There are two major types of arcade
shooter. One is the type you play to beat, like the classics Gradius
and R-Type. The other type
is the kind you play for points. Dangun Feveron, which I like to
call "Happy Disco Shmup" for reasons that will become obvious, is
a fine example of the latter.
The first thing you will notice when you startup the game is that
you have amazing flexibility over your ship. You can pick any one
of three normal shot patterns, any of three charge shots, and any
of four movement speeds. You can chose, straight forward, angled
out slightly, or two 45 degree diagonals for your main shot. For
your charge shot (the one that activates when you hold down fire)
you may select lock-on beam (a constant beam that is more powerful
than your max power shots and locks onto enemies), bomb toss (drops
up to 3 powerful misiles at once that float up the screen and detonate
when they hit something.) and "roll type" (hold down to charge up
a powerful shot that rotates around you while you charge, protecting
you from kamikaze enemies) And finally, you pick the fastest movement
speed you can handle out of the four, ranging from slow as Xevious
to insanely quick. This puts a lot of replay value into the game.
The powerup system is simple. Your primary forward fire and diagonal
fire (if you picked a craft that can use diagonal fire) are powered
by picking up P icons, which either point diagonally (for the diagonal
shots) or straight (for the straight shots). Both diagonal and straight
shots max out seperately. You also, of course, get three super bombs,
fired with the B button. These allow you to blast your enemies with
the power of disco (i'm not kidding just try it yourself!) killing
most non boss enemies instantly, and destroying all enemy fire.
Now for scoring. Every enemy you kill is worth one point. (WHAT?
I hear you say...) However most enemies leave behind one or more
dancing man bonus icons. For each dancing man bonus icon you collect,
the number of points you get for a kill increases. Bonus man icons
slowly float to the bottom of the screen,then they turn orange and
float back up to the top. If you miss even ONE dancing man, your
score per enemy RESETS BACK TO ONE. Fortunately your happy disco
smartbombs will freeze all dancing man bonus icons on the screen,
allowing you to zip up and collect them before it's too late. Of
course you lose ALL points if you continue, but you get a free "max
power" powerup to help you get back in the game (a common trait
of contemporary shooters of this style).
Graphics are typical for the time period, vibrant and clear without
being cheezy. The sound effects are nothing special, but the music
is (of course) full of cute disco tunes that are quite well done.
The gameplay is quite FRANTIC, especially once you beat the first
level. If you hate Batsugun, you will not like this game. It has
the same INSANE level of difficulty as Batsugun and DoDonPachi,
whereby the screen just gets COVERED in bullets.
Unfortunately, the screenshots are gonna be sparse, because I can't
play and take screenshots at the same time in this type of shooter.
If you enjoyed DoDonPachi, you should enjoy this game as well.