DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (2002)

Note: This concerns the iOS port as well as the original arcade version.

Daioujou is one of those games that is a wonder to look at and listen to - Vaguely Far East, technological landscapes combine with a short but intriguing backstory of fighters working side by side with "Doll" cyborgs against a post-apocalyptic backdrop. It's all rendered gorgeously in the background, and the music is fast-paced when it can be and is addicting in its quality.

Fluff aside, this shmup's got solid mechanics. The player's main powerups consist of two ship types and character-like Doll powerups, each affecting firepower and bomb usage. Like previous Donpachi games, the player can tap (or select) the Shot to move quickly and spread their fire or focus and slow down (optionally, in the case of iOS) for a more powerful laser attack. Bombs come in handy, but a mysterious set of objectives (collecting bee tokens, chaining kills, dying?) allows the player to snag a secondary bomb called a Hyper. Hypers don't provide as much invincibility as bombs but increase firepower substantially, making it invaluable in a pinch and encourages good scoring from the player to help survive.

As for difficulty, there's a reason this game's also called "Blissful Death" - the game's difficulty is delicately balanced over four modes in later versions, but the original and standard (Hard+) modes are quite difficult, containing fast and less destructible bullets than Cave's other games. This is no Dangun Feveron, but there is remarkably less slowdown than its beefier counterparts.

Hold your horses though - the death comes soon. At the end of the first loop (basic 1CC but there are some alternate objectives), the player can earn their way into a deadly second loop, culminating with one of the hardest bosses in scrolling shooter history (the good hard, not the bad design/frustrating hard). The challenge is intense and encourages the player not only to beat the first loop with flying colors but also master some of the trickiest bullet patterns Cave has come up with, furiously balancing shot types, bombs, and hypers. It's a rush that's at home on Arcade, console systems, and even the iOS version, as touchscreen users will find the style as approachable and playable as other Cave ports.

I could gush about Daioujou, but it's something that begs to be played if you want a good shmup with an intense difficulty curve. For people a little off-put by difficult shooters, later ports are more than welcoming with difficulty levels that betray the "Blissful Death" name but are still fun and play great.