Mushihimesama Futari ("Bug Princess 2") iOS

[firenze]

Announced today, coming in a mere 6 days (April 5)!  The port was fairly predictable, but the short notice is a surprise.  link

Also good news in that they've made it compatible with more iPhone/iPad/iPod models than their last release (Daioujou):
iPhone 4S / iPhone 4 / iPhone 3GS / iPod touch 3rd and 4th Generation / New iPad / iPad 2 / iPad

Price: $6.99 (US/CA) / ?4.99 (UK) / ?5.49 (EU), Offered at special price for a limited time of 4 days only $4.99 (US/CA) / ?2.99 (UK) / ?3.99 (EU)

[ookitarepanda]

Oh awesome! They are good at this short notice stuff. I can't check the link on my phone at the moment but I wonder if the game will be upscaled for iPad like Mushi 1 is. It's hard to play the other games on the iPad with the 2x zoom of an iPhone version.

Also, it says 4 difficulties (which they have on the other recent ones, 3 modes (Original, Maniac, Ultra), and "2 courses." What's that about?

[JOW]

That confused me a little too.

At first I thought "Whoa - does that mean Black Label too!", but then realised they appear to be referring to Reco and Palm 

None the less, for £2.99 I'll be giving this a shot

[ookitarepanda]

Downloading now 

[EOJ]

I got it - good game for $5. I played it once, and probably won't touch it again until my next business trip or vacation. 

[ookitarepanda]

I played a run of Original and a run of Maniac, both were pretty fun. I hadn't turned the autobomb off, but if you autobomb there are some serious consequences. On Original mode, at least, your counter goes ALL the way to 0 no matter what if you autobomb. Harsh and awesome.

I'm wondering about the achievements, since there's one that says "Clear all stages with Reco" (and one similar for Palm) that I haven't gotten even though I cleared 1cc. Hrm.

[sh00g]

Clear all stages probably means clearing them in all modes. Or maybe going through each mode of each stage on each difficulty setting.   

In options there's a "wait control" option on/off. I'm going to assume that toggles the slow down? 

Looking in history reminds me how godlike the artist was for mushihimesama futari.

[firenze]

I'll also note that it's a universal release, meaning the game looks good on an iPad (same as Mushihimesama 1).  This in stark comparison to Daioujou, which looks like ass on an iPad and has crippling input lag when playing at 2x size. 

I now care about this a lot, as I just got a new iPad - the new HD releases of Espgaluda II and Daifukkatsu look really nice on the iPad retina display (actually worth the somewhat steep price to double-dip in my opinion).  I kinda hope they go back and do HD releases of the other iOS games too, particularly DOJ.

[EOJ]

There's no input lag with DOJ when played at 2x on my ipad 2. Plays like all their other verts. It's weird they didn't make that one full screen on the ipad though.

[ookitarepanda]

For some reason, the game isn't saving my high scores. I have no idea what's going on. I'm only missing 3 achievements, but my scores won't upload to "compete" with friends.

Also, EOJ, you got a friend request 

[darkidol]

Only dashed through on Original after buying it but really liking both the iOS Mushihimesama games.  Love how the counter resets to zero after autobomb and the switching back to shot suck-in mechanic for when you laser with a blue counter (otherwise the large gems fall right past you).  Both the extends are the same as the arcade game (in Original at least) so they clearly believe it can be a 'decent scoring' mobile game. 

Also great to know what the endings say, and the amount of detail in the history section (didn't read it all, but it looked top notch).

[Aisha]

Black Label

Features a Boss Rush mode that includes bosses from Futari and Mushihimesama, as well as a shop system where you can give CAVE more money.

[EOJ]

Pretty cool - I'll get this just for the boss rush mode. Mushi 1 bosses with Futari BL Reco will be interesting.

[Aisha]

Hm, that video is set to private now. Looks like they weren't ready.

[AntiFritz]

I'm not entirely sure what the point of releasing a black label version is (unless its dlc).  I mean besides boss rush mode your average joe is just going to see this and think its the exact same thing.

[TimingTripod40]

I'm not entirely sure what the point of releasing a black label version is (unless its dlc).  I mean besides boss rush mode your average joe is just going to see this and think its the exact same thing.

Dat shop system

[EOJ]

Black Label is out now in the Japan store, tomorrow in the USA:

http://www.cave-world.com/en/games/bugprincess2-blacklabel.html

They want $13.99 for the game, then another $6.99 for the boss rush modes.  Nice try, Cave. I'm not paying $21 for an iOS shooter, especially when both previous Mushi games sold for $4.99 on their release.

[Daverost]

Yeah, I think I'll have to pass on this one. No way I'm paying that.

[ookitarepanda]

Agreed. First time I'm not buying on day one.

But according to the description, if you have 1 and 2 already you can play the black label's boss rush once a day instead of paying $6.99. Still not ok.

[EOJ]

It'll go on sale eventually. I'll wait for that. Maybe they're testing how high they can price this stuff, but I think this high price strategy won't work well for them.

[ookitarepanda]

And in the meantime, I let them know on twitter that I won't be buying it because of its price. I tried to be nice in saying it, because I've bought every other iOS game on day one, even ESPGaluda II when I didn't have a phone that could play it.

It's nice to have direct lines of communication. But who knows if they'll take any of it to heart.

[DJ Incompetent]

You'd only want to play the boss rush once a day if at all. You need to beat all five bosses six times in a row before you even get to see anything close to arcade original, let alone need to dodge a pattern. The difficulty increase is in the tiniest baby steps and you still have to tap through the stage clear screen after every single boss. I was on the 8th grade (string of 5 bosses) and they're still giving me variations of Original Mode. I've seen a very easy Maniac mode once so far.

----------

1ups are given at a fixed rate. At first it was every four grades, after the 8th grade it seems to be every grade afterward.
autobomb is in. It still clears your whole bomb stock. Extra bomb given what seems to be every 4 bosses. First life starts with 6 bombs. Extra lives, 3.
You're still measured by score. The scoring system of whatever mode you're in will still apply, only your counter saps to zero anytime you collect gems.

My battery ran out before my credit ended. I was at the 50-something boss and was just in my fourth run-through in maniac mode.

Boss rush is for noobs only.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Top In-App Purchases
    MUSHIHIME SET$6.99
    CUSTOM SET$6.99
    SPECIAL　EYE$2.99
    REDUCE$1.99
    STOCK UP$0.99
    BOMB UP$1.99
    SHOT BOOST$1.99


Piss poor.

[sh00g]

Not dropping a dime on any of that.

That costs way too much for iOS app.

I might give in if the damn game was actually an original game, but nope. Just rehashed shit.

[DJ Incompetent]

No separate leaderboards this time for DLC cheats. Dunno if buying them locks you out, but the top score is glitchin' at

9,223,372,036,854,775,807

Sooo I doubt it.

[brentsg]

Their in-app purchase stuff has killed their games for me.

The price seems high as well but I don't necessarily prescribe to the theory that iOS games need to be super cheap.  I've bought many games that weren't worth the buck I spent on them. 

I will gladly continue to pay much more for games on platforms that have proper controls.