher: Entertainment Software Publishing [Japan]/Swing! Entertainment Media [Europe]/Conspiracy Entertainment [North America]

One Player

Originally for: Nintendo 64 [But Sega Dreamcast Version Covered]

 

It delights me that Bangai-O originates from Treasure programmer Mitsuru “Yaiman” Yaida, inspired by an old shooter which surprised him for the amount of bullets he saw onscreen, wanting to see with the then-current state of technology how he could get as many bullets as he could onscreen without compromising the processor for a game¹.  This little experiment got the go ahead, in the midst of 3D games being the biggest sellers, from their president with a small development team¹, and thus the result is one of the obscurer Treasure games nowadays, despite being one which got a European and North American release, and two sequels later on. This is a shame as it is refreshing take on the shooter genre. One for its unique take on the twin stick shooter template, and for how Yaiman’s initial experiment became a gleefully strange and funny take on the mechanics alongside how easy to get into the mechanics it is, and interesting to master.

This review is focused on the Dreamcast version, but Bangai-O started as a Japanese only Nintendo 64 release, with changes taking place in-between the versions alongside new aesthetic additions. The fruit for starters, literally coming from Yaiman evoking older games by just wanting the player character to pick up oranges¹, was not just for points originally but charged your shots, and you had access to a shop which was taken out for the Dreamcast version, accessed even by hitting all 100 shots with missiles for a destructive wormhole. All this was jettisoned by the Dreamcast version which revamped the presentation, and was the version which got the global release. The premise is simple, a parody of a yakuza revenge tale taking place on the planet 男星(dansei), literally “male planet” with the female planet jettisoned by Map Editor/Graphic Designer Koichi “Kafuichi” Kimura as an idea in production¹. The space yakuza on this planet hurt your father and as revenge, the young son with a robot stolen from them goes to do good but with his kid sister tagging along. Thankfully she is as integral to the story as he is, as this follows a mechanical idea Treasure has played with a lot, with dual attack functions in their games. Silhouette Mirage (1997) literally made your heroine two faced, split in half into two different colours to match the opposite ones needed to attack enemies of a different colour, arguably a more complicated game play loop for a run and gun then others by them. Ikaruga (2001), whilst a very hard scrolling shooter game, simplified this idea perfectly with the same colour of enemy bullets absorbing them with damage and being able to even charge a power shot with them.

Bangai-O’s take is that the male lead fires homing missiles from the mecha, whilst his sister is linked to energy beams which ricochet off walls and objects, with both fire power types needed and with limited bomb versions. To paraphrase a Samuel L. Jackson quote from Jackie Brown (1997), when you absolutely, positively got to kill every melonfarmer in the room, accept no substitutes but the missiles, and as I will get into there are the rare literal watermelon or two to collect for big points, so they will be useful to use. In the cramped areas as the levels, two dimensional dioramas, can also involve mazes or places deliberately limited in directions to force enemy chokeholds into your way, the energy beams are far more special especially as you can bounce the beams around corners with good aiming when there are a lot of killer robots ahead or laser beam barriers blocking the way. The levels themselves, only until the end when the death traps and laser filled gauntlets start to be labyrinths let alone the bosses who appear at the end of them, are deliberately short, allowing you to experiment with the mechanics of these two fire powers, and find tactics with them and the movement you have. Even the lengthening of the last levels is because the tiny areas are so hazardous and with simple puzzles to figure out that you have to get your wits about it. The puzzle aspect shows the designers playing with the structure, such as the level where you need to get through obstacles, setting off an initial explosion and a few others, quickly to avoid being trapped and having to restart the level, or relish the chaos in the level where you need to clear through all the hazards above, including the generators which spawn robots from above on mass (or even brick blocks in one line), through all the layers to reach the boss.

It emphasizes Treasure’s treasures, forgive the pun, and uses each stage to stretch a part of its simple idea and few objects in new directions, where the time limit of the levels is not a game over if it reaches zero, but that you get all your points confiscated even if you manage to complete that level and now access the new one. Only the sense the last levels punish you with harder gauntlets and then bosses, especially the last, and that you may end up going through them over and over is a sense of a real difficulty curve, as everything is developing over time. Alongside the fact you have infinite continues and ease of access for the time, the game is more accessible to its credit to the point that has to be praised as a huge virtue in its own way. It feels like, and I say this as a compliment, an indie Steam game in design from a time of a well established company was making the game instead, developing for the likes of Nintendo and Sega, but also put a math challenge abruptly in the middle of Mischief Makers (1997) for a gag and could be freewheeling in experimental arcade throwbacks like this one later on.

That simplicity is found in a lot of their games, never overcomplicating their idiosyncratic ideas or their arcade-like game play loops, like Gunstar Heroes (1993) emphasizing the boss rushes alongside the levels, or Mischief Makers being short sharp levels based around a heroine who grabs and shakes objects. The result is a forty plus level game with mostly simple but diverse challenges with its physics and few items. Some barriers are one-way, some refuse to open until you get requirements blown up, and there are things like explosives to breakable blocks which block the way or are for points. (Cars hilariously take longer to blow up, despite having nothing to them expect to mine points, than some earlier bosses if you know what to do). There is also the fact the bomb mechanic has its own tactics, as the risk of being in the middle of a sea of bullets and missiles after you is what you want, as the risk of being blown up can be turned against everyone when the bomb is set off. Over a certain number, you get your bomb meter increased again, as with blowing up enemies and objects, as well as health pickups. If you have over a hundred plus after you, you can live out Mitsuru “Yaiman” Yaida’s original intention for this project, as all those hazards are turned into hundreds of homing missiles or a full radius laser beam of death that decimates everything nearby in a comically cacophony of explosions and noises. All there is left behind after this is the fruit to collect, leading to the oranges as the most common becoming even pears or the elusive watermelons if the bullet number you turned was comically high. It taps into a lizard brain mentality in a good way, especially as with the exception of the final boss who spams two out of spite and reads your moves, bosses who try to pull off the evil waves of bullets in all directions can be kicked in the nuts instantly if you set off the bomb at the right time and decimate their health bar.

Treasure could be serious – Ikaruga is a beautifully somber take on the scrolling sci-fi shooter – but they are also great when they are proudly silly, adding such a personality like here in Bangai-O. The information guide at the start of the earlier levels, who starts teaching you the techniques, eventually has to be found within levels and is there as only an ongoing conversation with a tree woman, a literal tree person who is a mother. She briefly gets ill and even has her ghost daughter take over for a while, just to emphasis this absurdity. Some bosses each level, alongside the ones who are dangerous but can be goofballs in the pre-fight conversations, are merely defenseless power hubs, one or two cats, but others the depressed consciousness of a hub for sick humour. Your revenge is undercut when your father eventually betrays you, fighting him a few times, and marries into the yakuza family you are trying to destroy, and all of this is a wonderful orange slice on the cake here, perfectly contrasting the kinetic joy of the game play and why I admire Treasure as I do. Sequels did come to the game - Bangai-O Spirits (2008) for the Nintendo DS, and later Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury (2011) for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade – I hope for the day this title like Radiant Silvergun (1998) get a lot more interest and rereleased, as this is a strong game deserving to be preserved. At least it deserves praise from originating from that initial experiment, accomplishing that experiment more so as, unlike the Nintendo 64 version, the Dreamcast release managed to have even more bullets on screen and thus more explosions.

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1) Bangai-O – 1999 Developer Interview, originally published in the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine, translated into English and published on shmuplations.