DoDonPachi...HELP!

[Frizz.Meister]

Just purchase DoDonPachi for my saturn (disc only but whatever i store my games in dvd cases). Now i love shmups, to the point where i can beat most of them (1 credit), to me personally the more thats on screen the more fun it gets.

However, DoDonPachi is brutal. The bosses are fine but the levels are crazy hard. You get the standard large spaceships which if not killed quickly showever you in bullets and the easily killed little ones that fire the occasional single shot to throw you off. But its the collision which gets me. Im dashing around the screen dodging like mad and then some small enemy comes in off the side of the screen and kills me. Now this wouldnt be a problem except the enemies aren't exactly slow in this game and so when i do react in time its knee jerk and i hit a bullet.

Is it just a case of memorising the entire game? Or is DoDonPachi known to be especially difficult?

[Casey120]

You don't have to memorize but learn to dodge from left to right and yes the game is hard although the Saturn version is considered more easy than the PCB and Ps1 version .

The hitbox of your ship is very small , like this little yellow dot :



Knowing that makes dodging bullets a lot easier to start with

Scoring is done by chaining enemy's , you will find that the chain meter in the upper corner fills when you kill a enemy , the trick is to keep the meter from running empty as that breaks the chain , the higher the chain the more points .
Hold A button and use the beam on bigger enemy's and use shot on the smaller ones and pick them off one by one when it's less hectic to keep the chain going , when using the A button (beam) you have a aura around your ship that makes it invulnerable for smaller enemy's .
Bomb while holding A ( beam ) to get a super beam , bomb while shooting for a " normal " exploding bomb .

Also try to collect all the (hidden) bees on every stage for extra points , use beam to reveal them .

Hope this helps and happy chaining

[BigTinz]

http://www.super-play.co.uk/index.php?c ... &gameid=71

Watch the video dated 2006-02-15.

Then do that.

[MrPopo]

One thing I recommend is to try to move as little as possible when dodging bullets. Usually the small enemies come in packs and they all fire at roughly the same time. If you move just a bit to the side they all will fire in a line, while if you move quickly they do more of a spray. You want to leave yourself room to dodge.

[brunoafh]

I've always found it weird that people find this game so hard. As far as the standard in difficulty these games have established goes, this one is pretty easy. Mostly due to the tiny size of your ship's hitbox (as mentioned), and your stupidly strong beam/bomb attacks. There's no secret really, just dodge and use your attacks effectively. For someone that can beat most shumps in 1 credit, this should be a walk in the park.

[Frizz.Meister]

Thank you for the hitbox diagram. I had assumed it didnt include the smaller side parts but never knew it was that small, which allows me to make smaller tighter movements rather than ones the width of the ship.

[Octopod]

Not only does the ship have a hit box, so do the bullets.

[Breetai]

i can beat most [shoot 'em ups in} 1 credit]

...However, DoDonPachi is brutal.

Someone isn't telling the truth...

[Frizz.Meister]

Thanks for the help all, i managed to beat it. Although i did use 1 credit i gained another through points and had to use 2 lives from that.

Honestly knowing how small the hitbox is makes it 100x easier.