Dodonpachi coming to 360 (by way of Instant Brain)

[BPzeBanshee]

If anything Guwange bombed because of people bitching about the 16:9 problem and having eyesight problems with the menu plus being their more obscure title anyway.

I thought it bombed because nobody except this forum likes shmups.

Because, I mean, let's face it, that's basically how it is. This is not a popular genre.

This too. However I wouldn't be surprised if Radiant Silvergun got more sales considering that it actually GOT promotion unlike Guwange and the rest, in which case I'd find it a stretch to blame Guwange's poor sales purely from being a shmup.

As for proof that Guwange bombed, imagine a [citation needed] tag next to all mentions because I haven't seen any besides remembering some posts bcass or someone made which had links and/or "oh it obviously failed". I personally haven't seen much to prove it other than Good Game not covering it (which I thought strange at the time before I realised that contrary to their words for the Megadrive and Zork-likes they were pathetic CoD fans).

[burgerkingdiamond]

If they thought Guwange was worth bringing to XBLA then why the hell not DDP?

Because they had a poll and the fans voted for Guwange and CAVE trusted their fans.

I didn't know that they polled their fans. If I had participated Guwange would not have been my choice...

I bet that most of the CAVE fans out there bought Guwange though. The problem is that even if you tally up all the CAVE fans out there that number is still going to be miniscule compared to the general demographic. So they really never stood a chance, and I don't think Guwange was a good pick to try and expand outside of the hardcore circle.

Then again, I can't think of any CAVE games that would appeal to general gamers, but I would think that DDP would be a better choice.

[ZenErik]

I don't know anyone else (in person) that bought Guwange. Would have preferred a physical release, personally.

[MR_Soren]

I don't understand the frustration over a freebie arcade game being thrown into a visual novel.

It probably took very little effort to add and was just put there for something fun.

I can understand the frustration. How I see it is that shmup fans will buy Instant Brain for DoDonPachi and not the main game itself. For them buying a visual novel to get a poorly ported game is just ridiculous but they are going to do it anyways I'm sure.

No sense getting bothered about other people doing stupid things.

Maybe this is a poor quality port because CAVE wants the option to sell it separately someday?

[Kiken]

If they thought Guwange was worth bringing to XBLA then why the hell not DDP?

Because they had a poll and the fans voted for Guwange and CAVE trusted their fans.

I didn't know that they polled their fans. If I had participated Guwange would not have been my choice...

I bet that most of the CAVE fans out there bought Guwange though. The problem is that even if you tally up all the CAVE fans out there that number is still going to be miniscule compared to the general demographic. So they really never stood a chance, and I don't think Guwange was a good pick to try and expand outside of the hardcore circle.

Then again, I can't think of any CAVE games that would appeal to general gamers, but I would think that DDP would be a better choice.

Guwange made the most sense from a conversion stand point. Arika and Cave have stated many times in the past that in order to sell a home conversion of an arcade game, you have to add extra content. With Guwange, there was already Blue Label that they could include, and then the game's design allowed it to be modified for a novice-friendly twin-stick style Arrange Mode (and twin-stick games have done fairly well with the casual crowd). Also, Guwange jives with Cave's current fascination of using human avatars for player characters instead of machinery.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Personally I think there are too many shooters on the 360 for the casual shmup crowd, I think the last thing Cave want to do is dilute the market even more with a rerelease of an old game especially when DFK is coming out in the west. Most gamers dont know or care that a 2D shmup is a 10 year old game or made in 2011. Eg look at those who moaned about Raiden 4 as a rip off compared to RFA.

Imo if we want to see new shmups become successfull they would be better off limiting what they put out in the western market and just stick to Japanese regoin exclusive for the lower key games (regoin free ofc) and the western fans can import. Or maybe release a old shmup or two on other platforms like PC / steam

That doent mean to say I dont want more shmups on the 360 far from it, but I dont see them making money off it in the long term

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Cave is unsure if Instant Brain is going to be a success. They aren't really well known outside of the Shmups and releasing a visual novel is very risky. Cave knows this, that is why DoDonPachi will be included.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised by this. It could also be an attempt to get hardcore shmup fans interested a totally different genre (is Cave going to be focusing less on shmups in the future and hoping their fans will follow suit?).

Regardless, Dodonpachi on consoles is cool. The option to use Kinect, an unbelievably imprecise control scheme compared to a good ol' D-pad and digital buttons, is simply baffling though. The amount of precision needed in Dodonpachi or any other bullet hell shmup is huge, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did include something idiotic like an auto-dodge mechanic where the game will automatically steer you away from bullets or something (how else could you make the Kinect controls not suck?).

Well, I'm sure the port'll be appreciated all the same as long as the game itself hasn't been messed up for anyone playing it with a real controller...

[bcass]

I wouldn't be surprised if Radiant Silvergun got more sales considering that it actually GOT promotion unlike Guwange and the rest, in which case I'd find it a stretch to blame Guwange's poor sales purely from being a shmup.

Guwange DID get promoted. It was advertised on the front of the dash for a week (the week it came out).

As for proof that Guwange bombed, imagine a [citation needed] tag next to all mentions because I haven't seen any besides remembering some posts bcass or someone made which had links and/or "oh it obviously failed". I personally haven't seen much to prove it other than Good Game not covering it (which I thought strange at the time before I realised that contrary to their words for the Megadrive and Zork-likes they were pathetic CoD fans).

The only proof I've seen is that it appeared in the weekly major nelson top 10 for a week, then completely disappeared. Not a good indicator of good sales IMO. If it had sold well, I think we'd have seen Dangun by now.

[bcass]

If they thought Guwange was worth bringing to XBLA then why the hell not DDP?

Because they had a poll and the fans voted for Guwange and CAVE trusted their fans.

As has been mentioned millions of times now on this forum, across numerous threads, that poll was a Japanese only survey. Sure, a handful of us here voted on it, but on the whole it wasn't indicative of the international fanbase.

[ZengarZombolt]

Still sucks they won't release dangun on xbla even though its aparently been complete for a while...

Wait wait wait WHAT.
Really?

[BPzeBanshee]

I wouldn't be surprised if Radiant Silvergun got more sales considering that it actually GOT promotion unlike Guwange and the rest, in which case I'd find it a stretch to blame Guwange's poor sales purely from being a shmup.

Guwange DID get promoted. It was advertised on the front of the dash for a week (the week it came out).

Maybe in America or Japan or whereever the hell you live but not here, and I would've noticed it because I was up to see it get added to XBLA, so the promotion on the dashboard can'tve been worldwide. I said as much in the Guwange XBLA thread at the time, it just popped up in the games list obscurely like all the other miscellaneous XBLA titles. Radiant Silvergun on the other hand got a spot on the Dashboard even here.

As for proof that Guwange bombed, imagine a [citation needed] tag next to all mentions because I haven't seen any besides remembering some posts bcass or someone made which had links and/or "oh it obviously failed". I personally haven't seen much to prove it other than Good Game not covering it (which I thought strange at the time before I realised that contrary to their words for the Megadrive and Zork-likes they were pathetic CoD fans).

The only proof I've seen is that it appeared in the weekly major nelson top 10 for a week, then completely disappeared. Not a good indicator of good sales IMO. If it had sold well, I think we'd have seen Dangun by now.[/quote]
This makes sense. Since I mentioned it, how long did Radiant Silvergun last on "the weekly major nelson top 10"? If there's a distinct different one could definitely rule out arguments such as "oh it had poor sales because it was a shmup and shmups are niche".

[Casper<3]

I always figured Instant Brain was the from the 5pb swap.

5pb does some CAVE work. CAVE works some with 5pb.

Funny how a visual novel only company suddenly does some shmup ports and a shmup only company suddenly does a visual novel.

[Kiken]

I wouldn't be surprised if Radiant Silvergun got more sales considering that it actually GOT promotion unlike Guwange and the rest, in which case I'd find it a stretch to blame Guwange's poor sales purely from being a shmup.

Guwange DID get promoted. It was advertised on the front of the dash for a week (the week it came out).

Maybe in America or Japan or whereever the hell you live but not here, and I would've noticed it because I was up to see it get added to XBLA, so the promotion on the dashboard can'tve been worldwide. I said as much in the Guwange XBLA thread at the time, it just popped up in the games list obscurely like all the other miscellaneous XBLA titles. Radiant Silvergun on the other hand got a spot on the Dashboard even here.

Part of the problem here is due to how Microsoft handle promoting things on the dashboard. Region does have an effect, but a strong contributing factor seems to be Gamer Zone (what you select when creating your account: pro, underground, recreation, etc).

[Nick420]

I reckon the kinect controls will be implemented in such a way that your ship is controlled relative to your hand position. Like moving the crosshairs in Child of Eden. Which wouldn't be too bad I guess. As a novelty of course, lol couldn't imagine pulling off a stage 5 800 hit combo using kinect controls.
If they would just implement screen options on par with futari, this would be great news.

[Matskat]

There are no words to describe this nonsense.

I wholly agree.

Fans have been screaming for an XBLA DDP since well before Guwange.

Why the fuck Cave would include it's FLAGSHIP shooter in a VN - locked! - is beyond me.

If it's coded and ready for 360 WHY WHY WHY not just release it standalone?

It's an Instant no-Brain-er...

Cave is losing their shit.

Hopefully this DDP:DFK Deluxe UK edition is enough to satiate me for a while. Championing Cave games for outside Japan is exhausting. Every piece of news is both encouraging and infuriating at the same time.

Goddamn.

[RNGmaster]

I wholly agree.

Fans have been screaming for an XBLA DDP since well before Guwange.

Why the fuck Cave would include it's FLAGSHIP shooter in a VN - locked! - is beyond me.

If it's coded and ready for 360 WHY WHY WHY not just release it standalone?

It's an Instant no-Brain-er...

Cave is losing their shit.

Hopefully this DDP:DFK Deluxe UK edition is enough to satiate me for a while. Championing Cave games for outside Japan is exhausting. Every piece of news is both encouraging and infuriating at the same time.

Goddamn.

Here, have some.

I understand your frustration, but this doesn't rule out the possibility of a DDP port later on. I'd just think of this as a cute little extra - an omake - and not worry about it.

[bcass]

I wonder if it will have its own leaderboards? Uploadable/downloadable replays?

[kevenz]

Cave doing love story games?

Wasn't that genre popular back in the saturn and playstation days...... and maybe playstation 2.

People still want more of this crap? seriously, these "games" could be made in flash for free.

They released that horse racing game for Facebook..... they're also porting stuff to android and windows 7 phone..... what the heck.

Better start producing good stuff or they'll go bankrupt in a couple years...

[Estebang]

love story games

Better start producing good stuff or they'll go bankrupt in a couple years...

[Gus]

Visual novels like Instant Brain are hugely popular in the otaku community and cost relatively little to make.

[xbl0x180]

Count me in as one who'd love to see a Visual Novel game be ported over to this side, but it's best to go with already-established hits such as Kanon, Air, and Clannad. Pretty much one of the few instances when I'm not complaining about the "little girls doing cute things" theme prevalent in modern animus.

I'm probably gonna get this even if I don't get to play Dodonpachi

[Sumez]

Count me in as one who'd love to see a Visual Novel game be ported over to this side

Get 999 for the DS. There, I said it first.

[Bananamatic]

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rectal_pain/page2_em.htm

[Elixir]

They should just make it so you can play DDP from the start, but you need to play the VN parts after each level to power up your ship. It could be like the shooter version of Ar tonelico or something.

That's a pretty terrible idea, the scoreboards would be useless until you've still cleared the novel.

I platinumed AT3 but I don't really enjoy the RPG slash visual novel concept. Gust also have infamously bad battle systems. Same with Agarest, which was just horrible, pretty much the same goes for all of Idea Factory's stuff (Neptune, Spectral series, etc). Stick to visual novels or eroge or stick to RPGs, mixing them creates a very, very drawn out RPG.

[kevenz]

of course it cost little to make...... I could make one in Visual Basic 5, which I learned in school.....

I just need someone to draw all those underage japanese teen pic

[xbl0x180]

Count me in as one who'd love to see a Visual Novel game be ported over to this side

Get 999 for the DS. There, I said it first.

Is this a game about "little girls doing cute things"? There, I said it

[BulletMagnet]

Gust also have infamously bad battle systems.

The Mana Khemia series' battle system was pretty fun, I thought, as was that of Ar Tonelico II - III definitely dropped the ball in that area, though.

[NzzpNzzp]

That's a pretty terrible idea

I figure if we're going for Kinect DDP we may as well see how low we can go.

[Teufel_in_Blau]

Now we know how DDP will be played via Kinect.

/e
From Cave-STG: http://www.cave-stg.com/?p=1732

This picture says that you simply move your arm to move the ship, and shot fires automatically (like in the iOS games). To use laser, you extend your other arm (the one that wasn’t moving the ship) out in front of you. For a bomb, you raise your other arm (again, the one not controlling the ship) above your head.

[ptoing]

That looks like it would be a pain in the ass. Also how do you move? Moving your head and it tracks your nose or something?