Overview

These soundtracks accompany one of Cave's most recurring shooters. Composed by Eddie You and Andrew Persons Lin, both soundtracks offer an interesting sound. Sure to split opinions, let's dive into this one, shall we?

Body

The big focus on the DoDonPachi II soundtrack that starts the album is definitely techno. Unfortunately much of it sounds generic, even if it does offer an interesting soundscape. The few pieces I enjoy would be "Unknown (Stage 7 Boss - Secret Bee)" and "Dragnet (Stage 3 Boss - Hex Comb)," both for very different reasons. "Unknown" has a very ominous sound, even if it is rather repetitive, and the industrial sound effects combine with the synth in an enjoyable and tension building manner.

DoDonPachi II's "Dragnet," on the other hand, sounds almost verbatim to Final Fantasy IX's "Battle 1." That's the reason I like it so much. It's almost like an industrial techno doujin remix of that battle theme, to be honest. It scores no points for originality, but at the same time, it's oddly enjoyable. Overall, a fairly disappointing soundtrack. Time to move on...

Rock is the focus on the DoDonPachi soundtrack. For the most part, every piece on this soundtrack is really nice. "1 & 4 Scene BGM" is an excellent first and fourth stage theme. Intense and exhilarating, this is definitely a piece to rock out too. The electric guitar just sets the entire tone of the piece and the synth accompaniment makes an excellent addition. "2 & 5 Scene BGM" is a much slower piece than the last piece. It's got a nice guitar melody and a catchy bass line. However, at the same time, the guitar solo just helps meld together the melody and is a nice point for looping. It's a very flowing piece.

Continuing with DoDonPachi, "3 & 6 Scene BGM" offers a nice blend of electronica and rock. The electric guitar work here is mellower and doesn't offer anything flashy, but it definitely helps to define the track. The boss theme, "Boss," is awesome. The ominous opening and interludes, the wailing guitar line, and the intense bass line percussion make this one of the best shmup boss themes, at least in my opinion. They definitely did a great job with that one!

Summary

On the whole, this album is average. Offering a rather generic soundtrack with no real highlights and one chock full of highlights, it ends up coming off as a real bummer. DoDonPachi is fantastic. Hopefully Namiki can do justice to it with the upcoming DoDonPachi IV. I'd hold off on this album and try to find the one packaged with ESP Ra.De.

Overview

Cave is a company that first came about with the creation of DonPachi. Featuring a load of bullets, a specific scoring system, and a military style soundtrack, it became a hit and Cave decided to create a sequel. This is DoDonPachi, and while it contains most of the same elements of DonPachi, the soundtrack took a completely different direction. DoDonPachi was composed by a duo named Eddie You and Andrew Persons Lin, and these guys chose to create a hard rock style soundtrack. They couldn't have made a better decision than this. It fitted the intense experience to a T and helped make DoDonPachi very popular in the arcades. At the time, Cave had not planned to create another sequel, but a company by the name of IGS was given the license and rights to create one. This brought forth DoDonPachi II Bee Storm. For some reason or other, this sequel fell apart in many ways. Regrettably, the music is one of its downfalls. Instead of the glorious hard rock of the first game, DoDonPachi II Bee Storm sported a more electronic-oriented soundtrack.

Body

Unfortunately, the new orientation of DoDonPachi II simply does not do DoDonPachi justice. "Opening Demo" has the electronic feel going, and the track sounds awfully generic. "Ship Select" is mostly an electronic melody with remains of DoDonPachi's guitar glory; it just doesn't manage to excite me at all. "Move Out (Stage 2)" is a cookie-cutter example of shoot-em-up music; it has a strong feeling of déja-vu and doesn't have any feature that makes it stand out.

Continuing along, "Flight (Stage 3)" starts off with extremely annoying electronic effects and instantly turns me off, as it is just too painful to hear these beats. "Panic (Stage 5 Boss - Armed Bee)" features some odd vocal effects and a fairly predictable melody, and the lousy synth quality doesn't help it much. I could continue citing more tracks but it just doesn't get any better. It lacks the punch that the original had by a great deal.

Fortunately, the album has the DoDonPachi soundtrack included, and all the head-banging rock is in for the count. "Stages 1 & 4 BGM" opens up with a satisfying guitar riff, and the melody goes hand in hand with the on-screen action. It's easily the best theme in the game and creates a wonderful first impression as you start up a game. "Boss" also contains some great guitar sections and definitely nails the feeling that you're fighting something difficult. DoDonPachi is easily among gamers' favorite shoot-em-up soundtracks due to its intense sound and rich quality to quantity ratio.

Summary

With series like this, developers should try to keep most base aspects similar in their sequels. Unfortunately for DoDonPachi II Bee Storm, it is regarded as the black sheep of the series. Could I possibly recommend this soundtrack? Not really. Even though the amazing DoDonPachi soundtrack is included, it can't really erase the terrible techno soundtrack of DoDonPachi II Bee Storm. Buyers would be better off looking for the elusive E.S.P. Ra.De. soundtrack, which also contains the DoDonPachi soundtrack and has twice as much playtime than this album. Unless, of course you're a Cave collector (like me), you;d be better off not bothering to hear how embarrassing the sequel is compared to the first.