Players assume the role of a recruit selected to take part in a secret military program by assaulting enemy strongholds in order to become a member of the "DonPachi Squadron".

Although first launched for arcades on Cave's first-generation hardware, the title was later ported to Sega Saturn and PlayStation, each featuring several changes and additions compared to the original version.

DonPachi proved to be popular among Japanese arcade players but was later deemed by Cave to be a "creative failure", while the Saturn version was met with mixed reception from critics.

[1] By destroying large groups or chains of enemies in a short period of time, the player can build up a number called a combo, similar to the kind found in fighting games.

The Hong Kong version removes all story and is much more difficult, mainly through higher rank by default meaning faster bullets, and the hitbox is enlarged to fill up much more of the ships sprite.

[4][5][6][7][8] The concept for their fledgling project was to create a Toaplan-style shoot 'em up game that evoked the same spirit, which was also a request from publisher Atlus, while introducing a new ship system Ikeda had thought at the time.

[5][6][7][8][11] The staff was inexperienced and members pointed several elements that were not similar to Toaplan shooters during development, with Ikeda stating that there was conflict as to "Toaplan-ish" their game should be.

[5][7] However, Ikeda also stated he only worked on V・V and Batsugun prior to DonPachi, deeming the two titles as "very un-Toaplan games" and claimed he may not have understood the "soul" of the company well.

[1] The Saturn conversion suffers from loading times between stages and modes, slowdown during gameplay as well as certain special effects being altered due to hardware issues with transparency.

[1] The PlayStation port is a more faithful recreation of the arcade original, featuring the same display options as the Saturn release, the ability to adjust the default number of lives and faster loading times.

[24] However, Tsuneki Ikeda deemed the title to be a "creative failure" in a 2011 interview with website SPOnG, stating that Cave was criticized "from all sides that our game was nothing like Toaplan!"

[19] Mega Fun's Björn Souleiman noted its varied but confusing display of colors, stating that the game could have been made on 16-bit hardware, recommending it solely for shoot 'em up fans.