SWITCH website is open and some event for it starts today

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:21 am

Click here for the SWITCH website.

I was just surfing Cave's website, trying to keep updated with this Switch game that caused quite some controversy here before, and I found out that SWITCH now has its own page on the website. From the looks of the videos, I notice elements from Ketsui (5 down to 1 item boxes) and Soukyugurentai...and also, it seems that there's also weapon edit and skill edit (correct me if I'm wrong), as well as...character customization?

This game is coming to Japanese cell phones under the NTTdocomo FOMA Mega Game service. Regarding the event, I'm guessing that it's just a regular one-stage playthrough from what I can try to understand with the Japanese I know so far.

P.S. two new characters.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:28 am

Looks like a doujin. That isn't a bad thing, but if it were coming on something we could actually play, I'd be more interested.

320x240 · Post by **320x240** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:47 am

I noticed that even the slowdown have slowdown now - that's progress.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 8:37 am

i wonder if the person who drew the loliz does porn

henry dark · Post by **henry dark** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:29 am

I know they're a company and as such need to make money but its hard not to feel a bit embarrassed for them

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 12:42 pm

Ed Oscuro wrote:i wonder if the person who drew the loliz does porn

You betcha!

Boy, those designs. All the usual stereotypes in Tron-like versions. Bunny ears, kitty ears...

SockPuppetHyren · Post by **SockPuppetHyren** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:15 pm

Looking at the small video they have at the bottom of the screen, it looks surprisingly devoid of bullets. That and the main shot appears slow. I'm probably won't be able to play this one, since being a CAVE game normally means it's unavailable unless you jump through ten burning hoops on a motorcycle; but this game seems...easier than normal?

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:20 pm

This actually looks a lot worse than the cellphone "ports" of their arcade shmups.

ZOM · Post by **ZOM** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:31 pm

SockPuppetHyren wrote:Looking at the small video they have at the bottom of the screen, it looks surprisingly devoid of bullets.

I'll call this "compensation for crappy controls". Does that even make sense?

Who wants to play danmaku STG on mobile phones anyway?

Gungriffon Geona · Post by **Gungriffon Geona** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:48 pm

terrible garbage

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:25 pm

IMHO, I honestly don't see why Cave couldn't just make this an arcade game and make profit out of that. Sure, it uses recycled elements from an older Cave game and an older Raizing game (alongside other elements as well), but if it were an arcade game, this would have probably had:

- The usual bullet hell seen in Cave games.
- Faster and more shots from the player.
- Lack of character customization.
- Sort of limited weapon and skill edit?

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:43 pm

Aru-san wrote:IMHO, I honestly don't see why Cave couldn't just make this an arcade game and make profit out of that. Sure, it uses recycled elements from an older Cave game and an older Raizing game (alongside other elements as well), but if it were an arcade game, this would have probably had:

- The usual bullet hell seen in Cave games.
- Faster and more shots from the player.
- Lack of character customization.
- Sort of limited weapon and skill edit?

Yeah, seems like a waste to me as well.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:23 pm

Aru-san wrote:IMHO, I honestly don't see why Cave couldn't just make this an arcade game and make profit out of that. Sure, it uses recycled elements from an older Cave game and an older Raizing game (alongside other elements as well), but if it were an arcade game, this would have probably had:

- The usual bullet hell seen in Cave games.
- Faster and more shots from the player.
- Lack of character customization.
- Sort of limited weapon and skill edit?

This game here is cleary tailored towards online play, with some weird "rescuing" system (adverse posted some more info at Cave-STG). And we haven´t seen much of it yet, but it doesn´t seem like this takes even nearly as much time and effort to produce as proper arcade shmup. Especially considering the resolution and the very ABA-Games looking backgrounds. And don´t forget you can make tons of money with cellphone games with relatively little production costs, unlike arcade PCBs.

I´m just taking a wild guess here, but I don´t think Ikeda has anything to do with it. I would think this is made by a completely different departement, so "turn this into a proper shmup" is a bit moot. I´m pretty sure this game here doesn´t take away any production resources for PCB games.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:28 pm

Looks cute and fun to me. I wish I could play it.

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 8:20 pm

Necronopticous wrote:Looks cute and fun to me. I wish I could play it.

Same here. I like the art style of the characters...and even the website describes the characters as 'cute'.

Now...I wonder if Kenta Cho has anything to do with this project. Probably not, but as someone mentioned before, the theme sort of screams of ABA Games' art style.

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:01 pm

ZOM wrote:Who wants to play danmaku STG on mobile phones anyway?

Not me, that's for sure.

What the hell is with all these titles on mobile phone? Jesus... make it a $10 download for PC or Wii VC instead. Playing any game on mobile phone (particularly a shooter) just sucks balls. Laggy, crap controls, shitty screen...

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:55 pm

elvis wrote:
ZOM wrote:Who wants to play danmaku STG on mobile phones anyway?
Not me, that's for sure.

What the hell is with all these titles on mobile phone? Jesus... make it a $10 download for PC or Wii VC instead. Playing any game on mobile phone (particularly a shooter) just sucks balls. Laggy, crap controls, shitty screen...

For being a shmup that's focused on online play, PC would HAVE probably been the way to go. It'd be Cave's first PC shmup!

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:32 pm

Aru-san wrote:
elvis wrote:
ZOM wrote:Who wants to play danmaku STG on mobile phones anyway?
Not me, that's for sure.

What the hell is with all these titles on mobile phone? Jesus... make it a $10 download for PC or Wii VC instead. Playing any game on mobile phone (particularly a shooter) just sucks balls. Laggy, crap controls, shitty screen...
For being a shmup that's focused on online play, PC would HAVE probably been the way to go. It'd be Cave's first PC shmup!

I disagree, they could have put it on 360 .. since their other shmups are ending up there anyway. :p

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:10 pm

what people seem to forget it cave is developing stuff for the japanese market, not western.....

loli's and cute little anime characters are big in japan....if one wants to make money they must cater to the given market

cell phones are HUGE in japan, and people like to do everything with them, including playing games

there is a lot of money to be made with downloadable cellphone games, and often they are pay for play type deals....

even if these games dont live up to caves arcade greatness, it helps subsidize the companies earnings so they can keep making all the great arcade games we love

would you rather they just made arcade games and barely got by as a company and possibly went out of business if the arcade scene takes a dive.....cuz in this day and age just one title not received well by the market could be a game developers undoing

that aside, i agree...this game looks kind of weak.....but when you copare it to the games we have on our cellphones in the west it starts to look a LOT better

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:32 pm

Udderdude wrote:
Aru-san wrote:
elvis wrote: Not me, that's for sure.

What the hell is with all these titles on mobile phone? Jesus... make it a $10 download for PC or Wii VC instead. Playing any game on mobile phone (particularly a shooter) just sucks balls. Laggy, crap controls, shitty screen...
For being a shmup that's focused on online play, PC would HAVE probably been the way to go. It'd be Cave's first PC shmup!
I disagree, they could have put it on 360 .. since their other shmups are ending up there anyway. :p

PC Port then... I mean, after that doujin Ketsui videos I would love to say "SCREW MAME" and have official Cave ports that don't get degraded in a console transition*. And they would be region free.

Plus well, *cough* we could all pirate them... *cough* (note: JOKE <<< remember that thing called 'joking'/'just kidding'? Not serious business, please)

*this is based on the complaints I've been reading about the DOJ port and Death Smiles.

edit: also based on the amount of PC doujin stgs.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:36 pm

Observer wrote:
Plus well, *cough* we could all pirate them... *cough* =P

i truly hope that is a joke....you want cave to release there stuff in a better medium for us in the west just so you can get it without paying for it?

nice

guess you arent a fan

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:39 pm

jonny5 wrote:
Observer wrote:
Plus well, *cough* we could all pirate them... *cough* =P
i truly hope that is a joke....you want cave to release there stuff in a better medium for us in the west just so you can get it without paying for it?

nice

guess you arent a fan

Indeed it was. 'course I would pay for it but I forgot to enforce the joking tone.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:43 pm

i figured as much......still......dont joke about cave....shitz serious!!

especially to those who drop $1000's on there games

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:57 pm

jonny5 wrote:i figured as much......still......dont joke about cave....shitz serious!!

especially to those who drop $1000's on there games

Yup. SERIOUS BUSINESS. I promise I won't joke again with that =P

On a 'broader' spectrum, if between Cave ports, PC doujin shooters, the Sega's STG project, perhaps an upcoming Gradius VI and the other devs (Triangle Service, Milestone, G.Rev, etc.) succeed with their games... We can only hope the genre will be alive and kicking with renewed strength. And that, obviously, is good news.

I've been thinking: perhaps SWITCH might not appeal many of us but it could (COULD, not necessarily the truth) attract more people not so used to the genre or gain valuable resources for other games.

Let's see what the future holds.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:00 pm

just look at switch as a fundraiser for caves next big arcade release.....