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[meppi]

Looks like I will have to save up for a Japanese 360 after all.

Had been fighting the urge ever since Cave started releasing all those great shooters on it, as well as quite a few others being released in Japan such as Raiden Fighters series and such.
But at this years Cave festival the following games were announce, all of which for the 360 and none of them region free.

- Radilgy Noah Massive from Milestone officially announced for 360. Classic Mode, Massive Mode and Death Modes. Massive Mode is a time attack mode where you play through two minutes and aim for the highest score.

- Gunwange XBLA due in Sept or Oct in Japan.

- DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.5 for 360. Two arranged modes. Release set for 11/25, priced 6,800 for standard and 8,800 for limited edition which includes special package and arrange CD. Attendees at the Cave Festival get a DLC card that ups the game to the special Cave Festival Version 1.51.

- Feveron being ported. Developed by M2. No release date or platform announcement, demo was played on PC with 360 controllers.

- Pink Sweets and Muchi Muchi Pork two-pack release announced for 360. Spring 2011. Original resolution only, no high-res upgrade. Arranged modes will be added.

[meppi]

Well the Japanese 360 purchase got pushed back for several reasons.
Money being the primary one.

But since I'll finally have an iPod within the next couple of days, I thought of posting this here.

I just found out that Deathsmiles was released today for iOS!
Had no idea Cave were working on more STG games for the system.
So happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoULMZpcyB8

Already bought it, so I can't wait for the actual system to show up! 

[Addicted to Chaos]

Hmm, Cave eh?... Well I just heard of this company as I'm continuing my interest in the Shmups genre with Dodonpachi for the Saturn, and I must say I'm really getting into this game as I get better. I'm even playing it in tate mode with the screen flipped.

Anyways, that game tube video you posted looked cool, except I think my preference for Shmups may end up with the vertical ones? (Which explains why I can't play Dodonpachi in tate without the screen flipped)

But whatever.

So you planning on getting an XBox360...

[meppi]

No idea how I missed this post. :-/

I'm pretty much the same way.
Although I do enjoy horizontal shooters if they are done just right (Cotton 2 and Boomerang or Gradius 5), my true love lies with vertical ones, from Xevious to Bastugun and Dragon Blaze to Ibara.

After several years of holding off the inevitable, I finally caved in and bought a Pal 360.
Got a very good deal since the store was celebrating their anniversary and were giving 15% discount on everything but game systems, on which you only got 10%.
But for some reason they did give me 15% off. 
So I ended up getting the system for €212,5 instead of €250, along with two games that don't actually interest me at all (Crisis 2 and Forza3) and 2 controllers.
But what I did get is the newly released Pal version of Dodonppachi Resurrection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPxiRsmVQw

I was blown away by just how many games types you get in just one release.
There's the optional 1.51 version available on XBLA as well as the Black Label version.
But give you several remixed version of the game which play a lot differently. On top of this, when you start a game mode, you always get to chose between A, B and C mode as well, which again are very different ways to play the game.
You're bound to find a mode that's just right for you.

Also already had the Japanese region-free version of Mushihimesama Futari, again with Black Label and everything, as well as the Pal version of Deathsmiles, which is a horizontal one. Oh and Guwange from XBLA as well.
Just ordered a Sanwa arcade stick since the D-pad isn't the best to be honest. It's functional, but just isn't the same.

Also ordered Japanese region free copies of Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets and ESPGaluda II.
Can't wait for those to arrive.

So yeah, it might sound very strange to most people, but I basically bought a 360 to play 2D shooters on. 
Everything else is a bonus at this point as I don't really get turned on by 99% of it's catalogue.
Loving the look of some of these XBLA games I have to say.
Shadow Complex is lots of fun in a Super Metroid kinda way and Super Meat Boy is just pure 8-bit platforming heaven.

Oh and Rising Sun Games has just announced that they will be Bringing Akai Katana to Europe early next year as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRrVTR0GbgM

This is looking to be one of the horizontal shooters that's right up my alley with how the bullet canceling and attraction and repulsion systems seem to work.

Can't wait!

[meppi]

Some great news for Cave fans after the worrying financial news from earlier this month.

Dodonpachi Saidaioujou will be released in the arcades sooner than expected.

Cave has confirmed this is their new arcade shooter. It is a vertical shooter. It will be on location test in Hey Arcade in Akihabara, Japan, from February 3-5.

The game will feature a new “Dress System” but retain the chaining from previous games. They also state it will be more “stylish” and “cool” than previous DDPs. It will have music by Namiki Manabu and is due out in Spring 2012.

Not to mention we'll be getting a HD version of the first Mushihimesama game that saw a port on the PS2.
This time it's coming to the XBox 360 in it's arcade perfect glory and will no doubt include some awesome bonus modes! 

[meppi]

Been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to spend the better part of this week playing Akai Katana and I must say: this game does not disappoint! 

Masterfully put together and a blast to play over and over again.
Of course, like a shooting games, I'm playing with 1 credit only and seeing how far I can get and how high I can push my high-score.
It's certainly more complicated than I was expecting and reminds me a bit of the complexity of ESPGaluda II.
But once you start getting the hang of the rather deep gameplay system (hint: pressing B on the title screen of each of the 3 modes shows you a tutorial movie), the game truly opens up and becomes even more fun.

I've actually just ordered a Japanese 360 as well from VGI along with 6 shooters, 4 being by Cave, as I love these games so very much.

Seems like Cave isn't doing very well commercially, so it may be the last batch of console games we'll see from them... 

[meppi]

After the announcement was made that Mushihimesama HD would be the last 360 port, there was a lot of speculation if any Cave games would go to the new Xbox, or perhaps even go to Wii U,  or not even get home port at all anymore.
But Microsoft has stepped in and after encouraging sales of the latest arcade game Dodonpachi Saidaioujou that was released in Japan last April, they convinced Cave to port the game to the 360.

It will be released in spring 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMDeO6424Yw

[meppi]

Quite a huge and very surprising update to the story for the latest release in the Dodonpachi series.

Looks like the Japanese version is going to be region-free after all!

Even though everyone had given up hope of seeing new region-free releases for Cave games on 360, it seems the good people at Cave had a change of hearts.