Don Pachi (prequel to Do Don Pachi)
SEGA SATURN

Atlus
is a well known publisher of shooters. They
released Gunbird for both the Saturn and the
Playstation about a year ago which was a good,
albeit extremely difficult shooter. Gunbird's
saving grace was its collection of roughly 400
pictures contributed by both professional artists
and from devoted fans of Gunbird. Don Pachi gives
the player a choice of three gunships to choose
from. There are two fighter planes and one
helicopter, each with it's own weapon. The
helicopter spews out a streaming green laser and
is a medium-speed vehicle. The first fighter in
the selection screen is the fastest plane and
it's weapon is a gold colored streaming laser.
The other fighter shoots out a powerful crescent
shaped laser and is the slowest of the three
vehicles. There are two modes of attack for each
vehicle; one shooting mode concentrates your
laser into one direct blast which is useful for
blowing away bosses and heavily armored enemy
vehicles. The other shooting mode is a spray shot
where your firing arc covers roughly 90 degrees
of the space in front of you. The satisfying
thing about Don Pachi is the fairness of the
enemy shots. I'll explain: there are shooters
where there are so many shots fired at you that
it is absolutely impossible to avoid them all.
One game that comes to mind is the aforementioned
Gunbird where volleys of shots would be fired at
the player and there would be no space to avoid
them all. Don Pachi gives the skilled player a
chance to avoid shots that come at you provided
you are quick enough and can map the path of all
the shots.
  
Another
forgiving aspect of Don Pachi is when your ship
is destroyed; all of your power up icons will
float on the screen foryou to pick up when your
next ship appears. You will theoretically be able
to power up to maximum levels immediately with
every fighter. Like any other shooter, there is a
bomb button that you can push should things get a
little hairy. Unleashing a bomb will cover the
screen with destruction and destroy every enemy
unit in your vicinity. You can use the bomb
button in another way also - if you are shooting
with the concentrated shot, pressing the bomb
button will magnify your firepower greatly which
is useful for destroying end level bosses. Don
Pachi's graphics are unremarkable but they convey
the intense action well. You may experience some
slowdown when there are a lot of shots on the
screen but this usually only lasts for a
millisecond. If I had one complaint, it would be
that Don Pachi is a relatively short game. There
are only five levels and once you are done with
the fifth level, the game will start over again
at level one with higher difficulty. Like some
other shooters, Don Pachi gives the player the
option of playing the game in a horizontal or a
vertical mode, with the latter involving a 90
degree turn of your television.


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