Treasure are well known for their shoot-’em-ups, and this one is an example of why. It’s an extremely fast and frantic “twin stick shooter” (of course, that term came about much later than this game) that oddly feels more modern because it’s more retro.

Essentially, this does what more modern “retro-style” games do: it uses 2D graphics but takes advantage of the hardware by doing a lot more with it: in the case of Bangai-O, that was to have an immense amount of bullets on-screen.

Bangai-O is unashamedly arcade-like in style. Everything you destroy gives you points – not just enemies, but buildings and houses as well – and everything drops behind fruit, which you need to collect for even more points. You fire bullets at an incredibly fast rate (using the c-buttons to fire in octagonal directions), and they also home in on most enemies and objects (there are a few exceptions). Each of the 40+ levels is a score attack challenge for you to figure out the best way to get the highest score.

The levels manage to mix things up as well. Some are all about attacking enemies, others are more difficult to navigate and find your way round, while others are puzzles. Some of them have you trigger a chain reaction of events, and you need to quickly make it to the end of the section to make it past – fail, and you’ll be stuck and have to retry the level. They’re all short enough that it never takes long to try again, alleviating the frustration around it.

Bangai-O is a ton of fun. The original publishers didn’t have much faith in it initially, as they only ordered 10,000 copies. The game did later get an enhanced port on Dreamcast, which wasn’t limited to Japan and also had an international release, so it at least managed to get a bit more recognition.

Fun

The weapons, a homing missile and a green laser that bounces off the walls, are great. You just hold down the C-buttons to control the direction of fire and you unleash a continuous stream of destruction, vaporising anything you aim at – aliens, houses, skyscrapers, the works. Truly satisfying. Everything you blow up leaves a piece of fruit behind, and collecting them powers up your special attack, which you can use to shoot up to 100 missiles at once, complete with little white trails. The screen is constantly busy and the action rarely lets up.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #36. Review Score: 84%

Remake or remaster?

An HD version of this would be great to see.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Bangai-O