The Mega-Cave Shooter Post, because they're totally awesome and sweet

Shipping confirmation from AmiAmi for DSIIX today, very exciting :)

Side note: Can anyone confirm the full list of 360 retail shmups?

Death Smiles
Death Smiles IIX
DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label Extra
Espgaluda 2
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi
Mamoru-kun
Mushihime-sama Futari
Otomedius Gorgeous
Raiden Fighters Aces
Raiden IV
Senko no Ronde Duo
Senko no Ronde/Wartech
Shikigami no Shiro 3
Shooting Love 200x

Anything missing? Does Strike Witches even count?
 
DCharlie said:
I got Duo yesterday - but not had time to play it. I did pop it in the US machine though just to double check and, yes, it's regioned.
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Pity. Probably my most wanted one =[
 
mjemirzian said:
I was pretty disappointed watching deathsmiles ii superplay footage. Long levels with tons of the same enemy firing bullet walls that just get cancelled over and over.. looked incredibly boring. I'd like to blame it on Cave's inexperience with 3D games.

But then DDP Daifukkatsu is also a mess.. it looks like a parody of bullet hell. It reminds me of low budget/shareware shoot em ups where the enemies spray lame, messy undodgeable patterns and the developers give you a shield to compensate for their lack of precise enemy design and shot patterns like Cave's older titles. Well in this case it's the hyper bullet cancel shot that's used to dodge the giant mess of crap.

Bullet cancels are killing Cave. Once they run out of quality classic titles to port they are going to be in trouble if they keep cranking out these titles that are well below their previous standards.
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Mushi Futari turned out pretty good, imo. (Not canceling bullets, but a recent Cave game.)
 
To Far Away Times said:
Mushi Futari turned out pretty good, imo. (Not canceling bullets, but a recent Cave game.)
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That's actually a port of a 2006 arcade game. And the arrange mode they added for console is a bullet cancel/bullet spam/shield mess.
 
Deathsmiles II X is now on the way :). I do have a slightly OT question, though...what would be the best way to go about getting a J-360? Using a middleman and Amazon.jp (for example) or going with Play Asia or NCSX?
 
amishpriest99 said:
Deathsmiles II X is now on the way :). I do have a slightly OT question, though...what would be the best way to go about getting a J-360? Using a middleman and Amazon.jp (for example) or going with Play Asia or NCSX?
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From my experience NCSX is the cheapest way to go if your in the US.
 
Definitely go NCSX or Play-Asia for a J-360. They will be priced similarly at both locations.

My DS2 and the stick did ship. I think I'm doing skeleton buttons again on this one.
 
Thanks for the advice :). Just got my copy of DS II yesterday, so now I get to stare at the pretty box until after Otakon (when I'll be able to order the J-360).
 
Anyone get their copy yet? Doesn't seem to be much discussion... Wondering if anyone's found any healing items in any of the stages yet?
 
mjemirzian said:
That's actually a port of a 2006 arcade game. And the arrange mode they added for console is a bullet cancel/bullet spam/shield mess.
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Yo, I thought Arrange Mode was pretty damn fun. :P
Great game!
 
adversesolutions said:
We put up the hidden Life Items over at Cave-STG the other day.

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=905.0

I picked up Deathsmiles 2 and am loving it! Lots of technical problems at the moment but I think IIX mode is a ton of fun.
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Oh, sweet. Thanks!

I'm enjoying it as well. Not as charming as the first one, but it's so nice to have a shooter in HD. And everything seems so much less daunting... I could actually see going for the score achievements and level 3 versions of the stages for once. Usually I just play Cave games for the No-continue clear. (Because I suck at shooters, and that's challenge enough.)

WTF is this "Pigeon Blood Jittery bug"?

EDIT: According to that board turning on the DLC arrange soundtrack makes all achievements impossible to get. Arggggghhhh.
 
I'm on the fence for Death Smiles 2; while the game looks fun, Cave really dropped the ball with this port. I don't know what happened, all the 360 ports (save for DOJ) were excellent and then... what about this mess? graphical glitches, disappearing bullets, a gigantic end game bonus that fucks up the leaderboards... and on top of that, no HD graphics for Arcade mode? Only for X and Arrange mode? Can someone confirm this?
 
I haven't seen any of those glitches, but yeah, it's true that the arcade version isn't in HD. But that's the whole point of it, right?

Seems like a pretty sweet port to me. The arcade game was pretty half-assed by they add enough new stuff to the other modes to make it worth playing. Probably not as good as the original, tho.
 
But all other Cave ports have a "360 mode" wich is basically the arcade game with HD graphics, and that's the mode I always play. From what I understand, DS2 doesn't have a "360 mode", just Arcade (low-res) and a couple of arrange modes (hi-res).
 
Got my copy of Deathsmiles 2 the other day and have been playing it for a bit. I enjoyed the first one but I'm much more of a vert shmup guy. The fact that DS2 arrived after Ketsui, Mushi Futari and ESP II has meant that while I'm enjoying it, I don't think it's as good as those games and, as a result, feels less enjoyable than it probably should be.

Even though it's very short, (especially in arcade mode which is where I've spent 90% of my time) most of the levels are enjoyable. I like the first 2 and the music in them. Third is my least favourite and from there on they kinda drag a bit. I LOVE the music that plays during the second phase of the end boss fight though and the ED song is fantastic too.

I like that X mode has full screen and voice acting with a "story". The Christmas setting feels weird though considering this is a summer release :p

Definitely need to spend more time with this, especially Arrange mode which I haven't touched yet.
 
danmaku said:
But all other Cave ports have a "360 mode" wich is basically the arcade game with HD graphics, and that's the mode I always play. From what I understand, DS2 doesn't have a "360 mode", just Arcade (low-res) and a couple of arrange modes (hi-res).
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DDPDOJBLEX doesn't have a high-res mode either
 
danmaku said:
But all other Cave ports have a "360 mode" wich is basically the arcade game with HD graphics, and that's the mode I always play. From what I understand, DS2 doesn't have a "360 mode", just Arcade (low-res) and a couple of arrange modes (hi-res).
Click to expand...

As far as I know, all other Cave games have just swapped in hi-res sprites, which doesn't change the gameplay at all. The HD modes in Deathsmiles IIX bring the game to the full HDTV aspect ratio, widening the field of play, so all of the enemy placements and such need to be rebalanced. The arcade mode already has all the HD assets, and any further changes would make it no longer a faithful arcade port. So there's no need for a "360 mode" this time around.
 
JustAnotherOtaku said:
The fact that DS2 arrived after Ketsui, Mushi Futari and ESP II has meant that while I'm enjoying it, I don't think it's as good as those games and, as a result, feels less enjoyable than it probably should be.
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This is exactly why (so far) I've skipped picking up DSII - I was pretty sure I'd feel exactly the same & still feel like there's so much I can still get out a Ketsui, Mushihime-sama Futari & Espgaluda II. Picking up another expensive STG that I was pretty sure I'd enjoy less that the one's I'm loving and already don't have enough time to devote to, didn't make a ton of sense right now.
 
I just got the first print of Mushihime Futari with the DLC card today in the mail, and I'm seriously thinking it's time to actually buy an Xbox 360. I'm really skittish about importing a Japan-region system, though. The USA aracdes are $150 now!! It'd be nearly $350 for a J-360 arcade after shipping costs.

Are there any doable region-mod hacks out there for the 360? Any way for me to play Japanese-region games on a US system? I am pretty skilled with a soldering iron if needs be.
 
Baron said:
I just got the first print of Mushihime Futari with the DLC card today in the mail, and I'm seriously thinking it's time to actually buy an Xbox 360. I'm really skittish about importing a Japan-region system, though. The USA aracdes are $150 now!! It'd be nearly $350 for a J-360 arcade after shipping costs.

Are there any doable region-mod hacks out there for the 360? Any way for me to play Japanese-region games on a US system? I am pretty skilled with a soldering iron if needs be.
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Mushi Futari works fine on a US 360. It isn't region-locked.
Espgaluda II as well.
 
Baron said:
Are there any doable region-mod hacks out there for the 360? Any way for me to play Japanese-region games on a US system? I am pretty skilled with a soldering iron if needs be.
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I think there are mods but nothing that'll be safe from an Xbox Live standpoint. I'm considering a J360 myself. I still have an unopened copy of Ketsui, after all.

(but yeah, those two wonderful games are region free. ANNOUNCE MORE CAVE GAMES, AKSYS, OK?)
 
Interesting news from Cave about their new arcade game:

-Danmaku type horizontal scrolling shooting game
-Hardcore military shooter
-Each ship has a pair of characters (pilot and gunner?) with specific attacks
-Each ship changes its attacks when you change "mode"
-The characters (enemies, allies, and others - all human) are quite diverse
-Ships are designed as hardcore, 1950s style retro mechas
-Game is designed around destructible objects and dodging bullets - the core elements of an enjoyable STG - rather than obstacles and topography. This gives it a refreshing feeling.
-It has been carefully developed for over 1 year.
-Release in summer/fall 2010

(translation by EOJ @ CAVE-STG.com ).

I guess a lot of people will be happy with their decision to drop the cute'em up style in favor of a military theme. Now let's wait for the location test and see if it's 2D or 3D...
 
Would have preferred vertical. Maybe Deathsmiles success caused this? Hoping for 2D, but who knows what we'll get.

Sounds sweet as fuck either way. Wonder who's directing it.
 
Tain said:
Would have preferred vertical. Maybe Deathsmiles success caused this? Hoping for 2D, but who knows what we'll get.

Sounds sweet as fuck either way. Wonder who's directing it.
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Vertical does not translate well to widescreen consoles, which now is an important source of revenue for Cave.

I was all for the fantasy settings, until I played Ketsui. That game changed my mind. Bring it on, Cave.
 
Progear 2?

Anyways sounds awesome indeed, can't go wrong with 50's military design. I'm getting pretty sick of the loli theme so this is a welcome change. Horisontal is fine as long as the gameplay is fun. Fuck yeah for the destroyable objects also.

Please be 2D.
 
Vertical does not translate well to widescreen consoles, which now is an important source of revenue for Cave.
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true, and definitely worrisome. :/

I'd like to be optimistic about it, but there's really no way for the console business to not creep into their arcade games.
 
_dementia said:
Spiritual successor, maybe. I think Capcom owns the IP.
Progear didn't have mecha though, did it?

I thought it was more of a Steel Empire style steampunk motif.
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It had a lot of bizarre mechanical contraptions, but not mechs. I wonder if Joker Jun is still taking care of the art.
 
jlevel13 said:
I'm sort of bummed we have yet to hear anything more about their idea to release their old games to PC via Steam - I guess that's probably not happening?
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I think that was just Kotaku speculation.
 
It was just a possibility, not a scheduled project. They probably realized that a Steam version of, say, Guwange or Dodonpachi would've been useless when PC gamers can already play those games for free.
 
BurnsExcellentSticker.jpg


hopefully, this means a late summer / early fall release
 
I finally got DoDonPachi: DOJ for my Playstation 2, and I've been playing it a lot lately. I'm loving the game and to me it is a 2D masterpiece although I've played it only a couple of hours. The port Arika made is also fantastic: no long loading times, almost arcade perfect game, arrange soundtrack, great practice mode and death label. It's a nice package. The game is a must buy for anyone interested in 2D shooters.

I've got a couple of questions for the experts regarding gameplay: How do I earn Hypers? Why do I sometimes cancel bullets in bosses without destroying any part of the boss? What is your preferred ship-type A or B and what kind of shot type you guys prefer?
 
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