DonPachi/YMMV

• Crowning Music of Awesome: Thanks to an unknown composer for DoDonPachi and Manabu Namiki for DaiOuJou and DaiFukkatsu:
  • "Sally", the select theme from DaiFukkatsu BLACK LABEL.
  • The music going against Taisabachi and Hibachi in DaiFukkatsu, The Longhena Cantata and -[|/34<#!]. Yes. The name is actually "]-[|/34<#!".
  • DaiOuJou's boss theme, "Burn Yourself".
  • Hibachi's theme from the same is instantly recognizable to most danmaku fans.
  • DoDonPachi Level 1 and 4.
  • The Ketsuipatchi remix has "Virt" do some work on Ketsui's "No Remorse" and "Day of Judgement"
  • The soundtrack of the iPhone version was composed by Ken'ichi Maeyamada, also known as Hyadain, and therefore contains a lot of awesome tracks. However, special mentioning deserves the True Final Boss theme "Battle for the Last", which also has a vocal version sung by Hyadain himself, as usual.
    • The stage clear theme. Hell Yeah!! indeed.
• Even Better Sequel: DoDonPachi.
• Friendly Fandoms: On the flip side, if you are in Japan, it is fine to mention Touhou in the same sentence as the DonPachi series, as several Pixiv artists and veteran shooter players in Japan liked both series.
• Game Breaker:
  • Strong Style in DaiFukkatsu / Revival.
    • Nerf + Dynamic Difficulty: In DaiFuukatsu BLACK Label, playing in Strong Style is often likened to playing on DFK 1.5's second loop. One player commented that "it feels like the enemies are in strong style, not the player."
  • Also in DaiFukkatsu, Bomb Style and Strong Style's auto-bomb mechanic. If you get hit with at least one bomb in stock, you use a bomb instead of dying. It does last shorter and does less damage than a manually-fired bomb, but that you can use your bombs as extra lives is still pretty broken. Moreover, on each successive life, you start off with one more bomb than your last life can hold, so by the time you're on your last life, you're carrying 6 bombs, or rather, 6 extra lives. The BLACK Label version allows you to turn it off, and Version 1.51 Nerfs auto-bomb by taking away all of your bombs if you auto-bomb instead of manually bombing.
• Internet Backdraft: When CAVE finally ended their DoDonPachi-themed announcement countdown timer and revealed that their then-upcoming PC port would be of DaiFukkatsu, a number of fans were very incensed that it was not the less-polarizing SaiDaiOuJou.
• Memetic Badass: Hibachi, one of the most notorious True Final Bosses in genre history.
• Memetic Mutation: CAVE INVENTED BEES!!!
  • From Ketsui'pachi: JUST A COUPLE MORE SHOTS DESU!
• Most Wonderful Sound: Most games in the series have "Just a couple more shots!", the line spoken by the announcer when the current boss is almost dead.
• Older Than They Think: DoDonPachi Campaign Version features a prototype version of the Hyper mechanic. It also introduced the idea of having the value of bee items being multiplied by your current combo. In a way, it is a prototype DaiOuJou, especially considering its extreme difficulty. This version was presented to the winner of a scoring contest that happened in late 1997 to celebrate the release of the Saturn port; this was approximately 4.5 years before DOJ was released.
• Porting Disaster: The Xbox 360 port of DaiOuJou is not just glitchy, it nearly caused legal trouble! A patch came out that resolved some of the glitches... two years after the port's release...after it went out of print. Thanks 5pb, you assholes!
• Scrappy Mechanic: Using Leinyan's laser bomb in DaiOuJou Death Label will heal the boss, but Shotia's and Exy's laser bombs won't (at least until stage 4). Wait, WHAT?!
• Sequel Displacement: DoDonPachi is far better remembered than DonPachi, mainly due to DoDonPachi taking DP's bullet patterns and action and cranking them Up to Eleven.
• Sequelitis: DoDonPachi II is one of the less well-received installments. It didn't help that it was developed not by Cave, but by IGS, a lesser-known Taiwanese development team.
• Signature Scene: The True Final Boss fights of DaiOuJou, DaiFukkatsu and SaiDaiOuJou are by far the most iconic parts of the series.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: DonPachi was mainly notable for being hard but fair, for its second loop with suicide bullets, and for a few interesting game mechanics. It was otherwise not very interesting in the grand scheme of things. Then DoDonPachi changed the 2-D shooter world forever.
• True Art Is Angsty: DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is the most depressing game in the series, storyline-wise AND gameplay-wise. It was also considered by many fans to be the best.