Death Smiles Mega Black Label [CAVE 2008]

[markedkiller78]

How the heck do you guys afford to buy all these brand new PCBs? Do you all just have super awesome jobs or do you just keep turning PCBs around for new ones?

I've still not bought one on release If you can wait 1-2 years they are a fraction on the price.

Ketsui & Death smiles are the 2 most expensive ones I''ve shelled out on. Ketsui is gone & Death Smiiles will be gone before Haloween I'd rather have 1 pcb over 10 360 / PS3 games. I just don't have the time to play games like I used to, so quality over quantity here.

[kernow]

Death Smiiles will be gone before Haloween

Hehe that would be an excellent time to sell it given its theme. 

[Sycada]

How the heck do you guys afford to buy all these brand new PCBs? Do you all just have super awesome jobs or do you just keep turning PCBs around for new ones?

I'd rather have 1 pcb over 10 360 / PS3 games. I just don't have the time to play games like I used to, so quality over quantity here.

That's exactly my reasoning too.  I recently offloaded almost all my console games in order to keep the cave pcb action alive. It basically came down to sell the games or sell off a cave kit.
No regrets or reservations whatsoever.

[adverse]

Article on DSMBL here:

http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20080918_deathsmiles_black/

Sakyura is the new playable character.  Looks like she fights Sakyura like everyone else too.

Promo movie up as well.

[EOJ]

Thanks. The promo vid was great. The new stage is an ice stage, actually this is just what I was hoping for. Looks really good. Sakyura has 2 options.

Overall the bullet count is greatly increased, and some boss patterns are different. I don't see anything different in the scoring system other than more bullets=more crowns (which will lead to higher scores), though it's hard to tell much from that vid.

Looks fun, but not worth the $2200 on release. I'll wait for the drop to $1300-ish, a la MFBL.

[Gwyrgyn]

Sakyura is the new playable character.  Looks like she fights Sakyura like everyone else too.

What a surprise!

As far as bullet count goes, I thought the main beef people had was that the early stages were way too easy in relation to the late stages. Wonder if they smoothed out the rank progression in this one.

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, I was kind of hoping for some stupidly exaggerated scoring like Futari's black Label.  I like the bullet count increase though.   Agreed w/ DOJ... especially the way Cave reprints shit.  I won't pick this up at release.

[EOJ]

There's an official flyer for this game. Neither Ibara BL nor Mushi Futari BL had one. Interesting. Probably a good indication that they'll print a ton of these PCBs.

[EOJ]

Article with some pics from the promo vid:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20080918/ami.htm?ref=rss

They say there are "a few" new stages. If true, that would peak my interest a bit more.

They also say it sucks that the game is not playable, since CAVE's games have been playable at previous shows. Make sure you don't waste your
time going down there!

[zap]

I need to get some stuff from the Seimitsu/Sanwa booths anyway and I don't have anything else to do. I'll try grabbing some flyers if you want some. Will probably be around $5-8 shipped.

[lowemark]

I'll try grabbing some flyers if you want some. Will probably be around $5-8 shipped.

yes please. 

[markedkiller78]

Can I have some please 

[SuperPang]

1

[zap]

Sorry guys, no flyers. I knew there would only be a video, but really, it was very dissapointing. No cosplayers, no Cave staff at all, no flyers, no nothing!

There were some interesting stuff at the auctions. Taito poster set including Darius, a Cave poster set, and more...

I'll upload some pictures and videos soon.

[GaijinPunch]

My guess is they're having troubles w/ the new hardware, which is what kind of gave birth to DS:BL.  And that of course, needs some work as well. 

[Ast-Kot]

This is the Aou Show Black label promotional vid

http://eyevio.jp/movie/168596

[EOJ]

yeah, that was posted in message #33 of this thread. Please read through the latest posts in the thread before posting duplicate links.

[rtw]

My guess is they're having troubles w/ the new hardware, which is what kind of gave birth to DS:BL.  And that of course, needs some work as well. 

Are you saying the DSBL will be on the new hardware ?

rtw

[EOJ]

There was a poll taken by AM show attendees, ranking the popularity of the games on display:


http://www.am-j.co.jp/column/46amshow/data03.html

Death Smiles Mega Black Label did not make it into the top 10. 

[GaijinPunch]

Are you saying the DSBL will be on the new hardware ?
rtw

No, but *reportedly* their next totally new game is.  My guess is that that is what's holding everything up.  If they don't have a playable BL yet, I can only assume that it's b/c it wasn't decided/started until somewhat recently. 

[EOJ]

That "report" was just a guy on shmups (ill6 I think) overhearing a guy who works at Mak many months ago. So who knows really.
It would be about time for them to upgrade their hardware, and this DSMBL could be an attempt to clear out the SH3 boards left in their stock.

[markedkiller78]

That "report" was just a guy on shmups (ill6 I think) overhearing a guy who works at Mak many months ago. So who knows really.
It would be about time for them to upgrade their hardware, and this DSMBL could be an attempt to clear out the SH3 boards left in their stock.

That sounds pretty reasonable. Hopefully they?ll do a massive run & pump them out at ibara prices!

Or not

I can still see a DDPFKBL (Jesus that's an acronym & a half) coming out on SH3

[EOJ]

The location test started today at Hey arcade. Here is a report in Japanese:

http://vat-patimon.com/archives/2008/09/report.html

-The characters are not changed (same shot types, abilities, etc)
-More bullets, and they're all faster
-Entering and exiting Power up mode is about 2x faster
-There is a new rank, called rank 999. You can choose rank 1,2,3 or 999 for a stage.

CHANGES TO THE SCORING SYSTEM:
-The counter still maxes at 1000, but the multiplier now goes up to 100,000
-Unlike the previous game, your multiplier ONLY resets when you die. So, you need to go in and out of power up mode
over and over to max the counter at 100,000, then keep riding it for score until the end of the level. When in Deathmode,
you need to keep absorbing suicide bullets at this point, as in the previous game.

OTHER STUFF:
-The new stage is about as long as the canyon. You go there before your choice of Canyon or Castle.
-Bosses now shoot out suicide bullets when you are in Deathmode.
-The cow "Mary" is now black.

Overall he says it feels like a more difficult Deathsmiles.

[Kaneda]

That's a pleasant surprise, I was heading into Tokyo today anyways so I'll be sure to give it a go.

[GaijinPunch]

Cool bean.  Sounds like a winner so far.  Not sure if I'll make it out for the loke test (those things are crazy packed) but might.  You just in town for the day, Kaneda?

[Kaneda]

No I'll be around until Monday evening. I'm kind of busy today but I'll likely be at HEY for much of Sunday if you feel like dropping by.

[EOJ]

More info/clarifications:

-Ranks 1-3 are exactly the same as Deathsmiles (same bullet patterns and speeds). Rank 999 starts off with lots of bullets, faster bullets, and suicide bullets.
-The graphics all have a darker hue to them throughout the game.
-The lock shot is a bit different. Not really clear on this yet, though.

[Gwyrgyn]

Not sure if I did the whole chain building up until you die thing. How long does it take to get to 100k? If it's not long then it's no big deal, but I mean if you spend entire stages building up to it, that'll probably completely rape your score if you die even once. Also means suiciding for more bombs would probably be out the window.

[EOJ]

Yeah, this will be a game where you can't really die in the stages, if you want to score well (like Mushi Futari Original, DDP series, etc). Not too bad if you're doing ranks 1-3, probably. But rank 999 will be tough to pull off and score well, I'd imagine.

Apparently it takes awhile to build up the multiplier to the 100K max.

I like the flexibility of Deathsmiles (you can die, at least before the last 2 stages, and it won't wreck your score), but am eager to hear more of how this new DSMBL really works, as well as see it in action.

[zap]

I shot 3 videos. One on Skyuras stage where he uses power up, one with Sakyura VS Sakyura and one on the new stage. Unfortunately the staff knocked on my shoulder making the X sign during the new stage. The player didn't play rank 999. Though it seemed like you couldn't select rank for the new stage. He died all his lives there.

Videos and pics