It absolutely feels that M2’s ShotTriggers series has been building up to this moment.
The Japanese developer and publishing house has, over its long history, established an enviable reputation for the quality of its numerous ports. But all of that, perhaps, was a prelude to the release of DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation.
That’s quite a statement, so before getting ahead of ourselves, let’s step back and get some perspective.
M2 debuted its ShotTriggers shooter imprint in 2016, establishing a series that has near-consistently delighted even the genre’s most experienced, demanding players. Focused acutely on porting celebrated traditional shooters – and largely those with an arcade origin – it’s a collection that has brought us definitive versions of games including Toaplan’s Tiger Heli and Zero Wing, Raizing’s wildly ornate Battle Garegga, a collection of Aleste releases, and several works from genre maestros Cave, including ESP.ra.de, Dangun Feveron, and the mighty Ketsui.
DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation reviewDeveloper: M2 / CavePublisher: M2Platform: Played on PS4Availability: Out now on PS4, Nintendo Switch
Staggeringly precise ports of shooting icons with the clout of Ketsui or Battle Garegga would be enough. Yet the team behind the ShotTriggers series clearly refuses to call it a day with the port in the bag. They also add generous archival extras and customisation options, inclusions of multiple variants of a single game, entirely new modes intended to serve both new and veteran players alike, and M2’s ‘gadgets’; new UI elements that communicate all manner of live performance data to the player as they shoot and dodge. And yet one thing has been missing from an imprint that so often emphasises bullet hell shooters. That thing is a DoDonPachi title.
And yet now, finally, we have it. The latest ShotTriggers release, DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation, is entirely focused around the fourth game in the DonPachi series, 2002’s brutal wonder, DoDonPachi DaiOuJou. A quick clarification – DaiOuJou has occasionally been referred to as ‘Blissful Death’ over its history, so you can consider the names essentially interchangeable.
Whatever you call it, what actually matters here is that DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is commonly recognised by genre devotees as not just Cave’s greatest work, but perhaps the finest example of bullet hell ever realised. A good number will even tell you it is the best shooter there is. And to cut to the chase, M2 have delivered an exceptional quality port here, realised as part of a package that gathers several other variants, and even a trio of entirely new modes (or ‘arranges’ to use shooting game parlance). Firing up the original arcade board after some time with M2’s port reveals the precision of this ShotTriggers release, particularly with regard to the visual performance and slowdown. Other players have reported that the PS4 version’s infinitesimal two-frame input lag effectively precisely matches that seen in the arcade original. Switch owners seem to have to endure three-frame lag, but that is still a trivial deviation.