Man, this game ate my fucking lunch. After playing a lot of Dodonpachi and Esp.Ra.De., where bullets are numerous but slow, and for the most part reflexively dodgeable, Dangun Feveron's lightning-fast bullets are incredibly overwhelming.
I love a lot of the patterns, though, and it wouldn't have hindered my enjoyment; HOWEVER, the game throws this really goofy scoring mechanic at you that pulls your eyes all over the screen, and the game ends up feeling like kind of a mess as a result.
You have to collect these "cyborgs" that fall from destroyed enemies in order to score high (and they're there, floating around enticingly, you know? -- even if you're not playing for score, you instinctively are drawn toward them); so while these bullets are hurtling toward you at mach speed, you're not only having to watch them, but also the tons of cyborgs on screen, because missing even a single one will set your score multiplier thing back to zero.
I love that CAVE experiment so brazenly with STG scoring methods, truly. It's wonderful. I love that they tried this. It just doesn't quite work for me. (That being said, I still found myself wanting to go back and try it again and again, even as I was simultaneously frustrated by it, so that definitely counts for something.)
Some other stray notes: the disco-theme is fun in theory, but in practice it feels half-assed. I wish there were, like, actual disco dancers flying around shooting at you, and ships that looked like giant disco balls, or whatever. Aside from the music and the occasional colorful flashing lights in the environment, this looks basically like DoDonPachi. A little disappointing.
Also, the secondary weapons CAVE provide here feel like they're from a different game entirely, and are terrible to use for the most part. Bombs that crawl upward at a snails pace--cool? Thanks? Also an equally-slow-feeling charge shot? The only halfway-decent one is the homing buzzsaw, but I found myself never really bothering with any of them.
M2 have done an incredible job porting this game to the PS4, and have included two new modes (Super Easy and Fever) that, I think, do a lot to fix the problems that I have with the original game. If I were rating the PS4 version specifically, I'd give it a 4. For CAVE's arcade version though, a 3.5 feels even a tad generous.
I love a lot of the patterns, though, and it wouldn't have hindered my enjoyment; HOWEVER, the game throws this really goofy scoring mechanic at you that pulls your eyes all over the screen, and the game ends up feeling like kind of a mess as a result.
You have to collect these "cyborgs" that fall from destroyed enemies in order to score high (and they're there, floating around enticingly, you know? -- even if you're not playing for score, you instinctively are drawn toward them); so while these bullets are hurtling toward you at mach speed, you're not only having to watch them, but also the tons of cyborgs on screen, because missing even a single one will set your score multiplier thing back to zero.
I love that CAVE experiment so brazenly with STG scoring methods, truly. It's wonderful. I love that they tried this. It just doesn't quite work for me. (That being said, I still found myself wanting to go back and try it again and again, even as I was simultaneously frustrated by it, so that definitely counts for something.)
Some other stray notes: the disco-theme is fun in theory, but in practice it feels half-assed. I wish there were, like, actual disco dancers flying around shooting at you, and ships that looked like giant disco balls, or whatever. Aside from the music and the occasional colorful flashing lights in the environment, this looks basically like DoDonPachi. A little disappointing.
Also, the secondary weapons CAVE provide here feel like they're from a different game entirely, and are terrible to use for the most part. Bombs that crawl upward at a snails pace--cool? Thanks? Also an equally-slow-feeling charge shot? The only halfway-decent one is the homing buzzsaw, but I found myself never really bothering with any of them.
M2 have done an incredible job porting this game to the PS4, and have included two new modes (Super Easy and Fever) that, I think, do a lot to fix the problems that I have with the original game. If I were rating the PS4 version specifically, I'd give it a 4. For CAVE's arcade version though, a 3.5 feels even a tad generous.