Pink Sweets, first impressions

Nullsleep · Post by **Nullsleep** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:47 pm

NTSC-J wrote:if you don't fire, a ball of power builds on the front of your ship and once released, is essentially like Ibara's bomb

ooh! Recca-ish!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:55 pm

Yea they do. I went on Sunday in the afternoon, so I expected long lines but only a few guys were interested in the game..

Maybe the PCB will drop to an affordable price by the Fall.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:32 am

I liked the musis playing over the Video allot and I like the absorbtion idea so I,m looking forward to playing this.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:28 am

is there a limit on how long you can use the absorbing ball, otherwise wouldn't it become too easy?

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:04 am

No, there's no limit to how many times, but there is a delay after you fire it off and when you can start absorbing again.

I spent more time with the game today and started to get used to how it plays. It's really a damn hard game, I didn't see anyone get very far in it, the furthest was the fourth boss. Most scores were around 2 mil, altho the top score of the day was 7+, which could have been a game clear I guess.

The option button just chooses what formation you want your side pods to be at: to the left and right, top and bottom, rotating, etc. A lot like Varth actually.

The patterns get dirty in that projectile shots come at you at the same time as the colored shots that you can absorb, meaning that if you want to hold your fire and absorb, you'll still have to dodge something. Gets kind of hectic trying to balance when to eat shots and when to fire.

The bosses are admittedly pretty boring looking. I was also too quick to praise the upgraded backgrounds...it seems that the only animations in the BG are the trees in the first level, the rest is your standard flat Cave prerendered plane :/

I like the game, but at the moment feel a tad disappointed. This is not the Cave cute-em-up that we were hoping for. The bullet absorbing is pretty different for a Cave game and I like that, there's nothing to chain here. I dunno, too early to call it the best game of all time, but it's ok. I like Ibara more tho and this isn't the sequel that hardcore fans of Ibara might have expected.

DOJ kind of spoiled me on how to evolve a series I guess. Both Sweets and Galuda II don't feel as polished of a sequel as DOJ.

bpe · Post by **bpe** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:42 pm

~is there a limit on how long you can use the absorbing ball~

Don't think so, I've seen people play a stage or two and not shoot at all. They just hold the B button all the time to charge that thing, and then press A to eat bullets. Rinse, repeat. Even if this guy was just screwing around, I must say the game looks a bit boring. Can't ever be bothered to keep watching in the way a good Ketsui or DDP-DOJ run still grabs your attention. Maybe it's just me, or a lack of understanding (ie strategy insights to realize the awesomeness of what they're doing). (Disclaimer: didn't dig Ibara much either).

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu May 04, 2006 3:32 pm

bpe wrote:I've seen people play a stage or two and not shoot at all. They just hold the B button all the time to charge that thing, and then press A to eat bullets. Rinse, repeat. Even if this guy was just screwing around, I must say the game looks a bit boring.

That would seriously suck if the only way to get high scores was to not shoot at all during the game (i.e. Vasara).

bpe wrote: Can't ever be bothered to keep watching in the way a good Ketsui or DDP-DOJ run still grabs your attention. Maybe it's just me, or a lack of understanding (ie strategy insights to realize the awesomeness of what they're doing). (Disclaimer: didn't dig Ibara much either).

I have gained such an appreciation for Ibara, I am just in awe of the stuff Archer does in that superplay. Unbelievable.

bpe · Post by **bpe** » Fri May 05, 2006 1:24 pm

Am I right that holding B makes the options fire, so you still have a little bit of fire power, at the cost of charging up slower ? Or was that just a fluke impression.

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Fri May 05, 2006 2:21 pm

I guess that's possible, haven't tried it myself. I do know that you don't hold the B button to charge your shot, it does it automatically when you're not firing. If you grab bullets with it it'll grow even faster.

I agree tho, it's pretty damn boring. Someone needs to master it already so we can see how its truly played. Like Dave K. said, watching a master run makes ones appreciation for a game go way up.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Fri May 05, 2006 6:30 pm

Except ESP Ra.De... now I just hate that game thanks to TAC.

Macaw · Post by **Macaw** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:12 pm

Valgar wrote:Except ESP Ra.De... now I just hate that game thanks to TAC.

Watching DoDonPachi superplays similarly piss me off.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Sat May 06, 2006 3:16 am

Macaw wrote:
Valgar wrote:Except ESP Ra.De... now I just hate that game thanks to TAC.
Watching DoDonPachi superplays similarly piss me off.

I think Valgar is refering to the incredibly boring boss milking you have to do to score high in ESPRaDe. DoDonPachi doesn't have any of that. The only thing that pisses me off about DDP superplays, are all the cheap mame slowdown recordings (on Marp and everywhere else)...is so obvious compared to the gamest videos.

Dragon God · Post by **Dragon God** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:40 pm

First off... my apologies for bumping this "dead" topic back onto the 1st page, but I'm shocked that no credits have been posted yet. Of course, I mean development credits. More importantly, who did the soundtrack this time ? Does anyone know yet ????

Hopefully Cave will be printing an ESPGaluda II soundtrack soon.... maybe they'll pair it up with Pink Sweets as they once did with E.S.P. Ra De and Dodonpachi. *wishful thinking*

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:54 pm

Dragon God wrote:First off... my apologies for bumping this "dead" topic back onto the 1st page, but I'm shocked that no credits have been posted yet. Of course, I mean development credits. More importantly, who did the soundtrack this time ? Does anyone know yet ????

There's a 2-page interview with the Pink Sweets sound team (7 people strong) in the current Arcadia mag. The names, I don't recognize them:

MICHI"PAD-A"
N.Sightow
Daisuke Matsumoto
KIZIKURA
MASAKING
Rieko Kakinuma
Naito

ill6 · Post by **ill6** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:27 am

It seems that this is the least discussed (least desired?) cave release for quite some time!

Arznei · Post by **Arznei** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:35 am

ill6 wrote:It seems that this is the least discussed (least desired?) cave release for quite some time!

I heard this is CAVE's last shooter since they're going to make some Mahjong games in the future.

I haven't played Ibara so I really cannot comment on it's sequel, though.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:11 am

That is only speculation based on the fact that there was no mention of their next game in their Fall investors report. Doesn't mean anything really... just not that one will be out for in the immediate future. Ikeda is apparently still employed by Cave, and I just don't see him making a Mahjong game.

Arznei · Post by **Arznei** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:32 am

How about a mahjong shooting game? THAT would be interesting.

Mahjong doesn't really take with me. There is something like 800 Mahjong games for GBA, along with date simulators, pet simulators, and titles from movies like Finding Nemo that it makes the GBA romset look terrible.

Sorry cave, as much as I like your games, I'm not going to like mahjong just because you're going to make a mahjong game.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:17 pm

You two should, like, hang out more. You look good together. Maybe I'll get myself one of the other avatars and join you.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:41 pm

he he

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:09 pm

ill6 wrote:It seems that this is the least discussed (least desired?) cave release for quite some time!

Yeah, I thought one of the vids looked pretty nice as well. Got a bit of a dangun feveron vibe from it.

Hopefully when more info comes out it'll spark a bit more interest.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:55 pm

oxtsu wrote:Daisuke Matsumoto

Sound effects for Ibara, Mushihimesama

I don't recognize the others, either. :(

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:14 pm

incog -- Cool. The last two are female vocalists.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:43 am

icycalm wrote:You two should, like, hang out more. You look good together. Maybe I'll get myself one of the other avatars and join you.

I've had mine for a while.

Arznei · Post by **Arznei** » Sat May 13, 2006 5:03 am

icycalm wrote:You two should, like, hang out more. You look good together. Maybe I'll get myself one of the other avatars and join you.

I don't know, that might make things pretty confusing to read.

My original intention was to make a DOJ avatar/signature set, but there isn't much in the art department there.

Post by **system11** » Sat May 13, 2006 2:22 pm

ill6 wrote:It seems that this is the least discussed (least desired?) cave release for quite some time!

I actually really want this one to get a port. I think there's more people however who want another DDP style Cave game.

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:25 pm

oxtsu wrote:incog -- Cool. The last two are female vocalists.

I should correct myself, here are what the composers worked on in Pink Sweets:

MICHI"PAD-A" -> Stage 3, 5
N.Sightow -> Stage 7
Daisuke Matsumoto -> Stage 2, 4, Character Select
KIZIKURA -> Boss themes
MASAKING -> Stage 1
Rieko Kakinuma -> Stage 1
Natsuko Naito -> Stage 6, unused track "IBALOVE" (vocals and composer)

They don't talk much about their previous works.

The composers say they were originally going to do a Eurobeat style soundtrack, but after seeing the preliminary arts they switched to girly/cute pop style. They were surprised from the final game because it looked more dark than they thought it would be, kind of going against the pop style.

Stage 3 and 5 took the most time to compose, the most complex tracks of all of them.

They talk more about the different tracks, but I'll leave to someone else for a complete translation.

The unused track "IBALOVE" is printed onto a CD (3 copies total) and signed by all composers, to be given away to winners of the monthly "Arcadia Present."

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:59 am

http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/pinksw ... index.html

New promo vid up. Cave sells.

Rastan78 · Post by **Rastan78** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:02 am

It looks like Cave is starting to figure out what beer companies have known for years. If you throw a little soft core porn into your advertising, people will buy just about anything.

I was expecting the girls to go down on each other at any second.

Edit - oxtsu, was there any info about the other staff. I'm assuming they've still got Yagawa programming and Wakabayashi as the designer?

roker · Post by **roker** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:03 am

wow

the music is horrid

I hope this doesn't ruin the "series"

I know you can't really consider a series just yet, but I enjoyed the first one a whole lot (especially the black label version)

shmups.system11.org

Pink Sweets, first impressions

Re: Pink Sweets, first impressions