Icarus wrote:And the best thing is, if Death Smiles is well received, it opens the door for more horis using the same style of gameplay and stage design. Which can only be a good thing, as it gives Cave an extra option when coming up with new concepts and franchises.
I certainly agree with you here, and it does seem like Cave has made at least some effort to reduce the "quarter muncher factor" from the game - all I hope is that they manage to go all the way with it, rather than just hinting at progress at certain spots and then sending you back to 1990 in others.
Tricks like this don't really surprise me in any way. Horis of all ages have played this kind of "push into trap section" trick, why should Death Smiles be any different.
Well, you asked for an example, and there it is. As for "why should it be any different," I think you sort of answered your own question earlier, as a less intimidating, or at least more accommodating (i.e. less cheap) design works to draw in more players and allow for more frequent (and hopefully profitable) forays into the genre as a whole for developers. As I already said, I'd certainly like to see this happen, and hope this game manages to do it.
Same goes for the bottleneck areas I've seen in one of the other stage videos.
I imagine you mean the part with all the snaky plant things, spewing bullets like the snaky fish things in Mushi's stage 4...nasty part indeed, but I seem to recall the game giving out lots of warning arrows there, so I'm not nearly as concerned about it, since at least you're not being completely sniped from a weak side and having your credit outright stolen.
Trust me, I love Border Down and all, but despite the seemingly vertish gameplay style, there are a lot of very traditional hori elements in it. Trap sections, memoriser parts and other assorted treats are just a sample.
Be that as it may, I still wonder why they had to go and (apparently) mess with a formula that, as far as I'm concerned, worked fine as it was - if nothing else, it won over the likes of me, and I don't doubt that it at least had the potential to do the same for other wary players, sort of along the lines of what Death Smiles has the potential to do.
(if u don't have 2 cab's or an Egret 
)
Also the one-eyed bats are all over the place in Cotton. 
