I would add a sentence or two to try and describe the games, but I think linking to a youtube video would be more useful:
S-tier:
Mushihime-sama Futari (+Black Label DLC) - Pretty much my favorite game of all time. Has modes suitable for players of all skill levels (from easiest to hardest):
BL Original /
1.5 Original /
BL Maniac /
1.5 Maniac /
God Mode /
UltraDodonpachi Daioujou Black Label (NTSCJ only) - This game is basically perfect (port quality not withstanding). It's been out of print for years though, so it might be expensive (cost me $80-90 from ebay).
Black Label Arcade modeKetsui (NTSCJ only) - Fun scoring system based on point-blanking, relatively difficult first loop, great music, good console arrange mode.
Arcade mode /
X-modeA-Tier:
Espgaluda II Black Label - Excellent game and an improvement over the original, but it's one of Cave's hardest single-loop shooters and the subsystems are fairly complex. I would only recommend this to intermediate-advanced players. The Black Label arrange mode is great though (and much easier), definitely one of Cave's best console modes.
Arcade mode /
Black LabelAkai Katana Shin (NTSCJ only) - Another great game, extremely underrated. Fun scoring system in every mode, excellent music, relatively easy to clear but hard to score well on, great console exclusive modes, very nice graphics and art.
Arcade mode /
Zetsu /
Shin Death Smiles II - Another underrated game, mostly because of the Dreamcast-quality 3D graphics. The game itself is very good and an improvement over the original (though it lacks polish), and the console mode is another one of Cave's better efforts. Great soundtrack too.
Arcade mode /
2X ModeRaiden Fighters Aces - A collection of the Raiden Fighters games. The main attraction here is RF Jet, which is fuck awesome.
Raiden Fighters JetB-Tier:
Strania (XBLA $10) - G.rev game. Pretty different from the usual bullet hell, but still great in its own right. Has $5 DLC which is basically an entirely new game as well, so it's a great value.
Normal mode /
Side Vower Hard modeDeath Smiles - This game would be A-tier, but personally I don't think the game is fun at all when going for a high-end score, and the pacing sucks (6 easy stages followed by 1 or 2 hard ones). Other than that it has lots of content and is great if you don't mind ignoring Death Mode. The dual analog console mode is also pretty fun.
Arcade mode /
Mega Black LabelMuchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets - Double pack of some of Cave's less popular games. Much like Death Smiles, Pork would be A-tier if I didn't dislike the high-end scoring techniques so much. If you ignore that it's great. Pink Sweets is pretty different from the usual Cave style, but it's still fun. It's just not really my thing. And the arrange mode for Pink Sweets is great.
Muchi Muchi Pork /
Pink Sweets /
Pink Sweets ArrangeDodonpachi Daifukkatsu (+ Black Label DLC): More beginner friendly than Daioujou, and not nearly as unforgiving when it comes to chaining. Honestly I haven't played this game a ton as it's not really to my taste, but there are some people who love it so ymmv. Personally I'd rather play Daioujou.
Version 1.5 /
Black LabelEschatos is another game that seems really nice, but I haven't played it much. It also comes with Judgment Silversword and Cardinal Sins, two Wonderswan games from the same developer. I also thought
Strike Witches was pretty enjoyable, but it's pretty casual and low budget. Fun for a while though.
As for XBLA,
Trouble Witches Neo is a good game with lots of content. It has amusingly bad voice acting and it's only $10.
Guwange is also $10, but I think this is Cave's worst game and I don't really like it (it has great aesthetics though). And
Ikaruga is good of course.
There are a few games on the JP Games on Demand store as well, but I haven't played most of them: Shooting Love 200X, Mamoru-kun, Radirgy Noah, Bullet Soul, and Otomedius Gorgeous (I've played this, it's okay. Not as good as any of the classic Konami shooters though.)
this post is pretty messy, but fuck it I'm done.
