Deathsmiles Collection Gets A Western eShop Release At The End Of The Month

@Northwind Deathsmiles is great though.

I found DeathSmiles to be interesting on the 360, so I would be tempted to revisit this. I would absolutely love to see a DoDonPachi collection, though.

@Northwind
I can see what you mean, but there are quite a few different sub-genres within shoot-em-ups... this one is more of a "bullet-hell" shooter, and I don't think that there are very many of those on the Switch.

@Northwind I actually agree with you, and I love a good shmup. It's just so hard to stand out when there are so many good ones, and it makes it hard to figure out which ones are actually great and which ones are also-rans.

This does look good, though. I almost want to buy it for Demonic Santa alone. But I'm pretty sure it will cost a lot more than I'd want to pay for it.

The Switch has offered a bit of a renaissance for the shooter genre. I’ll admit though Death Smiles hit a wrong note with me as the characters seemed like sexually inappropriately depicted minors. I forgot Death Smiles 2 was 3D....that was not a great move.

I've played Deathsmiles 1 on Steam, absolutely superb shoot 'em up. Though I will never understand the japanese obsession to randomly put little girls as characters in these games.

OKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

Oh I remember seeing these on 360, that console had a heck of a lot of fantastic shmups by all accounts.

This collection is nice but as I'm not the biggest fan of genre (because I suck at them) I tend to pick carefully so will wait for reviews.

Awesome collection. I was really hoping these would come to Xbox One through backwards compatibility because I bought the Xbox 360 version of deathsmiles. Oh well, I'll buy this too.

This is a big deal! I’ve been wanting the whole Cave collection to come to switch, and so far we only have ESP Ra De. (Which is great Btw). This is extra hopeful because it includes multiple games; Cave usually only releases one title at a time for full price. I’d love to also see dodonpachi and bug Princess collections!

Woot! More Cave goodness.

(And please don't moan about too many shmups, you spoil it for those who genuinely love the genre)

I love Cave, they do amazing shmups, but why are ESP Ra. De. Psi and now Deathsmiles Collection Japan only?! I want them on EU and NA eShops!

Not caves finest moment.
But ill take it.

I would've preferred Guwange or Dangun Feveron, but I'll take whichever Cave shmup I can get on Switch.

For those wishing there were more horizontal shmups, here you go. You can shoot left and right, strategic scoring (as is the norm for Cave), music is great, huge bosses, a hidden stage, yeah Deathsmiles is great! Deathsmiles II...has polygon graphics.

Still, I'll double dip so we can get more of these out. This is only the 2nd Cave release on Switch, we barely even scratched the surface!

On a side note, there's been more Switch reveals at TGS for Switch that didn't get mentioned yet. Maneater, Uncharted Waters 4, like 26 Arcade Archives games that are slowly getting revealed during he show (they're up to 16 or so right now). Scour that Twitter, NintendoLife!

OMG YES!! Deathsmiles is one of my favourite shooters ever!

@Northwind Good, schumps need more attention so I have great appreciation for a lot schump games coming to switch.

This is great, i hope this is just the beginning and the Switch gets ALL Cave shmups in the long run.

@northwind. On one hand i get what you mean, i would prefer some more sports e.g. at the moment too,

On the other hand.. games like esprade weren’t playable on consoles, and deathsmiles is a pretty nice game.. ( i have the xbox special version though, not sure i’ll double dip).. and in the end if there’s a market for cave, why shouldn’t they bring it, just a port...

Personally i think last 2 gens shmups have been not getting enoguh attention (on the ps4, there really isn’t that much) so i am happy the genre seems to have found a new home... and to celebrate that i recently bought a hori mini arcade stick:)

Oh please bring more CAVE stuff to this console!

Touhou as well

Definitely interested- have these on my 360! Great shooters! 😊

More Japanese games once chained to the meritable yet sadly not portable XB360 among consoles? You know my answer. :3

Two words that simply should not exist in the modern gaming environment: Japan Only.

@ooyah @the_pixel_king @embison So after looking into this a bit, I have some concerns and some hopes. It seems like City Connection is porting these titles, and they they were involved in the Psikyo switch ports. The good news is that they ended up bringing a bunch of those titles to the switch, including physical Western Collector’s Editions. However, the psikyo ports are pretty barebones and have more input lag compared to the 360 Cave-helmed ports. I don’t notice the input lag but that bothers high level players.

@Northwind Impossible. There’s never enough!! Mwuhahahahahaaaa!!! dives into pile of Switch shmup games

@Magician
Guwange and Dangun Fevron are both amazing. Would love portable versions of them

I will buy this if only to hopefully encourage more Cave ports!

I was wondering what happened with this.

Day one! Love these shmup collections for the Switch, and DeathSmiles is an excellent game, one of my favourites.

@Northwind Yep, unpopular.

I can’t believe how blessed we are that the Switch is a arcade shooter beast! I’ve been basically a Nintendo-only guy for my whole life and this was, until the Switch, one of the drawbacks. So awesome to get to experience so many of these titles.

@Northwind there may be metroidvanias, but switch is missing the best of them. namely metroid and castelvania.

Death smiles is quality, like a lot of Cave titles I’m not a fan of the fanservice designs but still a polished title.

@Ooyah Maybe not what you're looking for, but hopefully a step in the right direction, G-MODE is releasing a port of the mobile game DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou DX as part of their G-MODE Archives. Almost all of their archives has been locked to Japan, however. All of them except for Zanac, that is. And hopefully Zanac would help pave the way for DDP DOJ DX as another release.

This is all part of the 2-Day Mikado Game Center special event.
https://twitter.com/cavegames/status/1386231050909601792?s=20

Oh man! I would love to see the Cave Shmups on the Switch!

Imagine DoDonpatchi and Ketsui getting a Switch release!?

@Northwind Don’t mind him, he seems to enjoy jumping down people’s throats. You actually didn’t say anything out of the ordinary. I love shoot em ups, I love Metroid style exploration games, but you are 100% on the money that the Switch is over populated with games for those genres. It does make it difficult to see which ones stand out, because most of them go without reviews. Just more white noise.

That being said, while the imagery of the characters is questionable, DeathSmiles is a great shoot em up. Mega Black Label is a remix of the first game, which I believe increases the difficulty. I didn’t like the second game, so not much more to say there. Hopefully you encounter more reasonable responses, that Darlinfan is usually fairly aggressive, but he seems to post rarely enough to get away with it. The site usually has more chill and down to earth individuals, though.

NINJA APPROVED

Not so much into the cutesy anime characters, but these shoot em ups look crazy cool. Hopefully they'll eventually see release outside of Japan.

@SepticLemon There is a DoDonPachi game coming to Switch later this year at least.
https://www.gematsu.com/2021/04/g-mode-archives-dodonpachi-blissful-death-dx-announced-for-switch

Probably my last choice when it comes to Cave shooters, but since the Switch library is lacking in that area, I guess I’ll take it.
Sure wish we could see some old Raizing/8ing titles.

I understand that people who aren't super into shmups might think the Switch is overloaded with them, but for me, the Switch is continuing to get more and more really solid shmups and it's putting it up there with the Saturn for me in terms of great shmup consoles.

I have a japanese Xbox 360 with all of the CAVE shmups. The first game is amazing, but I am not a fan of the second one, though it's nice that is also included. If they release a physical version I will buy it for sure. I hope they also bring Ketsui which already is on PS4. And I cross my fingers for Mushihimesama, Dodonpachi, Ibara Pink Sweets, Espgaluda, Akai katana will follow.

@Low Guess everyone sees what they want to see. i just see fully clothed anime girls in a great bullet hell shoot em up hallowheen / horror / nonsense themed. you fight a giant cow ! i cant see anyhting sexual in this game.

@Northwind as someone who truly loves shoot em ups, what you said has no sense. Maybe you dont know how to choose your games. dont blame over representation. and this one is a bullet hell type. we have few of those but not many.

Best get saving, it's going to be a blast this xmas

@masterLEON
Ooooh, thank you very much for this! I played a mobile entry in this series once (DoDonPachi MAXIMUM), when I had a Windows phone, and I absolutely LOVED it. If this is of a similar quality, then count me in big time!

@Nermannn

We also got Progear in the capcom arcade collection

@jikflet each their own man, it’s pretty overt, especially in line with other Cave works. Muchi Muchi Pork, Pink Sweets, and Dodonpachi’s “dolls” scream fan service, Deathsmiles “Lolis” have more than a few creepy design/art choices.

@BoostPower

I would Love if they ported 360 Cave shooting collection to the switch... that would be an expensive instant buy for
Me. I’ve almost pulled the trigger on a modded 360 just to play these games.

Really don’t understand how there can be too much of a good thing? If I lacked adequate knowledge of the genre I certainly would withhold From making uneducated comments.

There are literally hundreds of shooting titles which would be welcome on the platform but will be unlikely to see a release, so every one which does get a release is a real treat. It’s not as if it robs us of releases in other genres.

@Darlinfan Thanks for making it easy to ignore you.

Deathsmiles on the 360 was great, definitely want this collection on Switch!

Looking forward to this. I love shoot em ups. Great that this is coming to the Switch as well. Only ever heard of it , never played it.

A damn fine shump by default even if it’s not the pinnacle of Caves work.

This is beyond epic. Can’t wait till December- but it’s so far away! Will be worth it though. Deathsmiles is my favorite CAVE series.

Shmup fans interested in Cave games should try and support this if possible. Good enough sales could lead to more Cave series like Dodonpachi and Mushihimesama.

A shmup forum, in their most recent annual poll, named Deathsmiles Mega Black Label the 23rd best shmup of all-time.

Unless you're averse to shmups or bullet hells, that's enough for me to want to get it.

That's neat, the sequel never made it to European shores on 360 so colour me interested.

@LEGEND_MARIOID It's definitely a great game, with a very fun aesthetic (minus the weird loli art) and great music, to boot. It's also one of the more forgiving bullet hell shooters from Cave's library, so it's nice to "relax" to, heh.

NINJA APPROVED

@Northwind I guess that depends on how much you like shooters, Put them against say a platforming genre and they aren't over represented at all, in fact that cannot ever even be a thing. historically there has always been one console in every generation that becomes the adopted home of shooters and until the switch this was lacking in the current systems. The PS4 had some but nowhere near the amount previously seen, so the fact that there is now a go to shooter system is once again fantastic.

@Northwind Its called the shmup machine for a reason

I'm very glad shmups are finally making their comback!

So... can I please have this now??

Looks crazy but interesting; I may try it depending on the price.

For some reason shmups always entice me even though they aren't one of the game genres I play a lot or am even slightly good at.

Was excited to buy anyway, but English support has made me so extra happy

Played these on 360, think I’ll revisit them on Switch.

Another quality shmup for the switch. Yeah, I will take this one. I actually haven't played it, but it was popular with my gaming peers/friends

Deathsmiles is my favorite Cave shmup. These games are freaking epic. Looking forward to this collection.

Love DS1 on the 360, so probavly will buy it, if price ok... to make my switch even more a shmup walhalla...Deathsmiles is quite different from most of cave's work (different tone, different viewpoint),

weird trailer though.. what did they mean by 'box printing'

@EmirParkreiner that would require some new shmups... although i love having this switch collection now with me all the time, I am craving for something new from one of the cave masters too... (although there are a few new things like blackbird which are interesting)..

And I want gradius V dammit

where can I preorder it?

@Rambler @Magician
I know I have Guwange on the 360 which I’m pretty sure is BC with the One and series X.
Dangun Fevrun is on my wishlist but haven’t purchased yet cause still persisting at $35! Lol

Great shmup, but I just am not into the weird loli imagery.

I'll be on the Japanese Eshop buying this the day it's released. That's if it doesn't get a western release. I find that unlikely though as Mushihimesama arrived west the same day as Japan.

@romanista
The developer of Rolling Gunner formerly worked for Cave. Have you tried it? It's really good.

Also, while not Cave related, i think Radirgy Swag is great and i have high hopes for Illvelo Swamp, from RS34 the team that is the successor to classic japanese arcade shmup developer Milestone (which in turn involved former Compile staff).

Half of this comment section was out to lunch when Live Wire announced their Cave ports.

@EmirParkreiner Thank for the tips, i have rolling gunner ojn my wish list form ever hoping it will drop, but maybe i should just buy it then.. and Radirgy i''ll check out

Certainly good news, especially after realizing that some other titles I once heard announced on Switch and have been waiting for since (like Baroque or Earth Defense Force 2) are actually long released... and stuck in Japan to this day, even despite having had official translations in the past.

It's a little pricier than I expected it to be but it shall be mine.

Great news, but I wish I knew this before I bought the Japanese import that shipped 2 days ago. Great timing 🙄

@Nermannn I sold my Jap 360 and 4 Cave shmups and it paid for my PS5 and my XBOXSX. Glad these are coming out on Switch now though as they just weren't getting played on my Jap 360 with just those 4 games (the collection would be ace)

Another killer Cave danmaku. We are the blessed ones.

That's a lot of updates. Day one for me!

If there was a limitedrungames release, I'd buy it. I guess I'd settle for the English/Japanese release on Playasia.

@masterLEON
About DeathSmiles II, i wouldn't say polygon graphics are inherently bad for shmups, but Cave was not very experienced with polygons when they made DS2.
I mean, Ikaruga, Border Down and Under Defeat look great... and Cave not even being able to match the quality of Dreamcast shmup polygon shmup graphics made DS2's look on the 360 even more disappointing.

I love shmups but bullet hell games have always been somewhat unplayable and a bit seizure inducing to me. It's more to do with the tiny hit boxes on oversized sprites than the overwhelming lught shows. Much prefer the more wave based games. Just my opinion, poor eyesight doesn't help but wish there were more wave based games, most seem to go for the bullet hell approach these days.

@tadams587 there is.

I guess I've been living in a cave because I don't know who Cave is. Probably because I'm horrible at these types of games.

@EmirParkreiner You'd think it would be weird that CAVE couldn't mesh the 3D polygons with the 2D gameplay (aside from DS2X, I'm struggling to think of any other polygon-shmup they could have made). Especially since other companies have had titles in 3D long before. I'm thinking that they didn't have 'that' type of 3D staff on hand (since they've had prerendered sprites for almost as long as they've been CAVE). But yeah, it's ultimately them putting the same models from DS1 into the game, like pre-prerendered, that's most likely the most unappealing part of the game. Also slowdowns (intentional or not) plus 3D presentation doesn't help, either.

@UglyCasanova If you consider Nintendo as the Mario platforming game company and Capcom as a the Street Fighter game company, then CAVE is the bullet hell shmup company. That's oversimplifying the first two, but CAVE literally only does bullet hell shmups. Of course, they're not the only ones who do this type of game, but they have a knack for making the most polished ones in the market. So they earned that notoriety above other companies.

Have this on Steam. Love it very much. I will double dip this on Switch day 1.

Ah nice, now radiant silvergun and the xbox can go to the attic..
Had DS1 for the xbox, (and iphone) wonder how 2 is.. and which screenmodes they have chosen...