Deathsmiles IIX is way better than people give it credit for

[Special World]

I think it may be one of the most unfairly maligned games I've ever played. I booted it up tonight since I hadn't played it in a while, and I was just blown away by how much better it is than I remembered. Yeah, the graphics aren't great - Cave tried something new and they failed at it. But it does have an absurd amount of bullets, a great scoring system with unreal score candy, and experiments while maintaining the core appeal of Cave's games. The suicide bullets that enemies spew are a great idea, and (unlike Guwange or Espgaluda 2 which sort of muck up the bullet patterns) add to the chaos in a meaningful and fun way.

Maybe there's something about the game that makes it unappealing for pro players (I'm sure the easy difficulty doesn't help), but imo the game plays like a dream. If you've never played it because it looks like butts, definitely give it a shot.

[AntiFritz]

I'd love to play it, but unfortunately cave don't seem to want us pal folks money

[iconoclast]

As long as we're talking about the arcade version and not the console/arrange modes, then yes it is. It certainly has better mechanics and a better scoring system than the original game, but it's nowhere near as balanced or polished. I'd love to see a DS3 that uses an evolved version of DS2's mechanics with the same level of care, time, and effort that went into DS1. It would definitely be the best hori ever, at the very least.

And I'm sure the sloppy, bare-bones console port didn't do it any favors.


Some elite players (specifically SIN and 太菱) seem to like DS2 a lot btw.

[Special World]

I'll have to try out the original game. I've played it a few times but didn't like it as much as IIX. I remember hearing it was really badly ported, so I was kinda turned off from playing it.

[AntiFritz]

Did they ever add the missing arcade mode enemy warning signs in after the game was released? Like in a patch or something?

[iconoclast]

Port accuracy varies depending on which character you use. Lei is missing a ton of slowdown, but the game is fine if you use Casper (I'm not sure about Windia or Supe). Either way, you can tell Cave threw the arcade version in at the last minute. It doesn't have any extra features (like HD graphics, a training mode, or downloadable replays) and it has a few annoying bugs (auto-rapid randomly stops working, for starters). It's a shame they didn't have enough time to do it right, but that's how it goes...

Did they ever add the missing arcade mode enemy warning signs in after the game was released? Like in a patch or something?

There was a patch, but I don't know what it fixed. It still doesn't have any warning signs, though (which isn't a big deal imo).

[ratikal]

I don't know much about the arcade mode by IIX mode is a ton of fun. It's so satisfying to get a bunch of suicide bullets following you and then releasing them for tons of points. The HD graphics look really nice too.

[CStarFlare]

There was a patch, but I don't know what it fixed. It still doesn't have any warning signs, though (which isn't a big deal imo).

IIRC the patch fixed a couple of patterns that were different from the arcade version, but removed some (accurate) slowdown in the process. There may have been some graphical fixes too?