Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A couple of months ago, CAVE announced Dodonpachi Resurrection Reignite for PC, a new port of the game with some additional content. I was about to start playing another shmup, but that announcement made me shift gears and decide it's finally time to start learning this game instead.
Black Label may or may not be included in Reignite, but I picked this one for a couple of reasons. For starters, I figured a single loop game will be easier to learn than a proper Dodonpachi 2-ALL. They're super dense games, so working out every little detail for a high score with stable strategies can take a lot of time - and even this one has managed to become my most played game of 2026 (by far). And secondly, Black Label's Strong Style always looked like a game I'd love, since it's fairly similar to Mushihimesama Futari's God Mode. They're both high difficulty modes that push the hardware to its limits by constantly filling the screen up with bullets and score items. God Mode is one of the best games I've ever played, so if this was even in the same ballpark, it'd be amazing too. And after putting a good amount of time into it, I can safely say that it is.
The only thing I dislike about this game is how dying can be *beneficial*, since it refills your bomb stock and lets you keep your combo with no major drawback, besides a possible drop in rank. You do lose your combo if you die while using a hyper, though, and that's how you get most of your score. So it's still fairly balanced, the system is just exploitable in a way I'm not a fan of
One solution to this problem is to have a secret last boss, one that requires you to complete the entire game without dying in order to fight it. They have to be so valuable for score that it would make any intentional deaths pointless. This game actually has two secret bosses, Hibachi and Zatsuza. They both have similar requirements to reach, with the key difference being that you have to beat the entire game without dying in order to fight Zatsuza, while Hibachi allows you to die once. The other major difference between them is that Zatsuza is worth 110 billion points, while Hibachi is practically worthless. So nobody intentionally wants to fight Hibachi in this game, which is why there aren't many videos of it posted online. It's essentially a failed run. In my case, I mistimed my last hyper on Golden Disaster, and died from an attack that would normally be skipped by your hyper ending. Otherwise I would have faced Zatsuza, which is my main goal with this game (while also scoring over 1 trillion, but that's basically free with a Zatsuza clear).
So they *almost* had the solution in place to discourage deaths, they just undervalued Zatsuza and underestimated how deep the best players could go with score optimization. I can't really fault anyone for that, it's just impossible to estimate how far a game will be pushed after its release. They did manage to nail the balance perfectly in Futari's God Mode, though, which also has a secret boss with similar requirements. It can be done!
But none of that's a big deal. When my only (minor) complaint is something that's so deep in the weeds that it's only relevant to a small group of players, you know the game is fantastic. I'm absolutely sure it'll be the best 'new' (to me) game I play in 2026, even with all the great games that have already come out, or have yet to be released. Cave's just on another level.
I wasn't planning to upload this run. Not only did I fail the Zatsuza requirement, I accidentally tapped my button and used an extra hyper in stage 2. That had a snowball effect that cost me a chunk of score in stage 5 due to my bomb stock being one short. But I'm taking a break from this game for a few days to play Star Fox, and there aren't many Hibachi videos online, so why not throw this one up? This video does show what to do if you *are* short a hyper for the last stretch of stage 5, so that may be helpful, at least.
Oh, I almost forgot, I'm playing the 360 (disc) version. The PC version has a bug that causes you to get more hits than you're supposed to from them, which means you can score higher than you're supposed to. Otherwise it's a solid port, but if you're serious about score, 360 is still the way to go.
0:00 Stage 1
2:54 Stage 2
6:19 Stage 3
12:17 Stage 4
20:14 Stage 5
31:45 Golden Disaster
36:00 Ending & Credits
-----
Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
A couple of months ago, CAVE announced Dodonpachi Resurrection Reignite for PC, a new port of the game with some additional content. I was about to start playing another shmup, but that announcement made me shift gears and decide it's finally time to start learning this game instead.
Black Label may or may not be included in Reignite, but I picked this one for a couple of reasons. For starters, I figured a single loop game will be easier to learn than a proper Dodonpachi 2-ALL. They're super dense games, so working out every little detail for a high score with stable strategies can take a lot of time - and even this one has managed to become my most played game of 2026 (by far). And secondly, Black Label's Strong Style always looked like a game I'd love, since it's fairly similar to Mushihimesama Futari's God Mode. They're both high difficulty modes that push the hardware to its limits by constantly filling the screen up with bullets and score items. God Mode is one of the best games I've ever played, so if this was even in the same ballpark, it'd be amazing too. And after putting a good amount of time into it, I can safely say that it is.
The only thing I dislike about this game is how dying can be *beneficial*, since it refills your bomb stock and lets you keep your combo with no major drawback, besides a possible drop in rank. You do lose your combo if you die while using a hyper, though, and that's how you get most of your score. So it's still fairly balanced, the system is just exploitable in a way I'm not a fan of
One solution to this problem is to have a secret last boss, one that requires you to complete the entire game without dying in order to fight it. They have to be so valuable for score that it would make any intentional deaths pointless. This game actually has two secret bosses, Hibachi and Zatsuza. They both have similar requirements to reach, with the key difference being that you have to beat the entire game without dying in order to fight Zatsuza, while Hibachi allows you to die once. The other major difference between them is that Zatsuza is worth 110 billion points, while Hibachi is practically worthless. So nobody intentionally wants to fight Hibachi in this game, which is why there aren't many videos of it posted online. It's essentially a failed run. In my case, I mistimed my last hyper on Golden Disaster, and died from an attack that would normally be skipped by your hyper ending. Otherwise I would have faced Zatsuza, which is my main goal with this game (while also scoring over 1 trillion, but that's basically free with a Zatsuza clear).
So they *almost* had the solution in place to discourage deaths, they just undervalued Zatsuza and underestimated how deep the best players could go with score optimization. I can't really fault anyone for that, it's just impossible to estimate how far a game will be pushed after its release. They did manage to nail the balance perfectly in Futari's God Mode, though, which also has a secret boss with similar requirements. It can be done!
But none of that's a big deal. When my only (minor) complaint is something that's so deep in the weeds that it's only relevant to a small group of players, you know the game is fantastic. I'm absolutely sure it'll be the best 'new' (to me) game I play in 2026, even with all the great games that have already come out, or have yet to be released. Cave's just on another level.
I wasn't planning to upload this run. Not only did I fail the Zatsuza requirement, I accidentally tapped my button and used an extra hyper in stage 2. That had a snowball effect that cost me a chunk of score in stage 5 due to my bomb stock being one short. But I'm taking a break from this game for a few days to play Star Fox, and there aren't many Hibachi videos online, so why not throw this one up? This video does show what to do if you *are* short a hyper for the last stretch of stage 5, so that may be helpful, at least.
Oh, I almost forgot, I'm playing the 360 (disc) version. The PC version has a bug that causes you to get more hits than you're supposed to from them, which means you can score higher than you're supposed to. Otherwise it's a solid port, but if you're serious about score, 360 is still the way to go.
0:00 Stage 1
2:54 Stage 2
6:19 Stage 3
12:17 Stage 4
20:14 Stage 5
31:45 Golden Disaster
36:00 Ending & Credits
-----
Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
