Death Smiles: Countdown to North America Invasion

[njiska]

Why the fuck 99 out of 100 said "revierws" keep bringing up fuckin' overrated Ikaruga in every single piece of writing they do?
Damn, that's beyond annoying. Scheisse!

I'd actually like to give them credit for not over-suckling at Ikaruga's teat. Only briefly mentioning in the closing comments and once as an example of SHMUPs that have been released on XBLA. Considering that's a rather small list and Ikaruga is a well known title I can't blame them. I am kind of annoyed they're still harping on the game being a full disc release, but i think we need to all realize that this is what lazy mainstream American gamers seem to want.

Overall i was impressed with the semi-competence of the review. For IGN it was way better than I expected, though it was kind of flat.

I couldn't agree more. It's the Citizen Kane of not being Citizen Kane.

+1

[MachineAres 1CC]

Why the fuck 99 out of 100 said "revierws" keep bringing up fuckin' overrated Ikaruga in every single piece of writing they do?
Damn, that's beyond annoying. Scheisse!

Because its the last shmup that got semi-popular in the US, because it got internet-popular in the early 2000s and people started to check it out and used it's difficulty as the standard of "fucking hard" and it became somewhat of the go-to game for difficulty when you wanted to make a joke or conversation about games being hard. Its just the only thing that most people can use as a frame of reference to Americans when you're talking about shmups.

[supergrafx77]

IGN are fuckers.

[sh00g]

Ikaruga, godfather of shooters.

[KindGrind]

What a simplistic and repetitive piece of writing.

I feel for those who haven't given up on IGN already.

[brentsg]

What a simplistic and repetitive piece of writing.

I feel for those who haven't given up on IGN already.

It's too bad there isn't a Big Chief tablet and fat pencil webpage theme. That review would have been badass like that.




For all ye foreigners: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chief_tablet

[NR777]

That review reads like they played it for two hours, credit fed through it each time and decided to call it a day. Add a little predictable Ikaruga worship on top of it and you've got an IGN review. Hmmm, unlike Ikaruga, Deathsmiles is actually enjoyable to play for score.

[roker]

Why the fuck 99 out of 100 said "revierws" keep bringing up fuckin' overrated Ikaruga in every single piece of writing they do?
Damn, that's beyond annoying. Scheisse!

Say what you will, but Ikaruga really showed a lot of gamers here in the US how serious this genre is. I know a lot of you are all on the "I was playing shmups before Ikaruga!" thing, but truth be told, a lot of people (including myself) weren't.

If it weren't for Ikaruga I might not have been turned on to the Raizing and Cave games I now consider vastly superior. Not to take anything away from Ikaruga. It opened my eyes but I can't get myself to ever play it seriously again. I tried briefly a few weeks ago and it was deathly boring, but it's still tops in terms of presentation.

[kid aphex]

ign is just writing for their audience; relax kids.

[Kollision]

Say what you will, but Ikaruga really showed a lot of gamers here in the US how serious this genre is. I know a lot of you are all on the "I was playing shmups before Ikaruga!" thing, but truth be told, a lot of people (including myself) weren't.

I agree, but it seems that everywhere you look, read or watch somebody is reviewing a random shmup and comparing it to Ikaruga, like OMG it's not as beautiful OMG it's not as polished OMG it's not up to Treasure standards so it sucks it stinks it isn't worth it etc etc usw
Sure Ikaruga was important (I think it's overrated though), but I've grown tired of this shit.

It's [DS] not fantastic enough to break out of that community the way something like Ikaruga can"

Only if you count worldwide access/release that is. WTF does Deathsmiles have to to with Ikaruga design and gameplaywise?
I never gave a shit about them, but I'm done even giving a chance to mainstream reviews, godammit.

[TaygetaVendetta]

That review reads like they played it for two hours, credit fed through it each time and decided to call it a day. Add a little predictable Ikaruga worship on top of it and you've got an IGN review.

I think thats being generous. It reads like the guy read the press release/looked at Aksys' website, watched a video or two on youtube and just did the bare minimum to suit the wordcount requirement for an IGN review. Anyone with Google and an hour or so could churn out a redundant, bland piece of writing like that without having played the game at all.

The "IT SHOULDA BEEN ON XBLA!!1" squealing from reviewers and the penut gallery isn't going to subside unfortunately. Infact it probably will come up more often/more bitch tears will be shed over the next retail SHMUP game as the quality and polish that goes into XBLA games continues to rise, some having enough content or style to rival retail games. I think Otomedius Excellent @ $60 without any LE bonuses is going to be torn asunder.

[Kyle]

Holy hell this game is fun. I was on a single credit up the Gorge and then I started eating it.

As much as I hate the notion of downloading games on Live, I do wish this was more available. I wouldn't mind if I could pay my $50 for the LE and Joe Blow could drop his $15 on XBLA. I need mah packaging.

Was that IGN review linked to the real deal? It was unusually short. I haven't seen an IGN review of that length since the PS1 era.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm getting the feeling almost no shmups are ever going to get 8s or above, unless they are on XBLA, and are priced around 10 bucks.

7.5....hell, they gave Castle Of Shikigami a 7.9. This is better than that game.

[ROBOTRON]

Dam, I've been looking at the vids of this....looks f*cking killer.

[Daigoro]

damn, 7.5? (i didnt bother clicking the link as i could care less)

brutal. and complete bullshit.

Dam, I've been looking at the vids of this....looks f*cking killer.

it is really a lot of fun.

[Jockel]

damn, 7.5? (i didnt bother clicking the link as i could care less)

There, you made me post it again.

[Elixir]

So which one of you is currently dominating the leaderboards? It has to be someone here.

[KisakiProject]

Whats with the Ikaruga hate?

Anyways. I'm nearly done getting all the apparent achievements excluding the 1ccs. (1ccs will probably be my last task) Any one figure out which secret ones they kept for the NA addition? Honestly I wish they had just released the game and put out the DLC. Everyone that is gonna buy this game would have gotten it...

Also 1.1 I personally prefer to regular. Being able to move by support character around adds such an nice layer of depth.

I kinda feel cheated the Black Label for MHSF and ESP2 felt more different than the orginal than MBL for DS.

Also the 7.5 was bs but honestly it could have been worse. They gave Senko No Ronde a 5.

[StarCreator]

Check the achievement thread in Strategy, I believe a couple of the secret achievements were posted there.

[xris]

I was playing MBL 1.1 w/ Sakura, I played A-2 on 2 as my 2nd stage, powered up at 1000 right after destroying the 2nd tombstone and it spit out a giant silver crown. Anybody else seen this?

[meancode]

Still waiting for Amazon. *shakes fist in air*

[StarCreator]

When did you preorder, and what shipping method did you choose? It's listed as in stock, so all preorders -should- have shipped already.

My order was placed on April 27 with two day shipping (Amazon Prime) and it shipped out yesterday. It should be here tomorrow.

[MommysBestGames]

Wow, on a whim after reading here that DS was out in the US and people were getting it at Gamestop I checked mine nearby. I thought for sure that boat had sailed already. I was in there just this past Tuesday to get Sin and Punishment 2, came home and read that DS was in Gamestop. So, this morning I called the local store and--low and behold--they had a copy! Actually they had 2, but the other one was reserved by a store employee.

I was surprised the game was 50 bucks (and not more) considering plenty of 360 games good and bad are 60 bucks, and I got a faceplate and the soundtrack disc! Pretty awesome all around (and now for some actual game playing tonight!)

[KindGrind]

Managed to get a copy. Great stuff.

Quick question: are arcade modes and 360 modes comparable "scoringwise"? Are they considered equivalent?

[CStarFlare]

I was playing MBL 1.1 w/ Sakura, I played A-2 on 2 as my 2nd stage, powered up at 1000 right after destroying the 2nd tombstone and it spit out a giant silver crown. Anybody else seen this?

As far as I can tell, there are three ways:

-Kill an enemy with the lock shot after your counter is above 500. (This probably only applies to certain enemies; I know the pigs in the port town do) I think this is only when you're not powered up?
-Attacking an enemy with only your option's shots after powering up with a full 1000 counter. If you're using the XBox controller, try shooting the opposite direction while holding the right analog stick towards the enemy.
-Canceling bullets when entering powerup at 1000 counter. The bullet canceling effect lasts a second, so if you kill an enemy quickly its suicide bullets will cancel into crowns, or if the enemy is still firing its new bullets will be converted.

Try this:
-Finish your first stage with a full 1000 counter.
-Choose the graveyard stage at Level 3 or 999 (for suicide bullets).
-Wait for the first two swarms of eyeballs to come on screen.
-Power up and kill everything as fast as possible with your shot.
-Silver crowns everywhere. Let them break into skulls.
-Face your character away and use your right stick to make your option only fire on the tombstone. Silver crowns everywhere.

[antron]

Managed to get a copy. Great stuff.

Quick question: are arcade modes and 360 modes comparable "scoringwise"? Are they considered equivalent?

I think you get more extends in 360, and you are not restricted in your choices of difficulty.

[Kiken]

After starting a really poor run I decided to just screw around, so I tested out the volcano stage boss glitch... and it still works in this version.

Managed to get a copy. Great stuff.

Quick question: are arcade modes and 360 modes comparable "scoringwise"? Are they considered equivalent?

If you're refering to the original arcade game (not MBL), 360 Mode is missing a lot of slowdown present in the original Arcade Mode. It's basically like playing with Wait Off.

[gct]

Managed to get a copy. Great stuff.

How so? EBgames didn't have it yesterday when I checked, and I was told it wouldn't be in today either due to the holiday.

Off-topic, IGN isn't entirely bad for mainstream game reviews, but they really haven't been relevant to shooters for a long time so I don't see why anyone here should get worked up about it anymore. The non-shooter players who would be influenced by such reviews probably don't really matter.

[schnoo]

two major questions:
How do I effectively use the familiars to get the suicide bullets? sakura seems to be naturally a great choice with two familiars there to absorb. These bullets are the only thing i dont like about this amazing game
very fun different feel.


Q2: How much in sales are Aksys/Cave losing with this NOT being at stores? I really had hoped with all the hype everyone would preorder. I got mines

Also I really had hoped this sexy loli game would be in stores like Hot Topic and other anime/goth stores. What is going on??
Does the ad/shelf space really cost that much?

[ROBOTRON]

F*ck.

I want to play this game and never bought an Xbox 360 due to that red ring bs. Something tells me by the time I get off my ass and get one its gonna be rare and cost a million dollars on ebay.

EDIT: I may have to take back my disparaging remarks I've made about Cave in the past...this sh*t looks hot.