AKA TO BLUE (Red and Blue) out on iOS and Android. CAVE devs

[tzakiel]

Former CAVE devs have formed the company Tanoshimasu and released a shmup for iOS and Android. I got my copy, excited to try it out.

http://tanoshimasu.com/aka-to-blue/

[wasilewski]

I got this yesterday and it's really good. The pace of the game is more suited to the touchscreen, I always felt that Bug Princess 2, ESPGaluda etc, were a little too easy because of the speed you could drag your character to dodge the bullets.

[qmish]

it's your problem if you abuse "bug"

[Tokyo-J]

Got this and liking so far. I had one of my friends who tried it out. His complaint with the touch screen shooters is the ships move to fast. Otherwise he liked the graphics and gameplay. We just wish it was not auto shoot.

[geremy]

You can make the ship less responsive and turn off autofire in the settings.

[tzakiel]

I just suck at these games I guess because the fast movement has never helped me. If anything I feel like I get in more trouble hitting things from flicking fast. I can't beat any cave or cave like mobile game unfortunately.

[Enemy]

this seems like a really nice game and as its written for mobile devices they seem to have ironed out some of the arcade to mobile problems, love the 3d backgrounds that are basically iso 2d. why oh why cant they release this for the pc or consoles as i would pay again just to use a damn joystick!

[kuze]

There's gotta be a way to map a joystick to touch input on android, so you could play this with a controller.

Pretty good game so far, but using the touch screen for movement doesn't work very well IMO.

[Necronom]

Awesome game, love the aggressive bomb mechanics.
Don't have any problems with touch controls...in most situations it's better to just slightly tilt your thumb and avoid twitchy movement.
I'm not the best danmaku player but stage 4 is brutal...will take me a while

[drunkninja24]

My only real issue control-wise is that I tend to get my finger in spots where it obscures the screen on my phone (galaxy s7) which causes issues, especially later on in some patterns when you get bullets coming up from behind.

The controls themselves feel pretty spot-on to me, least much as this control style can. I would love to eventually see some kind of a port or even an update to the mobile versions that allow for traditional pad/stick controls.

[kid aphex]

It's a well-made game.
I love touch controls for STG but yeah... thumbs always in the way.
It's a huge downside to the control method.

[ryu]

Just got a new smartphone and thought this would make for an nice experiment to figure out if its capable of playing games.

Last time I read about this game people complained about a missing western release, so I was surprised to find this on the local app store. Is that a translation or is the game in japanese?

[Eisenhans]

Is that a translation or is the game in japanese?

Menu texts, options etc have been translated, the in-game story voice overs are japanese.

[ryu]

Is that a translation or is the game in japanese?

Menu texts, options etc have been translated, the in-game story voice overs are japanese.

Thanks for letting me know!
Then let's see what happens when I purchase the game from the japanese store. I'm not familiar with this ecosystem at all...

[Necronom]

Still trying to get past the very last boss on stage 5...
Did anyone complete all 5 stages? Is there are second/harder loop?

[ReSe2k]

Downloaded it today and played a bit. Looks really cool from what I've seen so far. The Bullet patterns a surprisingly difficult for a mobile shmup i think. I'm just really not used to touch controls.

Do you guys use your Finger or Thumb to control your ship?

[Necronom]

Thumb, slightly under the ship. When bullets come from behind I lift my thumb and put it on or to the side of the ship.

[Kyle]

Can someone who has purchased this please confirm it works without a data connection? Toggle to airplane mode and start it please.

[geremy]

Works fine in airplane mode here.

[Eisenhans]

Can someone who has purchased this please confirm it works without a data connection? Toggle to airplane mode and start it please.

Works offline on Android.

[Kyle]

Thanks! I purchased it. It is running well on my Nexus 6P since there was some discusssion on specs.

[nash87]

Still trying to get past the very last boss on stage 5...
Did anyone complete all 5 stages? Is there are second/harder loop?

Upon beating stage 5 you get an ending story and credits. Not sure if each character has their own ending as I can only beat it with Red, cannot get a hang of Blue and her bomb. After the credits screen resolves it turns autobomb off. Didn't notice anything else. I had to buy a stylus to beat the game with Red, fixed all issues I had with the touch controls.

[egg_sanwich]

Still trying to get past the very last boss on stage 5...
Did anyone complete all 5 stages? Is there are second/harder loop?

Upon beating stage 5 you get an ending story and credits. Not sure if each character has their own ending as I can only beat it with Red, cannot get a hang of Blue and her bomb. After the credits screen resolves it turns autobomb off. Didn't notice anything else. I had to buy a stylus to beat the game with Red, fixed all issues I had with the touch controls.

Great idea on the stylus. I'm struggling with the touch controls - my fat finger blocks the view and I get inconsistent "sticking". A stylus sounds like a good solution.

[ProcoTaito]

Yeah I bought this game and can confirm it is super bad ass! One of my friends who loves shmups but doesn't really like mobile games even thought it was pretty damn awesome!

Well worth the asking price if your phone can handle it. I'm playing it on an LG Stylo 3 and it runs great for me. Amazing game!

[100% PERFECT☆]

Good to see some other peeps playing this game. Still trying to get past the final level personally but I love it so far. Can't say I'm the greatest at getting a high score but so far trying to is fun.

[EmperorIng]

Haven't played in a week or so, but it is a very high-quality shmup for mobile. I have problems with the screen size of my phone, and what feels like excessive heat on my finger tip, but that's not a knock against the game. It feels pretty well-suited to mobile, with the autobombs, destructible bullets, and the way you can zip around attacks thanks to your finger.

[Goompaolo9500]

Similar to Dodonpachi Maximum.

[Udderdude]

Seems a lot like a mobile version of SDOJ to me. Which isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, I don't have a single device that can play it, and trying to run it in an Android virtual environment doesn't work, either. Let's hope this gets a release on Steam or something.

[Goompaolo9500]

Seems a lot like a mobile version of SDOJ to me. Which isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, I don't have a single device that can play it, and trying to run it in an Android virtual environment doesn't work, either. Let's hope this gets a release on Steam or something.

SDOJ has Hyper System. Aka To Blue has Charge Bombs..

[kuze]

I had to buy a stylus to beat the game with Red, fixed all issues I had with the touch controls.

Genius, this is exactly what I need to better enjoy this game.

It's hard having fat fingers!