Dogyuun (ドギューン!!) is a vertical scrolling shooting game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in 1992 for arcades. It was the debut work of Junya Inoue, who later created many of Cave's shooting games. In 2024 it was released digitally for PC on the Steam and GOG storefronts by Bitwave games.
Story[]
The 104th planet Lagoon. The headquarters of the International Defense Forces, which is a collection of defense organizations from all nations, is located here. The Special forces were set up at this headquarters to meet aliens who might attack at any time. The name of the army is "ISM". This army is a military institution created by the International Defense Force, using the best technology available. The "ISM" was ordered to be urgently dispatched by the headquarters.
"An abnormal situation has occurred in the planetary colony Dino! Dispatch immediately!"
The new variable fighter Sylfer and others who have just rolled out to the base where communication was lost headed for investigation. What happened to this beautiful planetary colony Dino... It was at that time. What they saw was a base that turned into a den of mysterious mechanical lifeforms.
"Let's pull it up. Doing more reconnaissance is dangerous."
"Wait a little longer. We'll have information about Center Police in a little while. We still have a lot of our friends in it."
"But it's bad to be found by an alien. Hurry up!"
"OK ... I found it!"
At that time, Kyle's reconnaissance plane was captured and destroyed by a large enemy robot.
"Kyle!!!!"
The deadly counterattack is about to begin!
Gameplay[]
Dogyuun is a vertically scrolling shooter. Unlike in other Toaplan shooters there are no power-ups available; the player already starts the game at full power. The A button is used to fire the main shot. The player can switch between shot types by acquiring shot items that change color at regular intervals. Bonus points are awarded for acquiring items of the same color. Parts are activated by pressing the B button while equipped. Only one of a kind of parts can be equipped, so the player will get bonus points by getting a part of the same kind. Pressing C while equipping a part causes the part to be discarded.
Pressing B makes the ship invincible for a certain period of time and creates a blast around it. After use, the part will be lost. While the B button is held down, the movement speed of the ship is greatly increased. In addition, options are attached to the left and right sides of the ship. The options have the effect of preventing enemy bullets, and when using the Mega Shot, it fires a thin shot forward.
When the C button is pressed while no parts are equipped, a short beam is fired from behind (below) the ship. When this beam hits an airborne enemy, it is absorbed behind the ship and can be used as a shield for one shot. Points are added over the time when is attached, but when attached to a large enemy, the movement speed of the ship is greatly reduced. This system was also used in Zero Wing, but it is more difficult to use because the enemy cannot be shielded forward. When two players are playing at the same time, if one player hits the other's ship with a prisoner beam, the two ships will merge, greatly enhancing their shots. The player who fired the prisoner beam controls the merging, and the shots, scores, etc. are the same as those of the other player. Both players can release the merging by pressing the C button.
In the final stage, by acquiring a "robot", a type of item, the player's ship assumes the robot form of the title, and he or she punches a myriad of enemy robots to defeat them. Just before the final boss, this power-up is deactivated, and the last boss battle returns to a normal shooting game.
Weapons[]
- Mega Shot (blue): A very thick laser is fired directly in front of the player. Holding the button down will gradually weaken it, and pressing it again will return it to its original power. This shot is used at the start of the game.
- Psycho Beam (Purple): A homing laser that arcs and preferentially tracks enemies on the ground. It is the most powerful, but cannot be fired in rapid succession.
- V-Laser (green): Two lightning-like lasers are fired in a V-shape when the button is held down. It is the least powerful, but penetrates enemies with low durability.
- Homing Fire (red): A search laser that preferentially tracks airborne enemies while refracting at right angles. It can fire in rapid succession.
Hidden Items[]
Hidden items appear when certain bosses are defeated with shots of certain colors. In most cases, the condition is a green shot with low power or a shot of a nature unsuitable for that boss, so it can be said that this is a hidden item for advanced players. At regular intervals, the "100,000 point bonus" and "extend" are switched. Once the "Extend" item is obtained, the hidden item itself will no longer appear, so if you are aiming for a high score, you must keep obtaining the "100,000 point bonus" as long as possible.
If the player captures this special item with the Prisoner Beam and then hits the captured special item with the special item, it can get two of the same item at the same time. Since this is the only way to increase the chances of extending the bonus twice in this game, the following procedure was often used as a strategy: choose red on the 4th stage, capture it with the prisoner, clear the 5th stage with purple, and hit it to get the 2UP.
Trivia[]
- In the initial conception, the bomber was designed to automatically activate even if the ship was hit by a bullet, preventing mistakes, but this specification was not adopted in the production version, probably due to difficulty issues. It seems that some parts of the process are still in place, and a bomber blast is generated when a miss is made.
- Dogyuun was supposed to be released before Truxton II, but the development period was prolonged. Despite this, the game was not well received by players.
- The game has a total of 10 levels. The game loops over and over, but in reality, the game stops after the fifth loop due to a bug.