Ketsui X and Daioujou Black Label X - Ports for Xbox 360

[howmuchkeefe]

why is everyone so against a NTSC-J 360? I have one and have only encountered one game I cared about US wise that has been locked... almost all US titles are region free.

Well.. it's possible that several people might already have a NTSC-U 360, but do not also own a NTSC-J 360

Thanks for mentioning the fact that most US titles aren't region locked. As someone who doesn't own a 360, this news makes me more likely to buy a NTSC-J 360 and not be nearly as bitter about it as I would have been otherwise

[Strider77]

Exactly how many of the same people who are anticipating God Of War 3 care about filtering, scanlines, proper frame rate, and identical specific effects to the original version in a genre they wouldn't even consider playing because it lacks testosterone and asks more of the player than near-aimlessly running around and pressing X

LOL..... ME, that's who. I can't wait for god of war 3, yet I also buy up cave ports and PCBs.

don't be hard on god of war.... it's a difficult game and takes some know how.... esp on hard. was a shock to me but I love those games.

[Trevor spencer]

getting an asian xbox 360 has crossed my mind a few time , they play JP games right

[Geezer]

Yeah they do and you won't need a stepdown like with a Japanese unit
I'll probably pick one up when Ketsui is released.

[iatneH]

What's all this talk about Shiki III? Does nobody know that it's also on Wii, which is a cheaper and quite possibly more reliable console and now has an import boot disc available?

Sorry for OT.

[dave4shmups]

What's all this talk about Shiki III? Does nobody know that it's also on Wii, which is a cheaper and quite possibly more reliable console and now has an import boot disc available?

Sorry for OT.

Good points, but the Freeloader has, AFIK, been nullified by Wii-updates-or didn't someone say that Nintendo even apologized to fans about this?

I still can't understand why, with the Wii beating the crap out of every other console in Japan, these shmups don't get Wii ports as well.

[ave]

Shiki III Wii has mono-sound. -.-"

[KBZ]

mono... d'oh!

[Strider77]

I would have guessed these would be put on the Wii also..... but this gen has been a bit more unpredictable this go around.

[Necronom]

What's all this talk about Shiki III? Does nobody know that it's also on Wii, which is a cheaper and quite possibly more reliable console and now has an import boot disc available?

Sorry for OT.

Good points, but the Freeloader has, AFIK, been nullified by Wii-updates-or didn't someone say that Nintendo even apologized to fans about this?

I still can't understand why, with the Wii beating the crap out of every other console in Japan, these shmups don't get Wii ports as well.

Because many people in the industry believe that the Wii, while boasting some imressive hardware sales, simply lacks the proper amount of hardcore players. There's basically no budget necessary to bring old PCE and MD/Genesis shmups to the Wii but disc based ports do cost money, need shelf space and proper advertisement.
All this will hopefully change when Wii-ware comes around although my guess is that it might be already too late for that.

[bcass]

The 50MB limit for WiiWare titles is going to be a serious hurdle, as is the limited storage space in the Wii itself. I know you can backup your downloaded games onto an SD card, but you can't play them off it, and the transfer speed is very slow.

[Necronom]

50 mb is not much but you can't compare this to the 150 (and more if you have a good reason...) on xbla because wii is purely sd. And yes, transfer speed is quite dissapointing.

[moozooh]

Shame on Cave i quess for allowing shit to enter the marketplace.

Shame on Cave for allowing shit to enter the marketplace.
Shame on Arika for disallowing an improper port to enter the marketplace.

As long as we have someone to blame, everything will be fine.

[Frederik]

Shiki III Wii has mono-sound. -.-"

I wouldn´t mind since my TV only has one speaker. It´s on the right. The other side is completely flat which makes it very easy for TATE, and since stereo is pointless if you have the sound come out of your TV while on its side it ironically makes sense. (Yeah, it´s a shit TV.)

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Because many people in the industry believe that the Wii, while boasting some imressive hardware sales, simply lacks the proper amount of hardcore players. There's basically no budget necessary to bring old PCE and MD/Genesis shmups to the Wii but disc based ports do cost money, need shelf space and proper advertisement.
All this will hopefully change when Wii-ware comes around although my guess is that it might be already too late for that.

It also helps that the 360 is quite a bit more powerful than the Wii, which means less effort is required to put games on the system.

[yyr]

It also helps that the 360 is quite a bit more powerful than the Wii, which means less effort is required to put games on the system.

Let's not forget that the 360's hi-def support means a reduced chance of super-ugly filtering. (I think the Wii may support low-res natively, but there's no guarantee that either the developer will use it or that the resolutions will be an exact match.)

The average shmup player does not exist.

I would possibly call myself an "average" shmup player, actually. I enjoy more "hardcore" genres and games than most *real* "average" players, but:

- I have almost zero exposure to the coin-ops, so I don't really mind imperfect ports of games like Mushi. The only Cave coin-op I've ever seen was Galuda (which got me started on Cave in the first place).
- I dislike the filtering in pretty much all games, such as the Mushi port, but I'll play them anyway.
- I like tate but don't always use it.
- I'm not particularly good at them. I reached the final boss in Galuda with one life left...once. Most of the time I'm killed off somewhere between the midpoint of Stage 4 and the boss of 5-1. I'm confounded by the Stage 4 patterns in Ikaruga (maybe a bad example). I haven't seen past the early goings of Stage 3 in DOJ, and I can't chain much of anything in what I HAVE seen, despite a few dozen tries. Mushi's easier chaining system is still too much for me. The Raiden Fighters coin-op I have access to always bends me over before the end of the first full mission. I don't recall ever 1cc-ing anything.
- Despite this, I very much enjoy playing all of them.
- I know that I could probably get a lot better at some of these games if I played regularly (same game several times a week), but I don't really have the desire to do that.
- I don't really have any interest in buying any PCBs (and the SG I'd need to play them) or a JP 360 yet, but I want to play Galuda II in the future. I'm not in any rush, but I will do what is necessary to play it.

Does that make me "average" in any way?

[pixelcorps]

Well thanks for clearing that bit up for me as i did not know it was not Cave that pulled the plug. Shame on Cave i quess for allowing shit to enter the marketplace.

this actually fries my brain.. I really think there's something missing regarding this situation.

lets take a look at the alleged situation.

cave either sells the license or contracts ARIKA to port a game.

ARIKA then refuse to release it?

I'm sorry but in the normal world of business and game development this is breach of contract, and ARIKA should have no say over what happens to it.

You don't pay out money for a 3rd party company to develop something and then let the licensee call the shots.

doesn't anyone else think this is utterly fucking bizarre?

[EOJ]

You don't pay out money for a 3rd party company to develop something and then let the licensee call the shots.

CAVE didn't pay Arika to do anything. Arika paid for the license to develop the port themselves, thus they had control over whether or not they do anything with that license. Arika decided to scrap the project. End of story.

[bcass]

I got a reply from 5pb today:

はじめまして。

私は『怒首領蜂大往生Ｘ』及び『ケツイＸ』のプロデューサーのさかりまさきです。

私たちは海外のシューティングゲームファンの存在を知っております。

当然、その方たちが簡単に購入できるような方法を現在検討しております。

それがリージョンフリーなのか、それとも海外版の発売なのか、

非常にデリケートな問題も含んでおり、すぐに結論を出すのは難しいのですが、

とても前向きに考えているのは確かです。

ですが、皆さんの今後の応援も必要不可欠です。

これからもマイクロソフト、海外パブリッシャー、海外メディアに皆さんの声を届け続けてください。

素晴らしいゲームを共にプレイする為に、ぜひご協力ください。

その応援を無駄にしないよう、完璧なゲームを開発することを約束します。

ありがとうございました。

Seems that they will indeed consider a region-free or an international release (juding from the rough translation using AltaVista). I'll get Fujix to give a better translation.

[EOJ]

That's a very promising response (it's from the producer, Masaki Sakari). He says he is aware of the foreign fans and is exploring options to help foreigners play the games, either making the discs region free or finding a US publisher. He cannot comment on anything conclusive at this time, however. He did not mention an XBLA download as an option, so it's pretty clear that's out of the question.

He said to please continue to send comments to Microsoft, western publishers, and western media.

He promises to make "perfect" ports.

[bcass]

Looks like just about the best response we could have hoped for. Direct from the producer too.

[Necronopticous]

Oh my God, I cannot take this suspense.

[pixelcorps]

That's a very promising response (it's from the producer, Masaki Sakari). He says he is aware of the foreign fans and is exploring options to help foreigners play the games, either making the discs region free or finding a US publisher. He cannot comment on anything conclusive at this time, however. He did not mention an XBLA download as an option, so it's pretty clear that's out of the question.

He said to please continue to send comments to Microsoft, western publishers, and western media.

He promises to make "perfect" ports.

well, again, for them it's much easier to change that byte than it is to negotiate with a publisher that may go mobile light force on us..

evangelising to the media is one thing, but unfortunately I don't think we'll be able to shift general opinion in a culture of dismissing all that is "easily completeable" or "old fashioned"

cynicism to our present gaming culture aside, its good that they have responded..

[sideshow]

Awesome response!

[undamned]

Looks like just about the best response we could have hoped for. Direct from the producer too.

Rock. Thank you, bcass, and please send Fujix great thanks from us shmuppers!
-ud

[Zebra Airforce]

Rock. Thank you, bcass, and please send Fujix great thanks from us shmuppers!
-ud

Yeah, thank you and your friend.

[GaijinPunch]

Best response: Yes, it'll be region free.
This isn't bad though, i you're into 360 ports.

[moozooh]

Hmm… You know, since this recent XBLA activity I've been thinking that X360 was a promising purchase shmup-wise, but now I am convinced and actually considering getting it some time in the future.

Does anyone have a comprehensive list of shmups released/upcoming on X360 (including XBLA) as of current moment?

[Zebra Airforce]

Right here. (Although I think the bolding is a little over-the-top.)

[bcass]

Here's Fujix's translation, which pretty much just reiterates what EOJ gaged:

Greeting.

I'm Masaki Sakari, producer of "Dodonpachi Daioujou X" and "Ketsui X".

We are aware of international shooter fans. Of course, we are looking at
ways to making it easier for you shooter fans to purchase them.

At the present moment, we can't tell we will release them without a
region restriction or make different versions for foreign markets
because the situation contains various delicate problems, although it is
certain that we consider it very positively.

On the other hand, your continuous help and support are necessary.

Please keep on carrying your voices to Microsoft, foreign publishers and
foreign media.

Let's work together to play these masterpieces together.

We guarantee to produce perfect works and meet your support.


Thank you very much.

Masaki Sakari