DeathSmiles coming to the US

[Van Cruncheon]

When it all boils down to it, the characters are just these little sprites on the screen amidst a shitload of bullets and enemies.

No, no that's not it at all. We all know you buy little girl dolls for your shelf, you need to sit this one out

omg annihilation

[bork]

When it all boils down to it, the characters are just these little sprites on the screen amidst a shitload of bullets and enemies.

No, no that's not it at all. We all know you buy little girl dolls for your shelf, you need to sit this one out

No I don't.  I'm no fan of loli.  The game's cover is certainly a questionable choice, but there's nothing bad about Deathsmiles.  This is not Idolmaster or whatever.

[bork]

omg annihilation

Damn, I got Christian side-hugged.   :'(

[bork]

That's what I'm saying...the cover is questionable, the game itself isn't.  It's another Cave shooter.

They've also released another shmup that caters to the opposite end of the otaku-spectrum, Muchi-Muchi Pork:

[demi]

Fat chicks? I like fat chicks. At least they have some nice tits

[demi]

Look at the cunt on the pink one. I want to just grip it and squeeze it between my fingers

[Sho Nuff]

I heard that buying this game puts you on a watchlist

[originalz]

You guys should see how the girls look in the sequel

[MCD]

[archie4208]

Nice mousepad

[Bebpo]

Nice mousepad

.

[Jansen]

gamestop STILL hasn't shipped my copy

[Sho Nuff]

That disc art is fucking creepy

[Bebpo]

Yeah, the X360 logo freaks me out

[Bulleta©™®]

Nice mousepad

holy shit hahahahahaha

[Third]

Lol, anime tardness at its best. The guy will stay a virgin forever. 

[Smooth Groove]

Yeah, the X360 logo freaks me out

Disgusting sfag.

Lol, anime tardness at its best. The guy will stay a virgin forever. 

MCD is such an enigma.  How can someone be so devoted simultaneously to being a Xbot and a weeaboo?

[demi]

MCD does the fabric on that mousepad feel good against the tip of your dong? I love that feeling.

[Smooth Groove]

MCD has got it all figured out.  Why work so hard for a titty fuck when you can have it on demand?

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

those Gundemonium games on PSN are freaking awesome, but I make sure my gf is never in the room when I'm playing them.  Its gonna bring up questions I don't want to answer.

[iconoclast]

Finally got this from Amazon (the package was squashed too ). I played through it on level 1 with Windia and it really is as easy as people make it out to be. The bonus stage and the final stage on the other hand kicked my ass pretty good so that stopped me from a 1cc... or 2cc.. or 3cc.

Going to try level 2 next.

[iconoclast]

Oh I see. Going to the Canyon causes suicide bullets to spawn on the final stage. No wonder that shit was so hard!

And at Follet's ending.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, if you play lvl.1 the game is easy outside of the bonus stage & final stage.

solution: don't play on lvl.1 


I suck at shmups and I still do the stages on lvl.3 although the final stage on the hardest difficulty is impossible.

[iconoclast]

Yeah I'm going to stick to lvl 3 once I have a handle on the game. Just getting used to the stages and characters for now. So far it looks like Rosa is by far the best.

Looks like no one is playing arcade mode either... I only got a 41 million score and got 11th place on the leaderboard. This is probably the one and only time I'll have a replay uploaded for a Cave game

Oh wait, I guess I was 10th when it uploaded my clip and by the time I checked I got knocked off.

[Bulleta©™®]

I can't play that stuff with 80,000 bullets coming at me at once. 

[Beezy]

I can't play that stuff with 80,000 bullets coming at me at once. 

Japafag card revoked!

[iconoclast]

Have you tried the Cave games available on MAME? Dodonpachi (1st loop) isn't too bad.

A lot of the time it's not as bad as it looks. The game either tends to slow down so you can find a path through the bullets, or there will be some enemy around that will clear all the bullets on screen once he dies. Stuff like Mushihime-sama on Ultra mode is insane and there's only a handful of people in the world who can clear it. That's not the norm.

[Bulleta©™®]

Yeah I tried dodonpachi.  It's too my for my eye to process and it makes me want to pass out, same w/ fast vertical scrolling.

[MCD]

Lol, anime tardness at its best. The guy will stay a virgin forever. 

MCD is such an enigma.  How can someone be so devoted simultaneously to being a Xbot and a weeaboo?

I was born an Xbot, weeaboo is just a plus.

And I wish that titpad was mine

no smooth cock for me.

[iconoclast]

Argh, twice I've nearly had a 1CC with Rosa but I keep blowing it at Jitterbug. Got a 73m score at least, and 12th on the leaderboard. Not a whole lot of people playing this it seems. I'm doing a mix of rank 2 and 3 stages to try and get a good mix of survival and scoring. The scoring system in this game is awesome.

Anyway I love this game. Far more than I thought I would.

PS. Fuuuuuuuuck that tree boss on rank 3. The phase where he shoots out all the apples completely annihilates me. :'(

[Smooth Groove]

Lol, anime tardness at its best. The guy will stay a virgin forever. 

MCD is such an enigma.  How can someone be so devoted simultaneously to being a Xbot and a weeaboo?

I was born an Xbot, weeaboo is just a plus.

And I wish that titpad was mine

no smooth cock for me.

WTF do you have some other perv's titpad, son?

Throw that nasty shit away and wipe down your desk.  I'll get you a new one

spoiler (click to show/hide)

from my special collection. 

[close]

[MCD]

  eyecandy mousepad

[Smooth Groove]

eyecandy mousepad

I'll send you the Quad SLI tittypad.

8 tits!

[MCD]

8 flat tits?

i only go for flat, like my pink steelseries pad.

[originalz]

Any of you guys mess around with 1.1 yet?  That mode is a lot of fun.

[iconoclast]

I've only been playing Xbox 360 mode and a couple runs in Arcade mode. Haven't messed around with 1.1 or MBL yet. I 1CC'd it with Rosa last night but I messed up my scoring really badly (activated too early on the graveyard, activated too early at the beginning of the final stage, and activated too late on the cow stage, which lead to me not being able activate at all on the volcano stage ), so I didn't even beat my previous highscore. Going to try and fix that today.

[bork]

Mega Black Label is already included, right?  On the J-version you had to pay like 1200 points for it, IIRC.   

I bet the English versions of Hokuto Musou will have all the content on the disc, too, speaking of which.  I have purchased it all, which comes out to be over forty bucks total.  That's $8 each for two extra characters, $3 per alternate costume, and $1 each for extra scenarios.  Reepu.

[iconoclast]

Yeah, Aksys included all of the DLC on the disc. It's nice of them, but honestly I wouldn't mind buying it instead. That way I can get more achievements

[iconoclast]

Just got 3rd place on the leaderboards with a 113m score

This game is sooooo awesomeeeee

[Third]

I didn't know that MCD took those pics. I thought he was trolling japafags by posting those pictures.

[Beezy]

How do you not die in this game?! The bonus stage and the final stage are ridiculous!

[iconoclast]

If you go to the bonus stage, it causes suicide bullets to spawn on the final stage. Makes it a whole lot harder, just skip it for now. And if you play rank 3 stages 5 times in a row you'll enter Death Mode, which also causes suicide bullets to spawn. And then if you do the EX stage while in Death Mode, the final stage will be at the maximum possible difficulty, Death Mode 2.

So yeah try to avoid that unless you are godlike.

[Beezy]

Lol thanks. The hitbox in this game must be extremely fucking tiny in this game though. A few times my brain just shutdown on the bonus and final stages and somehow I didn't get hit. And I saw bullets fly through that little heart thing on the character I was using. I assumed that whole thing was your hitbox?

I also love how it throws achievements at you. I got 205 on my first playthrough. Knowing what you just told me, beating the game with every character without continuing is definitely doable.

[iconoclast]

Yeah this isn't too hard of a 1CC. Though it depends on what character you're using. Rosa is by far the most powerful, whereas Follet is incredibly weak. Casper and Windia seem to be pretty average.

You can also earn cakes and magic books (+life points and a bomb) by doing the stages at the right time. If you do stage C-2 on Rank 3 as your final stage, you can get a cake that refill one block of life. And if you beat Jitterbug without bombing you get a cake that restores two life blocks. Combine that with the 1ups you earn at 20 million and 45 million and you basically get 8 lives to clear the game with (you max out at 5 however).

[Don Flamenco]

On a side note, if you want more shmup goodness, I'm selling a mint+complete copy of Mushihimesama Futari for $60 shipped.  PM me!

[iconoclast]

So is anyone else still playing this? I just had a pretty decent run with Windia; got a 103m score and the #1 spot on her character-specific leaderboard. This is probably the only time I'll ever sit at the #1 spot in a Cave game since I'd say my STG skills are pretty mediocre.

Hooray for separate leaderboards!

[Trent Dole]

So is anyone else still playing this? I just had a pretty decent run with Windia; got a 103m score and the #1 spot on her character-specific leaderboard. This is probably the only time I'll ever sit at the #1 spot in a Cave game since I'd say my STG skills are pretty mediocre.

Hooray for separate leaderboards!

I think the other resident here has more cheevs unlocked in this since they've been off for the past week. I've not made a successful 1 credit run yet but it definitely seems doable for me aside from the last few bosses.

[iconoclast]

Yeah, if you're going for a 1CC do it with Rosa first. Her high power and decent speed puts her head and shoulders above everyone else.

I only have like 500 achievement points I think. Haven't really looked at the list, just been playing X360 mode trying to clear it with each girl. I've managed it with Rosa and Windia so far; Casper shouldn't be too far behind since she's pretty similar to Windia, but Follet is going to take some work. It's ridiculous how weak she is.

[originalz]

How do you not die in this game?! The bonus stage and the final stage are ridiculous!

Don't forget that you can use your familiar to absorb suicide bullets.

[iconoclast]

So, this is old news by now, but this is my first time seeing it and I figured it was worth posting here:

Got talking to Ben from Aksys Games today. Better known as Belisarius on the Aksys Games Forums. I asked him about a possible slowdown patch now that RSG is releasing an un-fucked version of DS. Here's what he had to say.

From Twitter:
We are currently testing a patch to implement those adjustments to the slowdown. Don't have an ETA right now though, unfortunately.

Hopefully it'll be out soon. I'll try and remember to let you know once we get a date.

http://twitter.com/#!/AksysGames_Ben/status/17269980236091392

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=640901#p640901

Someone asked CAVE about a slowdown patch for the NA region on Facebook and this is the response from CAVE:

We are hearing early February from Aksys, but it's best to ask them.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=647441#p647441

This is awesome. Aksys & Cave for fixing their fuckup

Now I kinda feel like I wasted money buying the Japanese version. Oh well, at least I'll be able to get some more achievements out of it (up to 1500 actually )

[Don Flamenco]

lol, thanks for the patch a year later!  I just got the game though, so no loss.   

This game is great, but the graphics upgrade for the 360 isn't as nice as Mushihimesama Futari. 

Are there any other Cave games announced for the U.S.?  I know that Pork game and Pink Sweets are region-free...seems like they're backsliding on u.s. games.  Maybe they make more money off of imports vs. u.s. budget releases.

[iconoclast]

Nothing announced in the US for now, but Cave has been trying to expand globally for a while so I wouldn't be surprised if their HD games do come over eventually. IMO, Mushi Futari, Espgaluda 2, and Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets are a lost cause because they are region free. Ketsui probably won't come out here since 5pb ported that. Dai Ou Jou Black Label, lol.

So I think the most likely games to come out are:
Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu + Black Label DLC (probably on-disc)
Akai Katana (if Cave ports it, and I'd bet anything they will)
Dangun Feveron will definitely be released worldwide if it's an XBLA game

And I guess Death Smiles 2X will get released if the first one did well.

This game is great, but the graphics upgrade for the 360 isn't as nice as Mushihimesama Futari. 

I agree, but the game does look pretty good when there's tons of crowns, skulls, and golden numbers filling the screen. I'd say Cave's HD efforts have gotten better with every release... if you ignore Death Smiles 2X. Nasty Dreamcast-quality 3D

[maxy]

Combines sales of the US and Japanese version reach six-figure mark as game hits UK shelves

The Xbox 360 version of cult arcade shooter Deathsmiles is approaching 100,000 sales in Japan and the US.

It hit UK shelves last week (Friday, February 18th), courtesy of Rising Star Games.

A Cave spokesperson told MCV: “Cave games have had a strong user base and following in Japanese game centers, gaining popularity particularly with the release of Dodonpachi for their high difficulty accompanied by complex scoring systems.

"On top of a storied arcade history with strong operator support that includes the game center releases of Dodonpachi, Mushihimesama, Deathsmiles, Espgaluda and more, Cave remains one of the last shooter developers capable of putting games out in a tough arcade market.
 
“After a very strong arcade run, the port of Deathsmiles for Xbox360 went on to become the best-selling shooter package on the system, and has sold nearly 100,000 copies between the US and Japan.

"Cave games have been quite successful on the Xbox 360 platform in general, with the strong support of hardcore gamers for whom the additions of leaderboards and achievements up the level of competition for score. 


"Both Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama Futari have earned Platinum Collections from Microsoft.”

Opening weekend sales of the game in the UK remain unconfirmed.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43142/Deathsmiles-nears-100000-sales

It charted on UK charts,number 38 on unit chart

not much,but hey it at least charted

[iconoclast]

Pretty impressive. I imagine the Japanese version is somewhere around 40k at this point (Platinum + regular edition combined), so the US version has done very well. If Aksys aren't happy with those sales, then they had completely distinguished mentally-challenged expectations. Bodes well for future releases of Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu and Akai Katana.

--

The patch for the US version of Death Smiles is out by the way.