DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou Review - Screenshot 1 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Holding the Guinness World Record for "Most prolific developer of danmaku shooters” — a tenuous plaudit seemingly concocted entirely for their receipt — Cave’s five DonPachi entries form bullet points in the company’s evolution, from Toaplan-esque beginnings to a full-blown, bullet hell renaissance.

SaiDaiOuJou, the series’ final entry and Cave’s last arcade shooting game, makes the clean stylings of its predecessor, DaiFukkatsu, even cleaner; a shiny blue aesthetic wrought from 3D renders and a billion pixels. It also carries over adjustable difficulty options and an auto bomb on/off feature. Its core, however, is similar to DoDonPachi DaiOuJou, the greatest and most beautiful of Cave’s work.

SaiDaiOuJou, despite its saccharine anime facade, is pure, unadulterated rage. And while that’s the motif of most bullet hell games, here it can be felt as early as the stage one boss. Where DonPachi was measured, DoDonPachi fuel injected, DaiOujou a symphony of murder, and DaiFukkatsu precariously experimental, SaiDaiOuJou is plainly vicious. It’s also infamous for having the hardest hidden boss ever committed to circuit board in the form of Inbachi, unlocked if you achieve a nigh-on perfect, no-bomb run. For the record, she has only ever been beaten once in a single credit attempt by Japanese player Sairyou, 12 years post-release.

Outside of arcades, DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou was only ever previously available on the Xbox 360, making its Switch appearance celebratory. Infamously, the 360 port suffered from inexplicably shocking input lag that was only ever rectified by a fan patch. We used the same testing methods as applied to the 360 version, and are confident the issue has been quashed. With the TV’s Game Mode on and in handheld, it feels tight and responsive across the board. And, while lag can’t be eradicated entirely — and especially not on a flatscreen — with the right setup this is by far the superior version.

DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou Review - Screenshot 2 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

It also carries over all the Xbox 360’s bells and whistles in the form of shop-based unlockables, including wallpaper, production art, and in-game modifiers that serve to soften and create new ways to experience the game. There are also enjoyable mini-challenges to take on, like defeating certain mid-bosses with a set number of lives or bombs.

SaiDaiOuJou’s original arcade release was actually slightly broken by exploitable scoring bugs. These were ironed out for the home release in a new 1.5 version that rebalances the game into a fairer, more polished product, with the potential for increased Hyper times. In the package are four distinct modes, all upscaled in high definition: HD arcade, Ver. 1.5, Novice mode, and a “Saya Ver.” arrangement that allows you to play as an original character previously confined to the plot line.

In all modes except arrange (where only Saya can be selected) you choose from three Elemental Dolls: ladies who pilot ships, each with unique shot types. You can select auto bomb if you’re a newcomer, although this kills scoring attempts dead; and each doll has three states of configurable undress that alter the emphasis between your shot and laser. Caution need be applied here, as stripping your Doll down to her necessities will max both your shot and laser power, but in turn make the game substantially more difficult.

DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou Review - Screenshot 3 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

SaiDaiOuJou’s scoring heart is similar to DaiOuJou. You need to chain into oblivion, snag hidden bee icons throughout the stage, and use the Hyper function at key moments to drive score and bridge it all together. Hypers allow you to temporarily unleash devastatingly amped firepower, to the detriment of speeding up incoming bullets. In SaiDaiOuJou, Hypers are earned by filling a gauge in the HUD and can be stacked to extend their duration and increase score potential. In turn, this increases the game’s rank, which means increased difficulty, and the only way to bring this down is by either bombing or dying.

While its full-on nature demands a different discipline from both DaiOuJou or DaiFukkatsu, scoring is still a beautiful, bewitching thing, drawing you into an aggressive campaign of fire, shrapnel, and digit-chasing. Whether playing for score or focusing only on survival, it’s quite the spectacle, perpetually igniting in a hailstorm of bullets and score ingots, and satisfying pyrotechnic blasts.

Version 1.5 is, for our money, the best option in terms of overall polish and balancing, but Novice and the Saya arrange mode are also incredibly fun to kick back with. Saya’s Arrange, in particular (and if you turn off the incessant chatter) features a very interesting single-life run where you can near-constantly engage Hypers, reaping green score icons to keep your multiplier from falling from the 10,000 maximum. It presents an original risk and reward system that rookies will really enjoy getting into, and veterans will adore mining for score.

DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou Review - Screenshot 4 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

While it’s important to recognise that vanilla SaiDaiOuJou isn’t an easy game, and has a steeper learning curve than even DaiOuJou, it’s also a masterpiece in its own right. It adapts and reassembles things seen in previous entries to feel even more bombastic and furious, but makes Hyper usage less dangerous and more frequently available. There are times when you’re threading the eye of the storm, pink and blue bullet waves combing the screen, where you achieve a near-clairvoyant sense of clarity: that moment where you see the path.

It takes a good while and a good understanding of bullet hell games to achieve this sight beyond sight, yet the accompanying adrenaline rush of pinging Hypers at crucial junctures, momentarily cancelling on-screen bullets, or successfully networking a boss’s varied attack patterns, offers a high like few others. And, while Cave went all out, with conditions for true-last-boss Hibachi and then Inbachi geared towards shoot-'em-up maniacs, SaiDaiOuJou is the first of the DonPachi series to only require a single loop run of the game.

Slight unevenness keeps SaiDaiOuJou from being the series' absolute best, but it certainly comes close. Hit-box parameters are particularly unforgiving, especially when compared to the likes of DaiFukkatsu, making lucky escapes less common; and aesthetically it's so overwhelmingly blue that all the stages seem to blend into one. Some of the achievements aren’t doable by mere mortals, but everyone else will be content to take the game on their own terms, to reshape it around newfound tactics and deeper understandings.

DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou Review - Screenshot 5 of 5
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

The package itself is incredibly comprehensive, bursting with options to configure, allowing you to define everything from screen rotation and sizing to replay recordings and online leaderboard achievements. With so many variations to experiment with and so many avenues of approach, one could potentially lose several glorious years to it.

Conclusion

While a fine-looking affair, DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou’s anime stylings are frankly unremarkable, and the incessant chatter will be turned off by many. But these are minor, skin-deep critiques of what is an incredible piece of work by the masters of the Danmaku: a series finale that showboats and regularly boils over in endless hails of gunfire, tugging you to and fro amid the heart of the storm as you forge a path to victory. There’s a beauty here that only Cave could achieve; a harmony of scoring and surviving; coasting on sheer adrenaline as you thread hit-boxes through pixels, hammering out routes amidst dizzyingly spectacular orchestrated chaos. It may not be easy, but oh is it worth it.