Dodonpachi Arcade

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Insert Coin

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Published on December 5, 2021 6:41:49 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Np5sDgH7E

Game:

DoDonPachi (1997)

Duration: 51:01

372 views

9

Dodonpachi takes place many years after the founding of the Donpachi Squadron. Communication with the 7th Starship Corps has suddenly ceased while they were circulating the outside of the star cluster system. Soon after, an unknown army comprised of “Mechanized Aliens” launched an attack upon our forces. When our armada had arrived to intercept this new threat, they found that the attackers had completely vanished from the radar. With the sense of unease growing with each passing day, Colonel Schwarlitz Longhena came up with a plan to eliminate the Mechanical Alien army, and called upon one of his “worker bees” to prepare to sortie.

DoDonPachi is a three-button shooter and there are six stages in the game, with a hidden second loop accessible by achieving certain tasks in-game.

A (Press): Fires the standard "spread" Shot weapon
A (Hold): Fires the ship's "focus" Laser weapon (also surrounds the player with an Aura that deals extra damage)
B: Releases a Bomb, clearing the screen of bullets and dealing massive damage to enemies on screen
When pressing B by itself, the player will release a Spread Bomb, which damages everything on screen
When pressing B while holding A, the player will release a Laser Bomb, which fires a massive laser blast from the ship that deals extremely high damage to anything in its path
C: Auto-fire for the player's standard Shot

There are 3 Ships in the game:

Type-A: A red jetplane with fast movement that fires a concentrated straight volley of bullets. The most frequently-used ship for scoring.

-- Fastest movement speed | Narrow Shot width
-- (Shot Type) Fastest Laser activation speed and damage
-- (Laser Type) Slowest Laser activation speed
Type-B: A green helicopter equipped with options that rotate their firing direction with the player's movement direction. Recommended for advanced / technical players.

-- Average movement speed | Adjustable options create unique chain opportunities only possible with this ship
-- (Laser Type) Fastest Laser activation speed
Type-C: A blue plane that moves slowly, but has the most powerful shot, which fires in a wide spread. Commonly recommended for beginner players due to the weapon strength.

-- Slowest movement speed | Most powerful Shot, with the biggest horizontal range
-- (Shot Type) Weakest Laser and slowest Laser activation speed

And 2 Ship Types:

Shot Type: Increases the strength of the player's Shot, dealing more damage and firing greater shot spreads, but with a weaker Laser and slower movement speed when Lasering.

Laser Type: Increases the strength of the player's Laser, movement speed when Lasering, producing a bigger aura, and instantly destroying zako,all Laser Type ships deal the same amount of damage with the Laser.

The central scoring mechanic of DoDonPachi is the Get Point System (GPS), returning from DonPachi, which emphasizes scoring by performing hit/kill chains upon enemies and the environment, in quick succession. Whereas DonPachi focused primarily on connecting a bunch of very brief chains for big score gains, DoDonPachi makes the chaining a little bit more lenient, giving the player more ways to prevent chains from breaking -- pushing the chaining even further by allowing you to full-chain an entire stage for massive score bonuses -- it is not unrealistic to achieve chains well over 100 HITs with practice and routing. Chain breaks are prevented by destroying enemies and objects, training your Laser on strong enemies (which now stalls the chain meter and slowly increases your HIT gain), and revealing hidden bees (see below). This chaining system has been a minor point of contention for some fans of the shmup genre, as it demands high levels of skill and perfection from the player in order to achieve respectable scores at a high level of play.

Another challenging point of contention for players, the MAXIMUM Bomb Bonus is pretty straightforward -- when you collect a Bomb icon while your Bombs are already at maximum capacity.

Like its predecessor DonPachi, DoDonPachi features a second loop with more aggressive enemies firing much larger amounts of bullets at a higher frequency. Accessing the second loop is the only way to fight the Last Boss Taisabachi and the True Last Boss of the game, Hibachi.

To get to the second loop, the player must accomplish any one of the following four tasks:
Lose a ship two times or less
Achieve one of the following maximum HIT counts:
270 hits (Type-A)
300 hits (Type-B)
330 hits (Type-C)
Score at least 50,000,000pts by the end of Stage 1-6
Collect all 13 hidden bee icons in four stages
In addition the player must be playing solo to be able to access the second loop.

00:00 Attract
0:54 Ship Selection
1:04 Stage 1
3:19 Stage 2
6:13 Stage 3
10:19 Stage 4
17:32 Stage 5
21:38 Bad Ending
22:35 Good Epilogue
24:10 The Whole Second Loop
44:00 Hachi
46:55 Hibachi and Skipping the Many Deaths
48:32 Ending + Credits + Name Entry