Dodonpachi Blissful Death [$4.99] is a port of Cave’s 2002 arcade title Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou, and is a direct prequel to their previous iOS effort Dodonpachi Resurrection [$7.99/Lite] (which also happens to be my favorite of the Cave iOS shooters, FYI). Blissful Death is similar to its sequel at a basic level, but it lacks some of the complexity and strategy found in Resurrection. But, like Cave’s last release Bug Princess [$4.99/Lite], its simplicity is also its strong point for those who maybe aren’t hardcore bullet hell people or those who just like to blast the crap out of everything without much fuss. If you’re familiar with other Cave titles then you should feel right at home with Blissful Death. You have 2 different ships to choose from, each with a normal cannon and a laser weapon to switch between while playing. There are also 3 different Elemental Dolls to Read More

Bullet hell experts Cave have today announced their next forthcoming iOS shooter Dodonpachi Blissful Death. Known as Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou in Japan, it's the fourth game in the Donpachi series and was followed up with Dodonpachi Dai Fukkatsu several years later, which we know as [$7.99/Lite] here on the US App Store. There aren't any details just yet for Dodonpachi Blissful Death, but based on Cave's previous iOS releases I think it's pretty safe to assume a few things. It will likely include an arcade mode that stays faithful to the original release as well as a special Smartphone mode that has been retooled for touch screens and given some additional features. While most of Cave's iOS releases follow this formula, they bucked that trend with their last release [$4.99/Lite], which was more or less just a direct port of the arcade version. This wasn't exactly a bad thing, as Read More

Here's some unfortunate news. Eurogamer reports that Japanese developer CAVE is switching up its strategy following some disappointing earnings from the first half of their fiscal year, which for them starts on the first of June. As a result, they've downgraded their forecasts for the rest of the year, which runs until the end of May, and have reportedly put some of their current titles on hold to allocate more resources into "social games", according to the company's recently released earnings report summarized in English by Andriasang. Now, us iOS gamers associate CAVE with their awesome App Store shooters like [$4.99/Lite], [$7.99/Lite], and [$11.99/Lite]. I don't really like thinking about the developer of some of the most hardcore games around suddenly switching gears to the surging social/casual games space. However, CAVE has a separate division focused on their mobile titles and I would imagine they are reasonably pleased with the performance Read More

For more than a year now, CAVE has had a reputation of releasing high quality shooters on the App Store that featured hefty amounts of action, depth, and replay value. Their bullet hell shooters Espgaluda II [$11.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite] are two of the finest shooters around, and they proved they could translate their particular brand of manic gameplay to a more traditional action game with Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$6.99/Lite]. CAVE’s latest title, Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], furthers their reputation of offering top quality shmups and us yet another excellent shooter to add to our collection. Like the aforementioned CAVE shooters, Deathsmiles consists of a mode that mimics the arcade version of the game as well as an iPhone-specific mode with exclusive features. The arcade mode features 4 different playable characters and 8 total stages to play. The underlying gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward. Your character automatically fires, and a button in Read More

Just a couple of weeks ago, CAVE released a new trailer for their upcoming iOS version of manic horizontal shooter Deathsmiles, along with an apology for the game missing its intended Spring release window. It turns out that they didn’t miss it by much though, as CAVE has officially announced that Deathsmiles will be releasing next Thursday July 7th. In addition, just as they’ve done with their previous iOS releases Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite], Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], and Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$4.99/Lite], Deathsmiles will launch at a discounted price of $4.99 for the first 4 days before jumping up to its regular $8.99 price tag. Also like those games, the iOS version of Deathsmiles will feature an exclusive iPhone mode in addition to the regular arcade mode that features new gameplay elements and a brand new playable character. If having to wait until July 7th to see Deathsmiles being played on an Read More

Back in February we learned that CAVE was readying a port of Deathsmiles for the App Store, and just a couple of days later they released a teaser trailer for the game. The trailer pegged a Deathsmiles release for Spring 2011, but with Spring all but gone and no sign of the game on the App Store it’s pretty obvious that things are taking a bit longer than expected. CAVE announced on their Twitter that they will have more information regarding a release date soon, and have offered up a brand new trailer of Deathsmiles as a peace offering for the release running late. Like CAVE’s other iOS shmups, Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], Deathsmiles will come with an iPhone mode in addition to the original arcade mode. The iPhone mode will come with a brand new exclusive playable character named Princess Tiara, and will have its own new Read More

Last month, CAVE released Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$4.99/Lite] to the App Store. Like their previous offerings Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], Bug Panic offered frantic bullet-hell style gameplay, intense explosions, and attractive pixel graphics. But instead of their trademark vertically scrolling shooter, Bug Panic was a dual-stick affair. We really enjoyed the game in our review, noting that it was a satisfying and unique take on the typical dual-stick shooter formula. However, Bug Panic contained a high level of difficulty, and many players felt frustrated as they got stuck at the harder levels later in the game. CAVE has addressed this pretty effectively with the latest 1.0.1 update for Bug Panic that hit a few days ago. They have tweaked the difficulty across the board to make things more balanced, and added an auto-bomb mechanic to help prevent cheap deaths. If you have at least one explosion seed saved Read More

Back in September, developer CAVE announced they were creating an original iPhone game based on their Mushihimesama series titled Mushihimesama Bug Panic. The next month they released a video showing gameplay in Bug Panic, and we've been anxious to get our hands on the game ever since. Tonight, Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$3.99] went live in the US App Store. With CAVE's previous releases Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite] setting the bar rather high for iOS games, I was curious to see how Bug Panic would stack up considering it was out of their typical comfort zone of bullet hell shmups. I'm happy to report that Bug Panic meets the high expectations of a CAVE title, offering a fun and unique adventure that's perfectly suited to the platform. Mushihimesama Bug Panic would be considered a dual-stick shooter, but not exactly like the ones we've previously seen flood the App Store. Read More

A couple of weeks back we posted a new video for CAVE's newest iOS game called Mushihimesama Bug Panic. A departure from CAVE's typical offerings like the scrolling shooters Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite] and Epgaluda II [$8.99/Lite], Mushihimesama Bug Panic looks to be more of a dual-stick shooter but still contains the hectic onscreen action that the developer is known for. CAVE has just sent word that the release date for Mushihimesama Bug Panic will be Thursday November 18th. The game will launch at a discounted price of $3.99 for the first four days of release before returning to the regular price of $4.99. As with other CAVE releases, a lite version will be available sometime following the full version. Here is the latest trailer for the game, and I'm not going to lie, I love the Bug Panic theme song: Also in line with CAVE's other iOS titles, Mushihimesama Bug Panic Read More

A couple weeks ago Cave's second bullet hell shooter joined Espgaluda II [$8.99 / Free] on the App Store. Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99 / Free] is a very different beast, as we mentioned in our review, so it's really hard to say which is the better game. Both are definitely worth trying if you're even remotely curious in the bullet hell genre, as Cave did an absolutely fantastic job porting both games to the iPhone. Much like Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection only runs on 3rd generation hardware and newer. First and second generation iPod touch owners, as well as iPhone 3G and older iPhones won't be capable of running either the free or pair versions of the game. If you do own a compatible device, you should really give Dodonpachi Resurrection Lite a try. The controls work great, the scoring system (explained in our review) is incredible, and playing either of Cave's Read More

With the recent release of Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], developer Cave has set the gold standard for bullet hell shooters on iOS devices. One problem with that game, however, is that it just pushes too many pixels to be able to run well on older devices, leaving gamers with anything below a 3rd generation device out of the loop. For those people, developer Firi Games, who previously brought Flare Elite [99¢] to the App Store, have something in store for you. Their upcoming top-down shooter Phoenix features quite a bit of onscreen action of its own, and runs smoothly even on the original iPhone. Phoenix looks to do a couple things differently than your typical shmup as well. Instead of progressing through a series of predesigned levels, the entire game is one randomly generated level that scales the difficulty based on how well you are doing in the game. Tijmen Roberti of Firi Read More

Apple schaltet die Vorschau-Webseite zum iOS-4.2-Update frei, welches iPad, iPhone und iPod touch im November auf den gleichen Firmware-Zähler setzen wird. Eine bislang nicht angekündigte Mini-Neuerung betrifft die Suche nach Schlagwörtern innerhalb einer Webseite, die uns allen sicherlich sehr gelegen kommt. Ich stimme dem gestrigen Spiegel-Online-Artikel von Christian Stöcker zu: “Apples Ping braucht kein Mensch”. Das, was Cupertino als ‘Soziales Netzwerk’ bezeichnet ist zwar ein absolut legitimer Grund, mehr Nutzerdaten zu sammeln, um die Empfehlungsmaschine besser fein zu justieren, bietet mir ohne Facebook- oder Twitter-Anbindung jedoch wenig bis keinen Mehrwert. Apropos Anbindung. Gegenüber All Things Digital sagte Steve Jobs: “Facebook wanted ‘onerous terms that we could not agree to,’ related to connecting with Facebook friends on Ping.” Ominös: Im ersten Anmeldedurchgang bot mir ‘Ping’ an, ein ‘Facebook-Connect’-Profil zu integrieren. Wenige Stunden später stand diese Option nicht mehr zur Auswahl. ‘The New York Times‘ verfolgte die Angelegenheit. Nach dessen Recherchen soll Apple Read More

...@tomos2006: 普段はLite版は紹介しないんですが、人気なので一応。 : [新作アプリ][iPhone] 怒首領蜂大復活LITE － 大�... Read More