Point Blank (video game)

Point Blank is an arcade shooter by Namco (creators of the equally popular Light Gun Game Time Crisis). Basically its a collection of mini-games where you're given a task and a set amount of time, then set loose before the time runs out. Meet the requirements and you stay in the game and move on. Fail, and you lose a life (two if you shot something you weren't suppose to). The game continues onward until you either reach the last challenge or you run out of lives.

And..really, that's about it. The game is more or less a test of the player's shooting abilities: accuracy, speed, rapid-fire, quick thinking, memorization... oh, and all these challenges are accompanied by bizarre, cartoony and colorful visuals.

There are three entries in the series that were released for both arcade and the original PlayStation (the console versions having exclusive materials such as a RPG mode or extra challenges). There's also a DS version that, of course, catered to the touch screen; this isn't so much a new version as it just a mishmash of the original three games thrown together.

The series is also notable for it two mascot characters, Dr. Don and Dr. Dan (who look suspiciously like two certain character from Sesame Street, hmmmmm).

If you're looking for something else that's also called "Point Blank", see the disambiguation page here.

Point Blank contains examples of the following:

 * Boom! Headshot!: Averted in the cardboard human target stages. Shooting the center of the chest yields 100 points, while shooting the head only gets you 60. Which is how it works on the firing range, since most civilian (or police) shooters are taught "aim for the center of mass".
 * Bottomless Magazines: Most stages.
 * Button Mashing: The "shoot the [object] x times" stages.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: In colored target stages, player 1 shoots red and player 2 shoots blue. Shooting the other player's color will take off a life.
 * Gameplay Roulette: The premise of the series.
 * Harder Than Hard: Point Blank has the occasional "VERY HARD" stage. Point Blank 2 calls them "Insane" instead. There's also a mode consisting entirely of stages of that difficulty.
 * Hold the Line: "Protect Dr. Dan and/or Dr. Don from the [enemy type]." Point Blank 2, in addition to that, has a stage in which you must keep a can in the air and a UFO invasion stage.
 * Homage: Clear all 16 stages in Point Blank 2's Insane mode and you'll play a light gun version of Cosmo Gang, a joystick gun redemption game.
 * One of the regular stages is a Galaga Challenging Stage WITH A LIGHT GUN!
 * Hostage Spirit Link: Shooting a civilian, target of your opponent's color, a bomb, or some other target classified under "Don't Shoot!" will take off a life. The only other thing that does this is losing a minigame, so this punishment is pretty harsh, even by typical Light Gun Game standards. That is, you could get a Game Over by shooting five bad targets in one minigame, whereas you would have to fail five whole minigames otherwise.
 * It's a Wonderful Failure: Fail the "Defend Earth from UFOs" stage and the whole planet turns red. May border on Nightmare Fuel for some players.
 * One Bullet Left: Several stages give you one bullet to hit a target that is often moving, small, or both.
 * Series Mascot: Dr. Dan and Dr. Don.
 * Widget Series