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Japanese shoot-'em-up developer Cave ceasing Western presence
Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi series creator Cave Interactive is shutting down its Western-facing public presence, ending its long-running English-language blog and closing up shop on Twitter. After marketing its games exclusively in Japan for many years, Cave made great strides toward establishing a presence in the West with iOS ports of its popular bullet hell shoot-'em-ups DoDonPachi Resurrection, Espgaluda 2, and Bug Princess. This week's announcement follows the recent departure of studio head of development Makoto Asada as the company restructured its business to focus on mobile and social games. Cave ported many of its arcade shoot-'em-ups to the Xbox 360 in Japan, and partnered with North American publishers to produce localizations for games like Akai Katana and Deathsmiles. The studio previously self-published an untranslated version of Deathsmiles 2X in North America via the Xbox 360's Games on Demand service in a bid to gain a foothold in the Western market.
DoDonPachi Maximum hits iOS Oct. 26 with iPhone 5 compatibility
Cave's previously Windows Mobile-exclusive bullet-hell shmup DoDonPachi Maximum is headed to an iDevice near you this Monday, October 29, according to Siliconera. The game, which includes ships from DoDonPachi: Blissful Death and DoDonPachi: Resurrection, requires an iThing no older than an iPhone 4 or an iPad 2, though that does translate to iPhone 5 screen resolution compatibility. The universal app will cost $6.99 at launch, and then jump up to $11.99.DoDonPachi games (and bullet-hell shooters in general) are a much bigger thing in Japan than they are here, generally speaking, and that may have to do with the Japanese arcade vibe. So to get the most out of your iOS purchase here's how to get that authentic Japanese arcade bullet-hell-playing experience at home: Lock yourself in the smallest closet you have, fill it with smoke, and then hire someone to be better than you at every game you own.
Saidaioujou, Cave's latest shmup, to hit Japanese Xbox 360s next year
Cave's newest arcade shoot-em-up, DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, is coming to Japanese Xbox 360s next spring, the company announced today. Saidaioujou hit the country's arcades back in April. The shmup specialists only just released 2011's Akai Katana on Western shores, so it may be a while before Saidaiojou's brand of vertical bullet-hell reaches us. In the meantime, we can look ahead to the game's dress-up shtick. Your ship's abilities and the game's difficulty depend on which outfit you choose for your supporting "elemental doll." Naturally, the skimpy bikini results in the hardest difficulty – though all the outfits look pretty skimpy, as you can see in the arcade game's trailer above. In addition to HD visuals, a new easy mode, and a 360-specific mode, the console port will receive a new elemental doll. Presumably with new outfits. Presumably skimpy.
Cave announces two more shmups
Now that Cave shooters like Deathsmiles on Xbox 360, the upcoming XBLA release of Guwange and the iPhone's EspGaluda 2 are being made available to gamers worldwide, the announcement of a new Cave game is less depressing and more exciting -- because no longer do shmup fans have to assume they'll be paying $100+ to import them. The next slice of bullet hell from the developer is Akai Katana ("Akai" meaning "red," and "katana" meaning ... "katana"). The teaser trailer doesn't do much to teach us about the game, instead showing anime characters looking pained. It's safe to assume that some of those characters will be able to fly and fire upgradeable weapons while dodging screen-filling bullet patterns. Cave will hold location tests for the arcade game in Akihabara next week, so there will be more information (and probably off-screen footage) then. The company also announced (PDF) an iPhone port of DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu for this summer. You can see an intense trailer for that after the break, as well.
Cave shooters denied XBLA release by Microsoft
Recently Xbox Live Arcade has shown considerable potential as a home for shoot 'em ups, from the Forgotten Worlds-channeling Omega Five to monochrome shooter Ikaruga's looming release. However, to hear talk from 5pb, the devs charged with bringing Cave's nefarious DoDonPachi series as well as its latest shooter Ketsui to XBLA's digital frontier, the platform still has a few nagging hang ups keeping it from becoming a beacon for shmups.Echoing N+ developer Metanet's recent comments concerning what does and does not make it to the service, 5pb spoke out about similar frustrations in the latest issue of Famitsu, revealing that both of its ports of DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label X and Ketsui X had been summarily rejected for release over XBLA, with Microsoft claiming that it's "going to cut down on faithful arcade ports." Only faithful ones?We agree that there is certainly a glut of arcade nonsense on XBLA, but this is equivalent to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 5pb and Cave are reportedly now working to bring both games to market through traditional retail channels in a defiant effort to show Microsoft "that their decision was wrong." Now all we need is a publisher with an eye for niche Japanese releases to pick the games up for release outside of Japan. Altus, are you listening?[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
2 of the greatest shmups rejected for XBLA by MS [update]
With news of Ikaruga's imminent release, and the previous release of Triggerheart Exelica, it would seem to the casual observer that XBLA would be a great place for screen-scrolling shooters. Well, this is not quite so. In the most recent issue of Famitsu, 5pb, the developers in charge of porting Cave's Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label X and Ketsui X, speak out about their experience with Microsoft's Live Arcade decision making division, and the account sounds eerily similar to the tale told by the developers of N+. In a nutshell, Microsoft told 5pb that they could not put their games on Live Arcade due to the fact that Microsoft is "going to cut down on faithful arcade ports." So 5pb will have to put their two games out via traditional retail channels, but they're quite understandably frustrated and would prefer to bring these two arcade games, and more, to market via XBLA instead of via disc. And this is still horrible news in that it backs up Metanet's assertion that there are problems deciding what content makes it onto XBLA. Hit the break for the full statement from Cave.
