Looking For A Challenge? DoDonPachi Blissful Death Is Cave’s Toughest Shooter Yet
DoDonPachi Blissful Death ($4.99) by CAVE CO.,LTD. is an iOS port of the classic arcade shooter DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou, which was originally released 10 years ago. Cave is known for bringing bullet hell arcade games to iOS, and DoDonPachi Blissful Death is no exception, baring a serious resemblance to other releases like Bug Princess, Deathsmiles, and ESPGALUDA II.
If you played DoDonPachi Resurrection, you may be in for a bit of a surprise with its prequel, Blissful Death. While Ressurection’s scoring was based around bullet canceling and hyper gauge buildup for creating chains, Blissful Death has a combo system without any bullet canceling at all. This means that you need to dodge and shoot like crazy. It also means that Blissful Death is much harder.
There are two types of ships - A and B. A is a straight shot, while B is a spread shot. You can also choose from three avatars (or dolls). Shotia will increase shot power, Leinyan will increase laser power, and Exy will increase both, while giving one bomb instead of three, so there are several options for different gameplay styles.
In Blissful Death, you will have a hyper gauge that fills up when completing chains (combos) and collecting bees. When the gauge fills up, an item will drop for you to collect, which gives you bonuses.
The game comes with four different difficulty settings, from easy to insane, but even the easy setting will be a challenge for new players (and those of us who just aren’t meant for shooters, like me).
If you haven’t played one of these games, you should know that they are fast-paced action-oriented shooters that will have you tapping furiously to dodge bullets and shoot enemies. Timing and position are important for creating maximum score, so gameplay is based on much more than just blind shooting.
Blissful Death runs great on both my iPad 2 and my iPhone. Cave always delivers polished games, and this one controls perfectly. Although it says it is suitable for both devices, it is not universal, so be aware of that if you plan to purchase it for the iPad.
In the world of shooter games, Cave is king, and for those of you who have purchased Cave games in the past, you will want to grab this one immediately, since it’s more of the same great gameplay. If you’re new to the genre, be warned: this is a difficult game that is definitely meant for serious players.
