What DoDonPachi Resurrection is
DoDonPachi Resurrection is a top-down bullet-hell shooter from CAVE Interactive, the sequel to Blissful Death. You fly a ship through dense waves of enemy fire, cancel bullets and build score with the Hyper Counter system, and use the Counter Laser system to clash lasers and turn a fight around. The setup: an android named Next EXY has jumped a thousand years into the past, and your orders from Col. Godwin Longhener are to stop her and her Elemental Daughters, androids built in the image of the Elemental Dolls that once guarded humanity. The game ships with 8 modes, so there is a real spread between a gentle introduction and the full CAVE scoring experience.
Playing it with friends
Two-player local cooperative play is built in, so one of you takes a ship and you bring backup into the same run. The game also supports Remote Play Together, which lets friends on Steam join your session from their own machines even though it is a local co-op title. Between that and local multiplayer, a group can sit on one screen or spread out across the call. The Steam features include Leaderboards, so after a session you can see where your score landed, plus Cloud Saves and Trading Cards.
The modes and what to expect
The 8 modes cover a lot of ground. Normal 1.5 is the original game, refined. Normal 1.51 is the Cave Matsuri special version with a different scoring system and different controls. Arrange B lets you play single stages with heavy customization. Arrange A (ver L) is a newly arranged mode using mechanics and a ship from DDP Blissful Death. Novice is a crash course in bullet hell for newcomers, and Black Label Novice gives you Black Label without its full difficulty. Black Label itself adds a new method of attack and a new final boss, while Black Label Arrange puts you in the Tiger Schwert from KETSUI in the first international release for that mode.
Pick from three ships and three Styles before you start, since both change how a run feels. Expect a steep learning curve on the harder modes: the scoring systems are intricate, the screen fills with bullets, and the soundtrack runs under all of it. Start on Novice or Normal 1.5 if the group is new, then move up once the patterns stop feeling like noise.