CAVE's first shooting game and the one that would act as the foundation for all of their future shmups which fortunately improved on the formula, because as a starting point for CAVE Donpachi is... fine but not particularly impressive. Stages 4 and 5 drag on for almost twice as long as they have any right to and have some enemy designs/setups that feel like complete bullshit. The bosses on the other hand are strangely easy, especially if you take advantage of the various safespots throughout the game.

The announcer is great though