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Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury review: Harried Treasure
Shmups aren't known for how easy they are to complete, if only because the genre's roots are based on a coin-op business model that relies heavily on player failure. Treasure's games take this philosophy to the extreme, putting equal importance on fun and hardcore psychological punishment. Yet even considering this pedigree, the company's Bangai-O series can't be pigeonholed that way. Its cruelty, its madness and the fires of its bullet hell cannot be restrained. Such is the case with XBLA's Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury. Any illusion of narrative has been stripped away entirely and only pure, unadulterated shooter insanity remains. %Gallery-116339%
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury shoots to XBLA on May 4
The arcade antics of Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury will teach players how to avoid the most insane missile attacks when it blasts onto Xbox Live Arcade for $10 on May 4. Developed by Treasure, the game unleashes the same "sensory overload" players may be used to from the company's other well-known shooter, Ikaruga, also available on XBLA. Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury features 100 levels, a level editor and co-op -- the latter being the reason given for the game's delay to this spring. If your brain doesn't get overwhelmed by hundreds, nay, thousands of projectiles being tossed at you in hectic succession, you'll be in for a treat shortly.
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury's first trailer is (naturally) explosive
You might have thought you had seen all of the explosion-themed XBLA media you were going to today. You were spectacularly, explosively wrong. D3 Publisher sent out the first gameplay footage of Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury for XBLA today, and it promises to test the limits of your tolerance for exploding projectiles. In a good way. If you're not totally weary of bullets by the time you watch that, you might be able to handle the new screens in our gallery. And if you're still not satisfied you've seen enough stuff blowing up, well, the game is out this spring!%Gallery-116339%
Bangai-O HD delayed until spring, Treasure adding multiplayer
Okay, we have some bad news and some awesome news. First, the bad news: you won't be blowing up robots, houses, mines, and everything around you with bajillions of projectiles in Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury this fall. D3 Publisher announced that the XBLA title has been delayed until spring. How can a delay be awesome? Developer Treasure is using the extra time to add multiplayer gameplay, including both cooperative and competitive modes. Despite Bangai-O Spirits on the DS having wireless local multiplayer capabilities, Missile Fury was originally announced without any. We suppose we can wait a few months if it means we can share Bangai-O with our friends. Find the statement from D3 after the break.%Gallery-102643%
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury blowing up XBLA this fall
In the mood for explosive news about explosions? Treasure's multi-scrolling, fruit-collecting shooter series Bangai-O is heading to XBLA this fall, published by D3 Publisher and priced at 800 Microsoft Points. Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury features over 100 levels of omnidirectional blasting. Like its DS predecessor Bangai-O Spirits, it also features a level editor, though presumably the XBLA version won't require levels to be traded as sound files. The game will be on display this weekend at PAX for attendees who feel like hitting giant soccer balls into ninja robots -- with a baseball bat, in exchange for giant fruit.
Fanswag: Bangai-O goes to ...
Our latest giveaway has come to a close and we've selected our two winners. If there's one thing that's hard to do, it's having to part with Bangai-O, let alone two copies. But, hey, it's our job! The winners are: thebagel, who is a big Ikaruga fan Noir, who enjoys Radiant Silvergun Congratulations to our winners and better luck next time to the rest of you. Thanks for reading!
Fanswag: Bangai-O up for grabs
Hey folks, do you like free stuff? Do you like free stuff that just so happens to also be totally awesome? Then enter our latest giveaway, right here, which will be hooking up two lucky readers with their own copy of Bangai-O Spirits (retails for $30)! How do you enter? That's easy!Simply leave a comment telling us what your favorite Treasure shooter is. Need a refresher? Hit up our latest feature looking back at their wonderful shooters right here. Or, just hit up the gallery at the below of this post. You can leave one comment per day, between now and 11:59PM ET on Monday, September 1st, which is when the giveaway ends. There is a catch, though. This latest giveaway is only open to current and legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec). Also, entrants need to be at least 18 years of age. Read up on the official rules right here.Best of luck to you all and thanks for reading DS Fanboy!%Gallery-29298%
A brief history of Treasure's shooters
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/The_legacy_of_Treasure_Shooters'; Whether you're a fan of shmups or wish to throw a pile of dictionaries at us for using such an egregious portmanteau, you could learn a thing or two from DS Fanboy's tribute to the shoot-em-up kings at Treasure. From 1993's Gunstar Heroes (released last year as a Virtual Console title) to this year's Bangai-O Spirits, the piece covers all of the developers' projectile-favored games (sorry Dynamite Heddy fanatics). Click here and get edumucated.
Bangai-O contest winners available for download
At the end of May, Treasure announced the winners of their Bangai-O Spirits stage contest. The 1st place winner, MKLL, received a 50,000 yen prepaid debit card, a soundtrack CD, and a Bangai-O Spirits t-shirt (which we'd like to see) for the "Tokimeki Doukasen" stage. The 2nd place winner, NeoGAF's Sp0rsk, won a Wii in addition to the soundtrack and shirt. All the contest-winning stages are now available for download and play via Sound Load.That means that we won a bunch of downloadable stages that we're going to grab now and hang onto just in case they work in the U.S. version of the game. We wouldn't be surprised if these contest-winning stages made it onto the cartridge anyway!
Bangai-O Spirits trailer markets its awesomeness
If you're wondering why the DS Fanboy staff is so wired up for Bangai-O Spirits, you only have to watch this trailer to understand. Packed into a minute of explosive goodness, this video manages to highlight all of the completely sweet features that will be in the game. With so much content and such a deep stage editing/sharing system, you can bet that this Treasure title will be keeping us occupied for a long, long time. Those of us in North America and Europe that are waiting for its localization can expect the game in August. %Gallery-16997%
Japan snaps up 100,000,000 DS games
In what is yet another statistical landmark for the DS in its homeland, the data gatherers at Media Create have revealed that Japanese consumers have purchased their 100,000,000th Nintendo DS game.* Considering the handheld itself hit the twenty million mark only last November, we calculate that to be ... a pretty good attachment rate! In total, 922 titles have appeared in the region, 21 of which have been million-sellers. Hit the break for the top ten best-selling games to date. * Rumors that the 100,000,000th game sold was Bangai-O Spirits are yet to be verified, and are suspected to have originated at popular Nintendo DS blog "DS Fanboy."
DS Daily: Tough choices
The next few months will be filled with a lot a great releases -- perhaps too many. Super Dodgeball Brawlers, Bangai-O Spirits, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Etrian Odyssey II, Space Invaders Extreme, Arkanoid DS, Rondo of Swords, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and The World Ends With You are just a few that we can name on the spot, and all of these will be out before July starts. Unless you have abundant amounts of currency, though, you probably can't afford to buy that many games in such a short period of time. Also, money isn't the only problem. Supposing that you could afford everything you wanted, you wouldn't even have the time to play them all. Narrowing down the field is tough, but necessary. What games that are coming out in the next three months do you consider must gets? And they don't have to be chosen from the games listed above, so go nuts.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 3/17-3/23
Last week was the week of new releases! Anticipating high holiday sales, many publishers made sure to release their games last week, with a total of fifteen ending up in the top thirty (seven of those being DS titles). With this slew of new releases, though, a lot of games were bumped off the chart to make room. Etrian Odyssey II and Soma Bringer, for example, did not survive the onslaught. Yet, somehow Mario Kart DS managed to move up a spot -- that game never ceases to amaze us.The top of the heap was none other than Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage, which completely crushed the competition in its debut week. Sim City 2 DS did well also, ending up in the number four spot. In fact, this is the best an EA game has ever done in its first week in Japan, with the exception of the FIFA titles. Time Hollow and Super Dodgeball are some other notable new releases, ending up in spots ten and seventeen, respectively.
DS releases for the week of March 17th
This week, there are a lot of DS games headed out all around the globe, but it's particularly a great week for those of you who keep your eyes peeled for interesting Japanese releases. Not the import type? That's okay -- there's a lot of other games to consider, and some that aren't even quite games, per se. Diary Girl Fantasy Aquarium by DS GoPets: Vacation Island Lost in Blue 3 Sega Superstars Tennis
D3 on Bangai-O Spirits
Gametrailers stopped D3's Product Manager for Bangai-O Spirits, Sam Guilloud, to talk about some of the features of the new game. It's mostly stuff we've heard -- the sound transmission feature, for example -- but any chance to see some gameplay footage is worthwhile. And we are personally impressed any time an interview about Bangai-O Spirits doesn't go like this: Q: DUDE BANGAI-O SPIRITS A: I KNOW, RIGHT Guillloud said that D3 is keeping a hands-off approach to the development of Bangai-O Spirits, allowing Treasure to do their own thing. "They have their own prestige and we wouldn't dare tell them what to do." In other wonderful Bangai-O news, Gamefly now has the game listed for a June 26th release. Sure, it's not today, but it's not that far off!
A scatter bomb of Bangai-O Spirits videos
The awesome Japanese trailer we posted last week was just not enough. Just having one video fails to convey the excess, the overkill, that is the essence of a Bangai-O game. Also, there's the simple fact that we like the game a bunch and want to see more of it. So naturally we were pleased to find that Gametrailers had uploaded four Bangai-O Spirits gameplay videos. In the "Missile Maze" video above, the player cleverly uses the respite of a few enemy-free corridors to charge up a scatter bomb, sending a wall of missiles out into the turret-filled chamber ahead before venturing in that direction. This tactic of scatter-bomb-as-shield figures heavily into gameplay, even with the existence of an actual shield item. We've posted the other three videos after the break -- Hold down your attack button, then charge through and launch a video-watching attack!
Bangai-O trailer showers us in missiles
More often than not, Bangai-O Spirits looks staggering. At stages, it's almost as if the screen becomes just missiles. Nowhere is this better displayed than in the Japanese trailer above, with Riki and Mami simultaneously unleashing what seems like hundreds of criss-crossing projectiles. It's bracing stuff, alright. Also spotted: brief footage of the game's extensive stage editor. See also: JC's take on the game when he went hands-on at GDC See also: 2008's Biggest Blips -- Bangai-O Spirits %Gallery-16997%
Bangai-O Soccer
Looks like Jeux-France got into the Bangai-O Spirits level editor. Either that or there's an official level comprising a huge pile of giant space soccer balls between the player and a bunch of enemies. Although, now that we think about it, that's entirely possible. Especialy since the soccer ball item must be an existing part of the game for it to be accessible in the level editor.Whatever they've done, it's resulted in another spate of extraordinarily wacky screenshots, which we pored over in delight. This set, in addition to weirdo soccer ball shenanigans, contains the best screenshot of a Scatter Bomb super attack in action we've seen. That white curtain? Missiles.%Gallery-16997%
Bangai-O Spirits on DS features unique 'Sound Load' technology
As we reported last month, classic Treasure shooter Bangai-O will be getting a second life on the DS as Bangai-O Spirits, due for North American release in the second-quarter of 2008. The former Dreamcast game is being published by D3Publisher, and we learned during a special GDC event that it will feature one of the strangest uses of the DS's microphone that we've heard of in a while. The "Sound Load" feature on Bangai-O Spirits will allow users to share custom levels, high scores, and replay videos as sound. Sound. When the mode is active, the selected data is converted into an audio track, which is played through the speaker of one DS, and can be intercepted by the microphone of another, where it is read and turned back into game data. The sound files can even be uploaded to computer, for easy sharing of content over the internet. We're as amazed as you are. Bangai-O Spirits will also feature competitive and co-op multiplayer for 1-4 players through local wireless. For more information on the game, do check out DS Fanboy's colorful overview. We've also appended a gallery of new screenshots (which don't quite capture the game's hectic and explosive gameplay). %Gallery-17024%
GDC08: Hands-on with Bangai-O Spirits
One of the first appointments I had when I got into San Francisco for GDC was with D3 Publisher. This appointment was what I was looking forward to most out of the trip, because I was going to get to play Bangai-O Spirits. And play it I did, while gushing unprofessionally at the D3 QA person giving the demo. I did my best to learn as quickly as possible how all the new parts of Bangai-O Spirits work. It's the same as the N64 and Dreamcast games in a number of ways, but it's also very different in a few fundamental ways. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play with the sound transmission feature, one of the most different things about the game. Head past the break for detailed impressions, and be sure to check out our gallery of brand-new screens! %Gallery-16997%
