Cave's Shmup Espgaluda II Locks In A September Switch Release For The West

I got the bug one... DoDonPachi Resurrection is the one that I really want.

So the first one is already available but only for Japanese eShop.
Do I need to mess with region settings on my Switch, or do I just need to make another user profile and set it to the Japanese eShop account I created years ago (assuming I remember the login)?

I’ve already got the Japanese version for Xbox 360, but I might Cave and buy it here too 🌚

@KingMike It's ESP ra.de psi that's on the Japanese Eshop not the original. I believe it's a spin off of the Espgaluda series. It was released as part of the M2 Shottriggers series.

Can't wait to play this. Their Mushihimesama port is quality, barring the online leaderboards not working. Although they've said they're working on it.

There's some real top quality shmups to look forward to this year.

Espgaluda 2
Dodonpachi Resurrection
Deathsmiles collection
Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute
Ultimate Tiger Heli
Sol Cresta

And perhaps even Aleste Branch - a brand new shmup from M2 - will release this year too, although I don't think they've ever said it would. I'm pretty sure G-Darius is getting a western release later this year too along with a free update that includes a rare arcade version.

I highly recommend Game Tengoku CruisinMix Special to anyone looking for a new shooter. I bought it last week and I love it.

It's getting frustrating to see these games remain Japanese exclusives.

@scannerdarkly7 This one should come west pretty soon, going by their last release.

It's just the 2 M2 Shottriggers games, Aleste Collection / ESP ra.de and Taito's G-Darius that are still exclusive to Japan. I believe the latter is coming later this year. We just recently got Darius Burst and Cotton Reboot which had been exclusive to Japan.

Nintendo switch is becoming the best console for shoot'em'up fans. Xbox 360, Dreamcast and Sega Saturn were in the past the ones with that title, but wow. Switch is really becoming the ultimate platform for the genre.

So looking forward to this and hoping there'll be plenty more CAVE releases on the Switch in the future!

Had this on 360, balls hard, probably one of the hardest Cave shooters I've played. I'll end up buying it anyway.

Who needs a Virtual Console these days!?

Sadly I have all 3 of these physically on my 360 so can't see myself double dipping.

@Figo Espgaluda II released on iOS quite a while back. Something like 2009 or 2010, so it’s already had a full translation. Unfortunately Espgaluda II was removed from the App Store a few years back. Dodonpachi Resurrection is still there though. It’s on my phone, too!

@The_Pixel_King it wasn’t as much removed, but not updated in time for apple ios 11. Surprisingly , a year ago some of them did get an update so you can now play death smiles again and ddpachi blissfull death again.

Nice Espgaluda II is good, but DoDopachi and Ketsui are the top Cave Shmups! It's just a shame that Ketsui still doesn't have a European release, at least Ketsui Deathtiny is available on the US PlayStation Store. I'm just too lazy to make an American PS account, lol!

Let's hope that Ketsui: Deathtiny gets a European and Switch release!

I just got Mushihimesama yesterday. Did I screw up or is it still worth getting them all?

@rushiosan Mushihimesama is superb, so you definitely didn't screw up. I haven't played Espgaluda 2 but I've heard it's also superb, as is the others on the way. So yeah, buy them all haha

I wish Galuda 1 got a new port since it’s stuck on PS2. Have Espgaluda 2 on X360 (which I recently hooked up to a crt Sony Wega 33” via RGB scart to play my shmup collection and looks glorious) and also the iOS release still working on an iOS 9 iPad Mini, but I can’t wait to triple dip for Switch. Hopefully it’ll have working online leaderboards tho.

Also I can see why the incredible Esp. Rade Psi is still Asia exclusive (have it digital AND retail, LOVE IT) since €60 shmups are a hard (impossible even) sell in the west, especially 2D/pixel art ones. I’m glad the Switch platform embraced the genre, even back in the X360 days all of Cave’s western releases bombed so hard that Rising Star noped out of further licensing…

I wish Under Defeat HD, Delta/XII Zeal and especially Raiden Fighter Aces collection got ported to NSW and others tho. And Border Down is still stuck on DC.

@DashKappei I kind of wish XIIZeal and Deltazeal would just be given their original names (XII Stag and G-Stream G2020) back.

@OorWullie Game Tengoku? I had bought that digitally a little while ago, completely forgetting about the physical version delay fiasco.

I'm holding off just in case they decide to put these Cave shmups onto a cartridge. If they don't then I'll definitely buy them digital.

Why these guys drag their feet on their ports is beyond me. All their great games should be on modern consoles at this point! I’ll pass on Espgaluda 2, but if we ever see physical carts of Dodonpachi Resurrection and Mushihimesama Futari, I’m in.

Good to see another cave shmup ported to the actual consoles, although Dodonpachi or Dodonpachi DOJ would be more interesting for me.
Mushihimesama port: It's a shame that the online leaderboards dont't work, i have my doubts about getting this fixed. Otherwise this port is of course great.

It’s not one I’d go out of my way to import but I’ve tried the first game and I really enjoyed that so if It gets an EU release I’m in.

Whether Yen or Dollar, it's a day 1 buy for me!

@DashKappei I've kept my iPad 2 in iOS 9 just for keeping all the CAVE shmups. If I could roll it back to iOS 7 I would do it in a heartbeat because 9 made it so slow.

@BloodNinja

Evidently, M2 dragged their feet because they always want to spend their time adding tomogatchis, dating sims and entire new games to their ports. So Cave got fed up and tasked Live Wire with republishing the xbox 360 ports and at reasonable prices, to boot. They won’t feature M2’s painstakingly recreated hardware emulation down to the pcb traces and logic gates but 99% is just bothering to show up, as the wise sensei doth say.

@robr Hopefully they get on it soon!

@BloodNinja

Live Wire has these three games this year. Probably more to follow. Anything that came to XB0X is definitely 98% ready for market. We don’t know which games M2 still has their hands on (if any). I’m pretty sure that M2 has all of the Raizing stuff (and maybe 8ing). They got Sorcer Striker out there on a Playstation generation (not other consoles) and Battle Garegga on XBOXONE/PS4. Everyone and their grandmother has been asking for Batrider…..deaf ears. They’ll release the Tiger Helli games in October, and I guarantee that that Toaplan release schedule will be like Rob Liefeld era Image Comics. They have Compile (or at least the Aleste Series), Raizing and whatever remaining Cave backlogs all scattershot and they will waste their time making pedo wet dream school girl dating sims instead of staying focused.

Nice, i hope at one point there'll also be physical releases of these games on the Switch.

Has their been any news on a physical edition yet?

@N8tiveT3ch Dodonpachi Resurrection Just got surprise added to Apple Arcade this morning. Doesn't look like it has controller support though, sadly.

Day one for sure!
It's awesome how quickly the Switch's Cave library is growing.

@EmirParkreiner

They ditched M2, so expect a slightly truncated catalog dump across various publishers (with a range of quality).

Hope Konami takes notice and puts PARODIUS games on the Switch. They're long overdue, seeing how the platform is being bombarded with shmups.

Cant wait. Hopefully we can get some of the other shmups that were Japan only releases. Shot Triggers series Im looking at you.

Really hoping they port Futari after DDP DFK.

I JUST WANT FUTARI

@robr

Yeah I'm a bit bummed out over the whole Toaplan situation. I was hoping for either a comp, or some more slightly bog-standard ports Arcade Archives-style, I'm not sure how well some of the older titles will sell outside the hardcore at £25.00 a pop. I mean, to someone not already heavily invested they're going to see Arcade Archives Raiden, then Tiger Heli at probably double the price.....

@BloodNinja I love espagaluda 2, that one don’t click with you? Just curious

So excited to see that Espgaluda 2 is getting its first official release outside of Japan!

@Themagusx1 I enjoyed it very much, actually! I just want to see Futari, especially the black label version because it’s my favorite Cave shooter. LOVE the soundtrack for that one, too.

@BloodNinja Futari is great. This reminds me of the release of cave games we got on mobile phones about a decade ago or so. I am partial towards espagaluds 2. I am actually hoping we get death smiles soon

@Themagusx1 Not gonna lie, Cave’s release schedule has been garbage lately. I’m hoping that this is a sign that it’s changing. I would love to have all their heavy hitting bullet hells on Switch and PC.

@BloodNinja Agreed. I mean we should of gotten espagaluda 2 in July, cause the last one we got was what early June.

After playing the iOS ports and the region free 360 version, and watching a few vids on YT, either I'm still at a bit of a loss on how the scoring works or I actually am doing things right but not optimally. Oh, well... third time's the charm I guess?!

@SpringDivorce

Quite frankly, I don’t believe M2 really cares what we think. They’re going to do what they want to do. Fair enough.

And, bruh, Tiger Hell is gonna be more like 40 quid. 😂

@BloodNinja

Like I said, they opened the flood gates. They got tired of everyone bitching at them and now pretty much anyone who wants to publish an old Cave game has the go ahead.

@robr

Japanese prices are confirmed I think, and will translate to roughly £25.00 for the base game with another £10.00 for DLC. Still pricy.

@SpringDivorce

DLC? Oh god. At least it’s not priced like Dance Dance Feveron.

@robr

Yeah, apparently we get the two main games for the £25.00, the DLC is home ports (I presume NES, maybe PC Engine?) and extra arcade titles.

@SpringDivorce

It just dawned on me, it IS priced like Dangun Feveron and Battle Garegga. Plus the DLC. We’re not quite at Taito mode, though. 😂

This is a nice surprise! I missed this story but was recently lamenting that the ios version doesn't work anymore. I just googled it to see about importing a console release and...surprise! It came out locally 3 days ago haha