Video Game Review: Bangai-o

I recently reviewed an underplayed Nintendo 64 game called Sin and Punishment. Well, Bangai-o is basically the other Nintendo 64 game that no one played. It's becoming slightly more visible than it used to be, thanks to sequels on the 360's Live Arcade, and the Nintendo DS. But the Nintendo 64 incarnation? Well, the name Bakuretsu Muteki just won't ring all that many bells. At least it can be put down as another game that's not our faults. though (do I have to mention Beyond Good and Evil again? Crap, I just did.) Bangai-o wasn't localized until the last days of Sega's time as a console manufacturer, on the Dreamcast. By then, a lot of people had missed their chance to play it. But now it's available on the Wii's virtual console, which is a great thing. What is unfortunate is that Bangai-o has not received the praise it deserves as being one of the few games that had the guts to go completely 2D on the Nintendo 64.

It's not entirely surprising that Bangai-o wasn't localized. It launched, with its 2D gameplay, at a time when 2D games weren't all that warmly welcomed on consoles. It didn't help that the Nintendo 64 was notoriously bad at rendering sprites to begin with: Bangai-o suffering because of it. The game is full of blurry images, and jaggies galore. To make things worse, if you fire diagonally, you'll still notice the odd effect of your missiles still facing horizontally. The game certainly appears to lack any of the polish that some of the bigger titles of the day had. I issue a challenge, though. Play Bangai-o for five minutes and tell me that it isn't fun. Its catchy tunes, and simple gameplay are capable of immediately hooking a player, while its ramping difficulty and varied level design keep them playing. Think of it as Tetris but with mechs and lasers.

Bangai-o's controls are a little strange at first, but they're easy to pick up. The D-padis used to control your mech, with each of the C-buttons being used to shoot in the four cardinal directions. You can tap the L button to switch between pilots. One of whom uses homing missles, the other who uses shots which reflect off walls. The R button will be used to launch your ace in the hole: a torrential hurricane of missiles. It's standard for arcade-style shooters to throw more bullets at you than you could ever possibly dodge, but this game goes in the other direction with that. Your mech is the one that's the beacon of death: and it feels good to be king. All you have to do is use this immense power to float through the stage, and destroy the boss robot on the otherside. And even these bosses can be sent to the grave with a full-charge special in their face. Despite this, you'll find yourself dying often and frequently -- because all of the flies that you're swatting away? They're each chipping off your health, bit by bit. And then suddenly, you explode. This will go on for a while too, as the game has a decent length. Levels are in perfect bite-size chunks, but there's a whole bunch of them.

There is a translation script available freely online, which I might eventually take a look at. I think there's at least one translation patch floating around as well. At the moment, I am content with not understanding a thing. I know that when I destroy houses, I get fruit. I know that when I finish a stage, Voltron-in-tights delivers a Falcon Punch to Godzilla. I know that when I get a gameover, a Klansmen runs off into the sunset, leaving my shounen mecha pilot shivering naked on the ground -- if you think I'm making weird jokes, give it a play, and see for yourself. But regardless, the most important thing I know is that the game takes care of me via autosave, so I never lose my progress. That's good enough for me. I'm happy with sitting back and enjoying the solid gameplay, with all of the quirky bells and whistles dangling from it. And that's the impression that Bangai-o left on me. I can't discuss its story, or characters, or anything like that. I can say that it's fun.

Final Score: 7.25 out of 10