DoDonPachi

DoDonPachi

DoDonPachi (commonly abbreviated as DDP) is the second entry in the DonPachi series of shoot-em-ups. It expanded upon the chaining system innovated in the first game in the series, and introduced a "variation system" that allowed you to pick two different styles of three ships (Shot and Laser types), giving the player a slightly higher degree of playstyle customization.

This game in particular is considered by most to be the grandfather the first true bullet hell sub-genre of shooting games, pushing bullet counts into the hundreds, especially if the player is able to reach the second loop. DoDonPachi is also the first game in the series to introduce a True Last Boss -- known as Hibachi -- who would appear in all future DonPachi games as a challenge for particularly skilled players.

DoDonPachi was originally released in the arcades in 1997. It was later ported to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn home consoles. There is also a hidden, albeit very lean, port of DoDonPachi that can be unlocked in the Xbox 360 visual novel, Instant Brain. All three console ports of DoDonPachi are considered inferior to the PCB / arcade version of the game for various reasons, and are typically not played for score or competitively.

Gameplay Overview

DoDonPachi is a three-button shooter (although the C button is turned off by default, and can be enabled in the dipswitches in service mode).

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
• B: Releases a Bomb, clearing the screen of bullets and dealing massive damage to enemies on screen
• C: Auto-fire for the player's Shot

Ships

• Type-A: A red jetplane with fast movement that fires a concentrated straight volley of bullets
• Type-B: A green helicopter equipped with options that rotate their firing direction with the player's movement direction
• Type-C: A blue plane that moves slowly, but has the most powerful shot, which fires in a wide spread

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 and more damaging aura, and instantly destroying zako

Scoring

Seeing Stars!

There are three types of stars for the player to collect in the game; Ground Stars (300pts), Small Stars (100pts), and Large Stars (10000pts). Stars are also re-calculated into score bonuses at the end of the stage. Ultimately, star collection does not make a significant difference to the player's score, and it's recommended for players aiming for high scores to focus more on chaining (below).

Hit Chaining / Get Point System

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. 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.

MAXIMUM Bomb Bonus

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, the player activates MAXIMUM Mode, awarding them 220pts x (MAXIMUM Multiplier) every frame (1/60fps). The MAXIMUM Bomb multiplier starts at 2, and is increased by 1 for every Bomb collected while in MAXIMUM Mode, and the score will continue to pour in until the player uses a Bomb, or dies. MAXIMUM multiplier value does not drop on death, so if a player ever exits the mode, they can re-activate it through normal play and their previous score gain will resume. The bomb bonus stops giving players score during boss fights, but will resume score gain upon entering the next stage.

The MAXIMUM Bomb Bonus is critical for high level scoring, particularly if the player is able to carry it to the second loop, where the score gain is very lucrative. A player who is able to get a perfect MAX Bomb Bonus (no miss / no bomb for the entire game, collecting every Bomb capsule) can earn a whopping 265,330,000pts added to their run.

Hidden Bee Items

The hidden bee items that premiered in DonPachi return here, uncovered by lasering the spot that the bees are hidden. There are 13 bees to collect in each stage, and collecting a bee icon awards the player points, with each collected bee in a stage awarding increased point gain:

| 100 | 200 | 400 | 800 | 1000 | 2000 | 4000 | 8000 | 10000 | 20000 | 40000 | 80000 | 100000 |

When the final bee in a stage is collected, the next stage will have bees with increased point value, increasing with each bee perfect until every bee collected is worth 1,000,000 points. If the player dies even once, the collected value of bees is dropped, and returns back to the start of the scoring pattern (100pts). Revealing a bee will add GP meter to your chain, helping prevent chain breaks when playing through stages.

Secret Scoring Tricks

• Destroying the large green carrier ships will make them drop more Stars the closer they are to the bottom of the screen. If they are destroyed while on the very bottom of the screen, they will drop a single Large Star instead of many Small Stars.
• In Stage 1: Destroying one of the boss's side turrets while they're rotating around the boss and shooting blue needle shots will make the boss drop ten Large Stars instead of two.
• In Stage 2: Destroying the large bunker turret before the appearance of the mid-boss will reveal a patch of flowers in place of the turret. By hovering over these flowers, the player will gain 10pts every frame they are touching the flowers.
• In Stage 3: A significant amount of score can be earned during the second half of the stage, with the teleporting enemies that shoot volleys of pink needles, and the large yellow transport ships. The yellow transport ships, when destroyed, will cancel every enemy bullet on screen, rewarding the player points for each bullet canceled. The more bullets that are being created by the needle shooters, the greater the point gain. This technique is a great way to get points in Stage 3, especially if the player hasn't developed a chain route for the stage.
• In Stage 4: A "destroyed" Toaplan logo on the left side of the screen also contains a hidden patch of flowers. Hovering near the flowers causes them to bloom, gaining the same 10pts/frame score bonus for hovering over them. These flowers can be hit with the Shot for 510pts each hit, or 1,100pts every 1/30th /second with the player's Laser.

Strategy

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Story / Plot

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Development History

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References

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