Bangai-O Spirits
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: D3
Genre: Puzzle
Release Date: 8/13/2008
I love Treasure Games. My favorite game of all time? Guardian Heroes. My favorite game from 2003? Ikaruga. From 2004? Gradius V. I’ve played both of those two games to the point where I can beat both the GCN version of the former and the PS2 version of the latter without dying. From Gunstar Heroes to Dragon Drive I love Treasure.
There have only a single flaw – they can’t do sequels. Remember how I said Guardian Heroes was my favorite game of all time? Advance Guardian Heroes for the GBA was the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had in gaming. It was pretty bad in every way possible and had only a token nod to the original game. It was not received well by fans and it was widely considered the worst game Treasure ever made, mainly because it played nothing like the original game and you spent the whole game killing characters from the first. The GOOD GUY characters.
So here we are now with Bangai-O Spirits. Much like Guardian Heroes, this sequel to Bangai-O has only one thing in common with the original game – the use of the Bangai-O Mech. It plays nothing like the original, has no actual connection to the original and in fact, it’s not even a Shoot ‘Em Up like the original. It’s a puzzle game with only the vague illusion of being a shooter.
So has the Treasure curse struck again, or has Bangai-O Spirits managed to be a worthy successor to its Dreamcast predecessor?
Let’s Review
1. Story
There are several different modes listed in Bangai-O Spirts, but the truth is that all the modes are exactly the same. They just have different puzzles. This is a bit of a letdown because it means you have three choices: Play a puzzle from either the Tutorial, Treasure’s Best, Puzzle Stages, or Other Stages. Because all of these puzzles boil down to not actually being puzzles but trial and error, this gets old fast. There is also a Level Edit option, so you can create your own levels. Again, though each puzzle boils down to the exact same thing “Make sure you have the right weapon before you start, kill the right target. End Puzzle,” so it’s not that captivating.
There’s also the highly touted “Sound Load” mode which is supposed to be a revolutionary new way of transferring data. The truth is, it barely works, and although the manual for the game doesn’t point that out, both the reviewers guide and the 73 page walkthrough/FAQ for the game D3 sent me mentions this. I think it’s borderline unethical to warn the reviewers that, ” Treasure described the Sound Load feature as an adventure unto itself.” on page 72 of the reviewer only walkthrough and then on page 73 to say the Sound Load mode only really works when 2 DS Lites are in contact in a very VERY quiet environment. Because I write for you, the consumer, here is a direct cut and paste from the D3 guide for reviewers on the actual quality of Sound Load.
Adjust your volume to be lower and lower each attempt until the game starts to register the transfer (or vice versa). If you are getting a “Data transfer failed.” message, but you get the percentage complete to appear, lower your volume slightly. Essentially the sound is too loud, and the DS’s speakers aren’t sensitive enough to understand the complicated sound at that volume.
If you keep getting an error before the transfer even begins, then the sound is getting refracted, or there is some kind of interference. Try positioning the DSes in different ways. Try holding a piece of cloth over the Speaker during the transfer to reduce possible interference. It also helps to perform the transfer in a environment that will absorb sound well, such as a carpeted room, to keep noise and interference down.
The best success rate we’ve had was transferring from DS Lite to DS Lite with one DS’ speaker set on top of the microphone (as shown in the help texts in the Sound Load option). If you don’t have two DS Lite to transfer with, then try using the Nintendo DS to transfer to the DS Lite.
Here are some statistics based on a few hundred attempts at transferring stages and replays via sound:
DS Lite to Nintendo DS transfers:
“¢ In quiet environments they have a high rate of success.
“¢ In noisy environments they have a lower rate of success when transferring small files, but nearly impossible when transferring large files.
Nintendo DS to DS Lite transfers:
“¢ In quiet environments they have a high rate of success with smaller files but expect difficulty with the larger files.
“¢ In noisy environments they have a moderate rate of success with both small and large files.
Nintendo DS to Nintendo DS transfers:
“¢ In a quiet environment they have a moderate to low rate of success with file transfers; Small files transfer at a higher rate of success.
“¢ In a noisy environment they have a very low rate of success with transfers.
Headphones are incapable of transferring information if they are directly linked to the Nintendo DS – they do not produce enough volume for the game to pick up.
This is really, REALLY uncool in my opinion. When the publisher can’t even get it to work right most of the time, there is a problem. Treasure deserves a severe kick to the genitals for this and I at least applaud D3 for making the information on how to make Sound Load actually work available, but it really should have been included in the actual manual as well.
In all, you have three modes that are exactly the same, a level edit that just lets you make more of the same, and something that treasure itself admits barely even works. This is about as bad as a game gets here. Oh, are you looking for a plot? There is none. Yes, I know that the original Bangai-O‘s story was one of the most popular things about it. Too bad, so sad. It’s not here.
Modes Rating: Dreadful
2. Graphics
Wow is this game ugly. It’s arguably the worst looking game I’ve seen on the DS so far. Graphics are bare, badly rendered, so lacking in detail that I could call them blobs and not be exaggerating by much and exceptionally repetitive. You will see the same dozen or so designs repeated through 160 or so puzzles with little to no real variation. With all honesty, this game looks worse than some GBA titles and at times, it could pass for a GAME BOY game if it was in black and white.
Here’s the thing: Bangai-O Spirits is a puzzle game, and like all puzzle games ala Tetris or Columns, there’s a limited variety of graphics. But Bangai-O Spirits also wants to give the illusion of being a Shoot ‘Em Up, so there are a lot of bullets on the screen at once. The problem here is that there is also a lot of slowdown with said firepower. This is something you almost never see in a Treasure game, but it is here in spades, making the actual playing of the game that much worse.
There is absolutely nothing good I can say about the visuals. The best the game gets in with the static anime dialogue scenes in the tutorial, and even that is, once again, GBA quality at best.
Look, I adore Treasure. Possibly more than any other development company in the industry, but this is one butt ugly game that makes me feel Treasure was phoning it in. Like everything else about this game, the visuals are a crushing disappointment.
Graphics Rating: Worthless
3. Sound
I can’t really say much here. The sound effects and music are neither bad nor memorable. Due to the gameplay in Bangai-O Spirits, you’re never actually paying attention to any of the noises, as that will get you killed. A lot. Noise is either a distraction or it’s desperately trying to get Sound Load to actually work.
Thumbs in the middle here, which is possible the nicest thing I’ll get to say about this game all review.
Sound Rating: Mediocre
4. Control and Gameplay
And here’s where I just want to let profanity run amok, but I won’t. Needless to say though, this game plays like crap. Before each level, you have to pick from your assortment of weapons as to what you will take with you into the puzzle. Each weapon has their own strength and weakness, but you are given no hints as to what the puzzle with contain, so it’s basically trial and error. Compound that with the fact that for the vast majority of puzzles, you will need a specific combination of weapons or you will die, and there is a lot of restarting the same level. If you have that exact right weapon combination the game pretty much defeats itself, meaning the “hardcore intense strategy” the games proclaims to have is a bold faced lie. There is no strategy. It’s just guess and check combined with rote memorization, making it a video game version of a multiple choice SAT test. LAME.
Although gameplay is basically crap, the controls themselves are a little bit better. The trigger buttons are your EX weapons, and then you have two buttons that act as your normal weapon options. You can also use the A button for your rocket boost which also lets you have a shoulderblock attack. For the most part these controls are fine. I also like that certain weapon options can be mixed together into one super weapon. It makes for a nifty idea – if this game was actually a Shoot ‘Em Up. Instead it’s a fairly wasted idea because once again, it’s not about the combination, it’s about whether or not the combination is the one right mix that you need for a particular level.
Supposedly if you tap the B button twice rapidly, your Bangai-O will hover allowing you to just aim instead of aim and move. This only works a fraction of the time, which as you might imagine is quite annoying.
In all there’s not a lot to the game. You just pick your weapons, try to make sure you have the right combo of weapons to survive, and then figure one the one or two possible ways to beat each level without dying. Which is easier said than done. Regardless of your skill level, you will die in Bangai-O Spirits. You will die often and you will die not because of your lack of skill, but because of your inability to prognosticate. As soon as you make the slightest mistake, you’re killed. This is not a gross exaggeration. When you are hit you are stunned for a brief second. When you are hit by more than one weapon, the stuns stack. And there are always multiple enemies on the screen. This again is a huge thumb’s done for me as the game rewards blind luck and level memorization rather than hand-eye coordination as in most Treasure games. At least other puzzles games have some degree of randomness and skill involved. Again, not cool in any way, shape or form to me.
Gameplay is boring, trite, and shallow and controls are decent, but at times unresponsive. This is easily the worst game Treasure has ever made and that includes the Ronald McDonald game they made early on in their existence.
Control and Gameplay Rating: Bad
5. Replayability
Well, there are 160+ levels and you can play them in any order you want, whenever you want. There is no linearity to the game, but there’s also no reward or real triumph for beating the game. So take that for what you will.
The ability to create your own levels is probably the biggest factor to keep you coming back to this game, but even that is very limited compared to say, Blast Works.
The other key factor is that the game is really not that much fun to play. It’s the same thing for 160 levels and it’s basically the anti-Shoot ‘Em Up, thus alienating what should be the game’s key supporters. Factor is the sheer amount of times you will die in this game, and well, Bangai-O Spirits does a far better job of pushing gamers away then it does attracting them.
Replayability Rating: Poor
6. Balance Rating
There is no balance to Bangai-O Spirits. In fact it is one of the least balanced games I’ve ever played. Long time readers know I generally adore the crazy hard games. Games that have difficulty setting stuck at “SNK END BOSS”. Bangai-O Spirits however isn’t difficulty at all. It’s guess and check. No skill, intelligence, hand-eye coordination or gaming talent is needed. All one has to do is memorize the level layout and then bring in the correct weapon combination and the level is beaten.
When a game relies on luck, and only luck, you’re basically just gambling. I don’t gamble. I play games to sharpen my wits or increase my skill. Bangai-O Spirits is incapable of either and that makes it fundamentally worthless to me.
There is no real kind way to put this. Bangai-O Spirits is basically the exact opposite of everything that made the original Bangai-O. so wonderful. It is dull, lackluster, ugly, and the only challenge comes from setting your weapons properly and figuring out the order you are supposed to kill things. It’s just sloppy and poorly thought out in every way. I thought Advance Guardian Heroes was as bad as Treasure could get, but this makes AGH look like a quality title by comparison.
The only people that will find this game hard are the people who haven’t figured out the cheapness of the game. The only people that will find this game fun are the people who will praise it simply because it is a Treasure game. The truth is, it’s a pile that will thankfully be forgotten before the end of the year.
Balance Rating: Worthless
7. Originality
Well, it is original to make a sequel that is completely different from the original game, so that’s something. It’s also a unique idea to make a weird hybrid between a Shoot ‘Em Up and a Puzzle game. So that’s another plus for this game.
However when it’s basically 160 levels of guess and check with the same exact process for each level the innovation wears out very quickly. The game was obviously based on an idea that looked good on paper, but in reality turned out to be very thin and weak, so they just repeated it a gazillion times in hopes of selling the game on both the Treasure and Bangai-O name. After about ten levels you’ll realize the only variation is in what weapons to bring, and the only innovation comes from half-assed broken ideas.
Originality Rating: Mediocre
8. Addictiveness
This is probably the most boring game I’ve played all year. There is no reward, there is no skill gain, there is not benefit. It’s just a mindless guess and check. It’s up there with a really bad Adventure game in terms of just randomly trying things to get by. The tutorials were amusing, but by the time I hit the double digits in tutorial missions, I was bored to tears with this game. You know a game is pretty damn awful when the tutorial goes 16 missions long. How does anyone else not see the red flag there?
Honest to god, I wish i could go back in time and let Mark call this game and thus suffer through playing it. It’s that bad. Remember when the MST3K gang watched Hobgoblins and they talked about how they wished they could go back in time and murder the creators in their crib so they couldn’t grow up to make such a horrible movie? That’s pretty much how I’m feeling here.
This is the worst puzzle/shoot/sequel/DS game I have played all year. Any game that requires this much trial and error and absolutely no skill isn’t worth being released to the general public. Hellboy: Science of Evil may have been a worse game, but at least there were times when I could say I enjoyed the game or got some sort of reward out of playing it. This is gaming for the sake of masochistic gaming, and I am NEVER down with that.
Addictiveness Rating: Worthless
9. Appeal Factor
Here is a list of the three type of fans who will claim to like this game
A) Treasure fanboys/apologists
B) Gaming journalists who want to prove how “hardcore” they are by bashing the game for the same reasons I have, but then giving the game a high score (see 1UP and Game Informer) which placates the publisher and outright lies to the consumer
C) People who enjoy taking those Cosmo multiple choice tests and taking them over and over and over again until they get a perfect score.
Honestly, if you can somehow find enjoyment in a game whose goal is to evoke a Pavlovian response from its players, then I hope never to visit the institution in which you are incarcerated.
Appeal Factor: Dreadful
10. Miscellaneous
So we have a game that is bad in all the ways its predecessor was awesome. We have a game that sucks at being a puzzle and a shooter, much less a hybrid of both. We have a game that touts a revolutionary new mode, but then reviewers are told how the mode barely works. You have a game that is 160 levels of trial and error without any plot, reward or substance. This my friends, if it was a game made by anyone BUT Treasure, would be lambasted against by every gaming publication out there. Instead it’s getting high scores from reviewers who openly bash it, because they know THEIR audience doesn’t read the content – they’ve trained their sheep to just look at the score they give, which has become a duplicitous misnomer cheated consumers out of their hard earned cash.
Well, not here. Not at Diehard GameFAN. I pretty much spooge on most Treasure titles and even I am saying THIS. GAME. SUCKS. I love D3 for bringing it over. I love D3 for bringing lots of weird games over. But I am giving Treasure a big middle finger for the crap it pulled with Bangai-O Spirits
Bad developer. Bad, bad developer.
Miscellaneous Rating: Worthless
The Scores
Story: Dreadful
Graphics: Worthless
Sound: Mediocre
Control and Gameplay: Bad
Replayability: Poor
Balance: Worthless
Originality: Mediocre
Addictiveness: Worthless
Appeal Factor: Dreadful
Miscellaneous: Worthless
FINAL SCORE: VERY BAD GAME
Short Attention Span Summary
Bangai-O Spirits is one of the worst games I have played this year and is an utter disgrace to the original Bangai-O. For the love of god, don’t buy this game unless you have a rote memorization fetish. This is easily the biggest disappointment of the year for me and Treasure should be ashamed of making this title.
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