Deathsmiles Xbox 360 port!

[NR777]

Must feel good though. I have only broken the top 50 once and top 100 a few times on the various modes on the Japanese leaderboard.

I guess?  Not really, but it was only my fourth attempt at a real run with the game so I'm pleased with my progress so far.  I'm starting to find the awesome scoring spots.  The Volcano on Rank 3 is a goldmine.  I haven't really played with MBL yet other than trying out Rank 999 once...what an ass kicker.  So far, I am not liking 1.1...it just doesn't feel natural to me at all.

[EOJ]

The horrible, but sadly not unexpected, review from IGN:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1103150p1.html

I think he mentions something close to "it should have been a cheap download on Xbox Live Arcade" in there about 5 times.

[GaijinPunch]

He didn't lambaste it, but yes, he was repetitive to say the least.  The only "full" games on XBLA that aren't mini-games are really old ones.  So yeah, kinda stupid.  Guess the faceplate didn't do too much for him.

[brentsg]

But Mario Tennis got an 8.5.

Not going to find a western reviewer that cares about a 1cc or decent score.  As long as you "beat" the game and milk the achievements it's a done deal.

[NR777]

The horrible, but sadly not unexpected, review from IGN:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1103150p1.html

I think he mentions something close to "it should have been a cheap download on Xbox Live Arcade" in there about 5 times.

Yup.  That is the standard IGN "two hours of credit feeding" STG review...along with a heaping spoonful of Ikaruga dong-chugging.  I like Ikaruga but I can't bring myself to love it because playing for score isn't fun.  The scoring system in DS is a blast.

[charlienash87]

"It's not fantastic enough to break out of that community the way something like Ikaruga can, though."

this IGN review sucked some serious ikaruga dong. it's black cock must busted at least 3 huge white nuts down that reviewers  throat.

i really didn't expect that review to troll so hard. it could've been worse though, at least there was no touhou dong chugging

[EOJ]

One video option was added to the US version that wasn't in the Japanese original: Smoothing on/off.

[lam47]

You can't spell ignorance without ign.

[bcass]

So what does the JPN version resemble? Is it equivalent to the (US version) smoothing on or off?

[gsl]

I am going to dry-hump the mailman so hard tomorrow.

[Lusche]

good that the us is able to play this game now ...
game never clicked to me, dont know why maybe the whole recharge thing is what i dont like ...
ds2 after playing ds was just wow ... but somehow i dont like ds1

[gsl]

I think something's a little screwy with the leaderboards.  I'm trying to get back into practice after about two years of not touching the game and banged out a whimpy ~80 mil. with Rosa on Xbox 360 mode, and went through all of the upload stuff at the end of the run, but it's not showing up on the leaderboards.  Anyone else having similar problems?

EDIT: Figured it out, no thanks to a rather unintuitive option on Cave's part.  Apparently when viewing the leaderboards, the option for "EX On/Off" doesn't have a single goddamned thing to do with any hypothetical setting that makes the extra stage available or not (as per my assumption), but actually toggles scores for those who tackled the Gorge versus those who didn't.

[EOJ]

EDIT: Figured it out, no thanks to a rather unintuitive option on Cave's part.  Apparently when viewing the leaderboards, the option for "EX On/Off" doesn't have a single goddamned thing to do with any hypothetical setting that makes the extra stage available or not (as per my assumption), but actually toggles scores for those who tackled the Gorge versus those who didn't.

Yeah, it's the same thing on the JP boards. And it makes perfect sense in regard to scoring. Similar to separating 1-Loop and 2-Loop scores into different leaderboards. Extra stages = extra scoring potential.

The extra stage is always available for selection, btw.

[gsl]

Oh, I understand the point of separating Gorge vs. non-Gorge scores, I just don't think that distinction is very well represented on the leaderboards.  You have a column that says "EX", and the options are "ON" or  "OFF", which makes it sound more like a setting than a path choice.  Or at least that's how I took it at first.

On an unrelated note, I wonder if the faceplates could be sold for a decent price on Yahoo Japan.  Bit of a role reversal, in that regard.

[EOJ]

I see what you mean, the "ON/OFF" part is a bit misleading.

[cstarflare]

Is anyone who's spent a lot of time with the Japanese version noticing slowdown differences? MBL 1.1 is completely fucked (I'm pretty sure it's actually speeding UP in some places), and while the main games seem pretty on there are a few places that feel weird (the large enemies in the castle)

Maybe the main games are fine and the experience with MBL 1.1 just messed with my head a bit.

[StarCreator]

I haven't had a chance to try it yet beyond the minute or so I spent at the Aksys booth at PAX East, but given at least a few of Cave's recent Arrange modes feature reduced or completely removed slowdown, I wouldn't be surprised if MBL 1.1 had its slowdown removed on purpose.

[cstarflare]

The jp version had tons of it though, which is why it bothers me so much.

[EOJ]

Oh man, if true, that's the dumbest thing ever.

[brentsg]

Maybe the main games are fine and the experience with MBL 1.1 just messed with my head a bit.

TonK has been complaining about the arcade mode being very inaccurate.  Perhaps they changed this too.

[EOJ]

*hugs JP version release*

[ookitarepanda]

TonK has been complaining about the arcade mode being very inaccurate.  Perhaps they changed this too.

TonK is out of his fucking mind on this one. I spent 3 months with the board almost directly before this and Arcade mode is easily the best Cave port available. I would definitely appreciate someone who has the Japanese version and the American doing some comparison but I'm fairly certain they're the same.

Whroom's lvl 3 patterns have the exact same slowdown, same with Bavaria. Jitterbug slows down the same, and even normal parts of the levels slow down the same. He must either be thinking of the 360 mode or be looking for attention on that one.

As for the 1.1 stuff, the 1.1 is the 360 mode, which emulates some of the slowdown, but they definitely didn't do as good a job as they did with arcade. Those are my thoughts.

[gsl]

I've mostly been spending my time on Arcade, and it's been about two years since I last had any interaction with the PCB, but I'm not really seeing any glaring differences between the two.  Slowdown seems to occur in the right places (all my old tricks work, at least).  Granted, this is a pretty subjective observation, so take it for what it's worth.  I don't know a thing about MBL as that dropped after I left, but the lack of slowdown in Whroon's third pattern is bullshit.  That is all.

[gsl]

Okay, am I the only one who really doesn't like the 1.1 versions?  They're like an attempt at adding Guwange-esque mechanics to the games, only the execution is pretty haphazard and the patterns don't really feel designed for that sort of play--there's too much time spent fiddling between familiar placement and dodging the actual bullet patterns.  Plus, I'm not too fond of how you can no longer hit A+B for lock shot or power up and have to assign those to separate buttons.  A shooter that makes me utilize every button on my joystick (RSG is exempt from this) starts to lose my interest.

[EOJ]

Okay, am I the only one who really doesn't like the 1.1 versions? 

I think they're quite subpar too. I play Arcade and MBL 360, and that's about it. The rest is just filler.

[gsl]

Yeah, I've still got quite a bit I want to do on the original arcade mode before I hang that one up, and I've made a few forays into MBL that have been pretty enjoyable.  I really want to learn to use Sakura properly, as her options seem like they would be really handy once the cat food bullets start flying, but she's a little tough to get used to.  It just seems like there's enough going on with the standard familiar management without having to worry about controlling them independently.

Are there any differences between the original and 360 modes of arcade and MBL aside from the higher-resolution sprites?

[EOJ]

Are there any differences between the original and 360 modes of arcade and MBL aside from the higher-resolution sprites?

Slowdown is very different between Arcade & 360 on the one hand and MBL & MBL 360 on the other. 360 is completely worthless to play, about 50% of the PCB's slowdown is missing and you can't score nearly as high as in Arcade due to this. Arcade mode is nearly 100% perfect in regard to duplicating the PCB's slowdown (it's one of the best ports ever made in this regard).

MBL and MBL 360 are weird. Both are very inaccurate with slowdown compared to the PCB (about 80% accuracy overall for each), but if you have to choose one, MBL 360 is a little more accurate. Mainly due to the Ice Palace (MBL 360 has about 80~90% of the PCB's slowdown in this stage, while MBL has about 50~60%). This makes regular MBL mode pretty worthless.

[antares]

A shooter that makes me utilize every button on my joystick (RSG is exempt from this) starts to lose my interest.

The arcade version of RSG is played with only 3 buttons 

[cstarflare]

Plus, I'm not too fond of how you can no longer hit A+B for lock shot or power up and have to assign those to separate buttons.

You can hold A+B for lockshot in 1.1. Personally, I really appreciated powerup being on its own button - it seems to activate faster, and I never accidentally power up when I'm trying to use my lock shot.

I love 1.1; you can play almost the entire game in powerup mode if you do it right.

[EOJ]

I'd like 1.1 if they gave you a normal bomb stock (the one bomb thing is really dumb). It feels like they tried to modify the game so that scoring would be easier and more enjoyable, but they did so in a way that sorta broke it so they had to artificially lower the bomb stock to 1 to compensate. An unnatural "fix". Psychologically, I find this unsatisfactory.

I'd also like it better if the multiplier reduction penalty for dying was less. Maybe 10% (like DS2) instead of 20%.

Finally, the whole option control thing is really dumb, and lessens the arcade feel of the game.

As is, I won't play it anymore.