Bullet-time was a defining gimmick that marked the end of one millennium and the beginning of the next. 1999's summer blockbuster The Matrix blew our minds with bullet dodging before games popularised it starting with Max Payne in 2001, which coined its feature with that exact term. But in between these two pop culture titans, spare a thought for Bangai-O, the little big Japanese title that took its own unique approach.
That isn't to say that Treasure's shmup has an actual bullet-time mechanic, rather it's the result of pushing the host hardware, first on N64 followed by an international release on Dreamcast, to the max. You play as hot-blooded Riki and his quiet sister Mami, together pilots of the titular mech Bangai-O, which looks more diminutive on screen than you'd expect for a mech. Swapping pilots takes just a press of the L trigger, with Riki firing off homing missiles while Mami's straight-shooting lasers reflect off surfaces.
Gunning down hordes of enemies and collecting tons of fruit, each of the 44 free-scrolling levels is fairly short and self-contained, making Bangai-O immediately more accessible than the arcade-oriented bullet-hell shooters that punt you back to the start once you're out of lives. It also subverts how you're meant to navigate bullet-hell, which usually requires entering a magical flow of dodging everything coming your way. If anything, it encourages you to steer suicidally close to incoming threats.
from Eurogamer.net
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