Great DS game you may have missed

[justinrakete]

1st in a series of reviews i plan on making. Today im gonna review an awesome DS game that every1 should try. Im talking about*drumroll*
BANGAI-O SPIRITS!

Theres an old saying that goes: "Big things come in small packages"
.....WTF does that have to do with anything. Well you will see

Im gonna start off by saying: I LOOOOVVVEE this game. Even my avatar is the character from this game. Where to begin.....
About a year ago i saw a video of a wierd dreamcast game being played. It featured an extremely small robot destroying EVERYTHING on screen. within seconds, the player was launching 400 missles to flood the screen totally obliterating all the on-screen enemy robots. That game was called bangai-o.

I do not own a dreamcast so i cannot get it(until i set up an online ebay/paypal account that is...). Recently Treasure announced that there was a sequel for the DS and it would come out in the US! I was soo excited, i reserved the game and bought it on the day my local gamestop had it in stock. Time to get down to business

Gameplay: You are a small robot sent to take out the targets in a level. There are 167 levels! Pretty crazy huh? Well thats just the icing on this cake. Before starting a level, you can choose your weapons(b and y buttons), you have:

melee
-Sword
-shield
-bat
missles:
-napalm
-homing
-break
-bounce

Your robot also has what is known as a EX attack! This is a move that will completely kill everything and will leave you stunned. It is done by pressing and holding R or L to charge it. The most you can shoot is 100. However, if you are near enemy fire the size of the missles can be multiplied up to 4 times. There is nothing more satisfying that seeing 100 missles that are 4 times bigger than normal size flooding the screen. You will need this move because the levels contain houndreds if not thousands of enemies. You have a life bar but it can be completely obliterated in mere seconds! You need fast reflexes and need to think fast otherwise you will not survive very long. Some levels will take 1 second to 3 minutes to complete. Thats right i said 1 second! but thats only if your really good. Ive managed to pull that off on 1 or two levels.
If the 167 levels werent enough there is a level creator thats extremely simple to use. And if that wasnt enough, you can even modify the in-game levels. I mean you could pause gameplay, and spawn a boss right in front of you. The possibilities are endless. The only problem is that they decided to use Sound load as a way to distribute the levels. I mentioned the Sound load in a previous thread i made a while ago. Basically it involves emitting a wierd modem like sound to another DS to transfer levels. Unfortunately this doesnt work as well as it should, and personally i think they shouldve stuck with Wi-fi sharing.
Ive mentioned that the game allows massive amounts of bulletspread. Im gonna say this: The DS cannot handle it! The game slows down quite a bit in some areas. This doesnt bother me, i actually think its part of the fun. Sometimes i feel like the DS will explode .

Story: There is none! Some may be turned off by this but im not! Its all about having fun! There is a tutorial mode with characters talk to each other and try to explain the controls.

Music: Nothing special. The BGMs are okay but suited to the levels.

Pros:
-you can shoot 100x4 missles!
-controls are great
-tons of levels
-level creator is very simple and easy to learn
Cons:
-slowdown, mostly when you do a huge combo otherwise it runs at a good rate
-Sound load doesnt work as well as it should

Unfortunately this game probably will not be anything more than a cult classic. This game came out around the same time as N+. Most people probably bought that game instead. I say put N+ down for a bit and check out Bangai-o. Its a game that you have to see to believe it. Go get this game NOW! Do not overlook this one you will be sorry!

[Kman0209]

This sounds like a fantastic game, is it alike Custom Robo Area (which had great combat but was let down by poor story, graphics, dialogue, sound etc)?

[justinrakete]

In a way since you can choose what weapons to use in the level. But you cannot gain new ones. Trust me you will be happy with the weapons the game gives you.

[Kira01]

I saw that one in stores awhile back but I had no interest in it, so I skipped that one.