Re-release this: Big Bang Mini

A DS exclusive that somehow hasn't made its way to any other system with a touch screen.

This column is “Re-release this,” which will focus on games that aren’t easily available, or even available at all, but should be once again. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

Maybe it’s because it wasn’t a hit, maybe it’s because both the publisher and the studio that developed it no longer exist, but Big Bang Mini came out on the Nintendo DS back in 2009, and then never anywhere again. It’s a (mostly) touch-based game that feels like it was made to be included with those titles that transitioned from Nintendo’s dual-screen portable to a smartphone or tablet in the following decade, and it’s not like it had to be touch-based to work, either: there’s certainly a twin stick solution possible for a game where, on the DS, flicking the stylus fires off shots, but holding the stylus down and shifting it around moves your, for lack of a better word, character. As it was a $20 budget release for the DS, it’s also not difficult to imagine that it would have been a downloadable title just a few years later, and maybe multi-platform, to boot.

That’s not what happened, though. Big Bang Mini released in 2009, French developer Arkedo Studios closed in 2013, and the game’s publisher, SouthPeak Games, also shut down in 2013. A digital release on the 3DS and Wii U would have made a lot of sense, but when everyone with a vested interest in releasing the game on additional platforms simply vanishes, it becomes difficult to do. And it’s a shame, too, because Big Bang Mini is a shoot ‘em up, but not like you’re used to playing. It involves fireworks, and while there’s a whole lot of dodging to do, much of it is also dodging what you yourself have fired off. It’s less manic and more thoughtful in how you have to approach things, as extra, unnecessary shots will explode — like fireworks do — and come raining back down to the bottom screen where your avatar lives, capable of killing it in a single hit. And that’s in addition to whatever challenges the game itself is throwing at you in a given stage.

Big Bang Mini has a pretty simple setup, and is also pretty easy early on, but its complexity and difficulty will both increase across its nine worlds and over 80 stages. You control a… character? object? avatar? on the bottom screen of the DS, by pressing down with the stylus and then moving it around. You’ll use this to dodge, whether it’s enemy attacks or the shrapnel from your own. Foes will be on the top screen, and you can fire, from anywhere, at whatever angle, on the bottom screen by flicking up with the stylus. Rapid-fire is as easy as multiple flicks in a row, but again, be careful about those extra shots, because they become fiery debris you must dodge. And you can’t move and fire at the same time, either, so incessantly firing isn’t even necessarily the most efficient use of your time, since time spent dodging your own misses on the bottom screen is time you can’t spend aiming and firing at what’s still on the top screen waiting to be defeated.

Getting hit by anything, whether your own shot or an enemy’s, is an instant death and also a fail state for the level you’re in. You’ll have to start over from the beginning, and while none of these stages are exceptionally lengthy, there are over 80 of the things without even counting boss battles, so having to replay one again and again because you aren’t learning whatever lesson your death is trying to teach you would be a little tedious. Self-inflicted tedium, of course, not anything Big Bang Mini did wrong.

If all the game was is what is in its first world, then it would actually get tedious. Luckily, each of the nine game worlds in Arcade Mode has some kind of gameplay-changing hook to it, in addition to their being substantially different in their visuals. You’ll earn a permanent homing shot upgrade in stage 3, which is useful for aim-based reasons but also weaker, meaning you need to fire off far more of them to defeat your targets. And if you overdo it with those shots, then that’s even more for you to dodge afterward. Or there are shields for you to draw, first introduced in stage 2, that will block you from taking damage, but can only be utilized when the battery is fully charged, meaning you can’t just use it whenever if you want it to be deployed at the times it would be most useful — and it won’t always be there to soak up damage for you, either.

The stages also have their own quirks. Each of them has some form of shot blocker that gets in the way of you destroying the enemies on top, but then there are more stage-specific defenses like how in Aurora, stage 2, you have to deal with wind that changes the trajectory of your shots. There are snowflakes falling from the sky that give you an indication of where the wind is blowing and how you have to adjust in order to aim true, and again, messing up a shot and missing means more than just a miss in this game, since it creates a ton of debris for you to have to dodge.

Each of the game’s nine worlds has nine stages followed by a boss fight. To complete a stage, you must fill up a meter on the left side of the bottom screen by collecting neon stars that drop from defeated enemies. There are smaller stars that fill it up a little, and larger stars that fill it up much more, and once it’s full, the stage ends. Complete the level quickly and efficiently, and get a chance at a bonus where you can create a Final Bouquet, the design of which is related to the setting you’re playing in. The bonus isn’t that big of a deal, with the game even telling you that it’s just that, a bonus, but you can unlock another mode, Relax, by completing all of them. In Relax, you don’t have to worry about taking damage, and can instead just mess around making your own fireworks displays. This mode won’t be for everyone, but if you want to just casually fire off some pretty explosions without having to consider anything else, then it is for you.

Bosses work differently, as they’re a matter of surviving long enough to defeat them by causing a ton of damage to them, rather than filling up a meter. The bosses are large enemies that will give you plenty of attacks to dodge, and challenge you a bit more than the standard stages, especially early on. They aren’t overly difficult, but they do expect more of you faster than the other levels of the game, until things get complex on all fronts and really challenge your efficiency, aim, and dodging skills.

The look of the bosses and of the nine worlds is plenty enjoyable, since so much care was taken in creating distinct visual elements. The New York City stage is reminiscent of comic books, with knife-toting, mask-wearing baddies, and words in a very 1960s Batman style flying across the screen when you defeat them. And, of course, invading alien forces are there, too. Hong Kong has dragons and monkeys, the Sahara is full of ancient art that comes to life to attack you, and the backgrounds of each are detailed more than you might think considering the show is supposed to be in the game’s explosions and bright, neon aesthetic.

It’s not just the visuals, but also the sound, that got attention in Big Bang Mini. The sound actually aids you in playing, since your eyes can’t really be everywhere at once with this two-screen setup where you have to sometimes choose what it is you’re going to focus on — firing shots, dodging shots, gauging the wind, etc. — at any given moment. Shots that connect have a different exploding sound than those that miss, so even if you’re intently staring at the bottom screen attempting to dodge fire or collect stars from defeated foes, you’ll be aware of how successful your last round of attacks was just from the noise.

Just the Arcade Mode would have been plenty of game, but you also get that Relax Mode if you collect all of the bonuses, and a Mission Mode if you complete Arcade Mode. Mission Mode will test you, as you have to complete a challenge within a certain amount of time, or using a limited number of shots. The reward for completing it isn’t worth the effort unto itself — an Alarm Clock Mode, really? — but the missions themselves are a worthwhile challenge. Once you complete the Luxor stage in Arcade, you’ll also unlock a Challenge Mode that’s just an endless one meant for posting scores to online leaderboards. Those leaderboards are obviously down by now, and would be even if the publisher hosting them hadn’t closed down a decade before this writing, but it’s still an enjoyable mode where you can compete against yourself. We didn’t always have internet access for this sort of thing, you know. There was also a vs. mode against another human opponent, and as some DS games allowed, you only needed the one cartridge to be able to play it.

Big Bang Mini isn’t an all-timer shoot ‘em up, but it’s a fairly different and fun experience within the genre, and one that should have found a life beyond the one it had on the now-defunct DS. Arkedo Studios didn’t make many games, and their first was simply a Breakout-style game, Nervous Brickdown, which didn’t do much for critics. Big Bang Mini, though, was enjoyed nearly across the board: a few outlets, like Eurogamer and Edge, didn’t think that much of it and dragged down its average (which is fine! Don’t use Metacritic as a measuring stick!), but it garnered quite a few scores in the 8.5-9 range from the likes of Destructoid, Gamespot, IGN, and Nintendo Power (as well as from me, in my past life as a game reviewer for a small outlet). That’s not nothing! Which again makes it disappointing that the game is effectively lost to us.

Maybe the rights are out there waiting to be purchased by some publisher or another, though, and Big Bang Mini can be reworked for a new generation of platforms. In the meantime, if you’ve got a DS or something that can emulate one, go looking for a copy of Big Bang Mini, and start the fireworks show.

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