Battle of the ports: DoDonPachi

Battle of the Ports: Donpachi

Shmups on Switch reviews ESP Ra.De.

CAVE: Dodonpachi Saidaioujou EXA Label is coming

In a surprise announcement EXA, makers of new arcade hardware, announced that they are working with CAVE to release Dodonpachi Saidaioujou EXA Label, a new entry in the Dodonpachi series after an 8 year hiatus.

A summer 2020 release is targeted and I'm just hoping HEY STHLM will get a cabinet (and that an eventual port will reach a modern console).

CAVE has opened an online store for apparel'n'stuff

CAVE has opened up an online store at BOOTH. You can use a service like this to have items shipped overseas.

Other tidbits: M2 makes a PSA, Sisters Royale goes west etc.

M2 wish to make it clear that their new release of CAVEs ESP.Ra.De should have the moniker "Psy" as opposed to "Psi".

Sisters Royale, the Shikigami-esque game available for both Switch and PS4 in Japan is heading west on both platforms as Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire! with a January 30th release date.

Retro Cores Battle of the Ports tackles 1942:


Run'n'Gun Valfaris is getting its Japanese debut on both PlayStation 4 and Switch on January 23rd.


Bare Knuckle Development details where the inspiration for their awkwardly-named new shmup Super Mega Space Blaster Special Turbo came from.

Deathsmiles II-X review from Bullet Heaven

Technically posted on new years eve in the US, we had already passed that in my time zone so instead of ending the year with this review i'm starting up 2020 with it. I'm hung-over but otherwise ready for a new year of news!

Blast from the (recent) past: The Cave Collection unboxing

Unboxing of the Cave Collection Kan, the second and most recent of the Cave Collections for the Xbox 360. Kan has an extra game included compared to the first edition, Akai Katana, but doesn't include the soundtracks for the games which are in a separate box included with the first collection.
The Cave Collections for Xbox 360 were released in 2013 and 2014 respectively and are quite pricey.

Besides getting the collection you also need a JP Xbox 360 or a modded 360 machine to play some of the games as they are decidedly region locked. Let's hope all these games get re-released on current consoles.

Deathsmiles for iOS is 40% off between Oct 28th and Nov 4th

If you want to try out playing shmups on your iOS device, now is the time!

Deathsmiles & Deathsmiles II being ported to multiple platforms

Siliconera reports that Cave and City Connection has announced that Deathsmiles and Deathsmiles II are being ported to multiple platforms. In my mind that would be PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch but at this stage we just don't know.

Deathsmiles is available on Steam and Xbox 360 and Deathsmiles II has only appeared on Xbox 360 (outside of arcades).

Cave and City Connection also tells us that this is the first wave of planned multiplatform releases of Caves games.

There's no way to get around it: this is FANTASTIC news.

CAVE finally going to update iOS games

In what can only be described as a (very welcome) surprise announcement, CAVE has shared the news that they will be updating their iOS apps to 64-bit versions to allow us to enjoy the games moving forward. We can finally start updating our iOS devices!

No word on the Android apps yet.

EDIT: The update will be free of charge _and_ there will be an anniversary sale for people who missed out the first time.

The following titles are getting updates:
Dodonpachi Blissful Death
Dodonpachi Resurrection HD
Dodonpachi Maximum
Deathsmiles

EDIT2: Trailer.

M2s port of ESP.RA.DE has a release date: Dec 19th

M2 said they were aiming for  a late 2019 release and now they've committed to December 19th as can be seen on the official website.

It will be physical for both PS4 and Switch:

I'm confident M2 will do this release justice.

ESP Ra.De aiming for late 2019 release on Switch, PS4

Developer and porter extraordinnaire  M2 confirmed in an interview that ESP Ra.De really is coming in late 2019 and also confirmed platforms this time: PlayStation 4 and Switch. They are just discussing a japanese release for now but shmups have a way of escaping the confines of their region these days.

2018 - end of year news and thanks

This news blog has been up for two and a half years and it just topped 20.000 visits. Thanks to all visitors!

As a compliment to the blog I started a twitter account to spread the news and i've made some wonderful friends there already. Be sure to tune in for even more shmup news there.

It's been a very good shmup year with more news than ever, the future looks bright for my beloved genre.

In a rare sighting, big gaming news site Eurogamer has published a lengthy, knowledgeable review of the recent Ketsui Deathtiny release for PS4. Well worth a read.

Team Grybanser Fox's line of shmups (Zenohell) are on sale on Steam until January 3rd.

The last remaining 150 copies of Super Rare Games physical release of Steredenn: Binary Stars (SRG #9) will go on sale on January 3rd. So last chance to get it if you want it or face being gouged by eBay scalpers...

Cycle 28 is 50% off on Steam right now.

The developers of Rival Megagun discusses the games development.

Fire Lancer is new shmup out now in demo form for, wait for it, the WonderSwan(!). Also available on PC.

Riddled Corpses EX is getting a physical release on PS4 and PSVita, 3000 copies each.

And with that I wish you a Happy New Year (I miss the blink tag sometimes ;) ) and all the best for 2019. Keep supporting the genre you love by buying releases!

ESPrade trailer

Playing catch-up

M2STG has just announced a bunch of great things: ESPrade is coming (probably to PS4, I haven't seen platform mentioned), Battle Garegga is coming to Nintendo Switch and there's also an announcement surrounding Aleste 30th Anniversary coming next summer. ESPrade is the pre-cursor to Espgaluda and has to my knowledge never had a console release before. It's CAVE at it's best so this is very welcome.

As previously mentioned, Super Hydorah was coming to Nintendo Switch and it is out now (released Nov. 15th).

New Ketsui: Deathtiny trailer

Some pre-orders you don't want to miss; available from Play-Asia

That physical Psikyo Collection Vol.1 for Switch we talked about waaaay back in the middle of July is now available for pre-order from everyones favourite retailer (Play-Asia!).

And hot on the heals of the announcement itself, Ketsui for PS4 is also available for pre-order.




Sweet music to my ears!

Ketsui on PS4 arrives November 29th

November 29th is the big date when Ketsui Deathtiny arrives on PlayStation 4. It will be a PSN release with 2 DLCs available at release: IKD 2007 Special (2007 CAVE Matsuri version) and VIRT (which is... a soundtrack remix? Google translate doesn't spell it out), DLCs priced at 800 yen a piece. The PSN version itself is 3700 yen.

EDIT: DLC number 2, the "VIRT thing", is definitely a remixed soundtrack.

There will also be a physical release(!) with the DLC included priced at 6800 yen.

I know which one I'm getting... ;)

CAVE Festival 2018 brings sale to Steam

All CAVE titles on Steam are heavily discounted right now due to the ongoing CAVE Festival 2018.

So get your Mushihimesama, Dodonpachi Resurrection and DeathSmiles while they're cheap!