Edge: If there's a defining feature of Cave's many shoot 'em ups – beyond the holy triumvirate of complex scoring system, tiny player craft hitbox and millions of bullets on screen at any one time – it's colour, blossoming fireworks of lilac and lavender. While the image of the genre may be of spaceships and military/industrial landscapes, Cave's releases frequently cover more fantastical grounds.
Deathsmiles, for example, presents a Halloween theme and Gothic Lolita cast. Only the second ever horizontally-scrolling shooter to have been developed by the company, it nevertheless contains elements familiar to fans of its back catalogue. It also shares similarities with a style of shooter that's long fallen out of fashion: with multidirectional shots, the game turns into a cross between DoDonPachi and Capcom's classic Forgotten Worlds.
"The Germany-based video game publisher Strictly Limited Games and the Japan-based game developer/publisher City Connection, are today very happy and excited to announce that Cave's classic arcade shmup "Deathsmiles I- II" is getting a Limited and Collector’s Edition to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch via the Strictly Limited Games Shop." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
I don't care for the series but as a collector of Limited Edition sets, I love that arrangement.
Shooting hordes of enemy forces while weaving through clouds of projectiles is as fun as it's always been. Very few consoles have a library of shmups as impressive as Xbox 360's so let's take a look at the 10 best shooters for Microsoft's sophomore console.
COG writes - A few may be turned off by its art style but Deathsmiles is every bullet hell fan's dream of a game.
