[ARC] Dimahoo/ Great Mahou Daisakusen

[Ryon]

Dimahoo or known in Japan as Great Mahou Daisakusen (Great Magic Armageddon) is a maniac shooter by 8ing that was distributed by Capcom which uses a futuristic, yet medieval theme and an elemental magic game mechanic.

Story

The story is pretty basic: An army of monsters have suddenly risen from the underground [apparently the Earth was really hollow] and now it's up to the "Great Bounty Hunters" to stop them. That's it. Nothing deeper. I can guess that this is the sequel to Mahuo Daisakusen, but it's so vague, I can't guess. What a waste of a good storyline....

1/10

Characters

There are four characters you can play as:

SOLO-BANG the Warrior

KARTE the Sorceress

MIYAMOTO the Dragon

GRIMLEN the Necromancers

Each one have different traits and talents, but the last two are meant to be used by experts of this kind of game, while KARTE is for rookies, and SOLO-BANG is for most people. Though their designs are interesting, like the story, there's nothing about their history or character. Jeez....

4/10

Gameplay

The gameplay is interesting for this kind of game genre. Like most shooters, you fly around, dodging bullets and lasers, collecting powerups and points while at the same time destroying as many enemies as possible. The bosses of each stage can be pretty hard, but quite beatable, and in all there are 6 stages in this game.

The powers are 3 different things: Bomb crystals, Magic Stones, and Magic Books.

Magic Stones are the main way to increase your shot's power and range, think of it like the Touhou P blocks, you need to collect a certain amount to level up, and when your are at max, you get more points.

Magic Books - increases your sub shot, and the power of your elemental bursts and bombs, I'll explain this in a moment

Bomb Crystals - These should be self-explanatory. They give you a bomb. But like Power stones, you need to gather them to make one bomb. Or if your lucky, you can grab a complete crystal and get one right then and there.

Elements - This is what makes this game unique, the use of elements. When shooting, you may notice that your character is a certain color, and when holding the shot button, you start to change colors. This is called Elemental Charge.

It's basically to change elements and then perform an attack using that element on an enemy with increased power for a certain amount of time. Just keep in mind that when charging, you wont be firing shot, so watch it. There is also the fact that you only have fire and ice on your side, so think carefully.

When firing at an enemy in a different color than the target, it receives twice the damage as it normally would, and you get twice as much score as usual. If the same color, however, you do half the damage.

Also, when it comes to enemy bullets, if it's a different color then your ship's, your shots will merely go through them, and if your hit with it, you lose a life. If the same color, your shots basically eat the bullets and if your hit, you only lose one magic and shot level.

Try to use this mechanic to your advantage, and the game will be a lot easier!

Oh there's also a lot of items you can gather by doing certain feats in the game. What they are, are basically hidden in the game, but you can just look it up. This adds to the replayability, a very wise move.

This game is 2 players, and if you so wish, you can access the arcade board, and set it so you can do a 2 game loop[adding up to 12 stages], where you go through the game again, but on a higher difficulty.

This gameplay is why I still play this game to date, it's my favorite kind of shooter, second only to ones where I can use focused movement.

8/10

Sound and Graphics

Very good for a CPSII game. The backgrounds are so busy and so much is going on, it can confuse you if you look around too much. There's also the announcer who speaks in English. With the except of the Engrish due to bad translating, and the "WORRYING, WORRYING, PLEASE BE CAREFILL," it's has pretty solid sound and graphics.

6/10

Overall, this is a good game, despite the lack of depth storywise, and I recommend people to get this game on Mame.

Grade: B-

Fun fact

Wanna know something?

I LIED

There are actually EIGHT characters you can choose from, but are hidden. To unlock them, go to the title screen and press this button combination:

Up, Up, Left, Down, Down, Right, Shot, Bomb, Shot, Bomb, Shot.

Don't freak if you don't hear a sound, just start the game and at the character select screen, you'll see the normal four characters accompanied with another four playable characters. They are:

GAIN the Battler

CHITTA the Magic-user

BIRTHDAY the criminal

GOLDEN the prince

Only problem? They don't really tell you their attributes, so just pick the one you find most appealing and experiment.

[Sir Lord Alpyne]

i think i've seen this, but it's been awhile. might knock the dust off & give it a go.

btw Ry: you do know that the vast majority of Shmups don't have complex or deep characters/storylines, right? you're askin' for/expectin' too much. that's like lookin' for a woman to admit she's completely wrong about somethin'; sure, it might happen e'ry now & again, but don't expect it much, you'll only disappoint yourself, i'm just sayin'.....