Nintendo Brings Shmup To DSiWare (Yes, Nintendo!)

I love bullet hell shooters. I would definitely buy this if I had a DSi.

this looks fun O.o

Move over Starfox........Just kidding.

@Jbourne37: A lot of shmups do, in varying ways.

@the7k:

I thought the same. But loving Nintendo as I do, I can only resist new hardware for so long, so I bought a DSi yesterday, and I love it.

Using the free 1000 points you get with it, I got PictoBits and Precipice. Both awesome games, I love them both. The art style series of games seems to be something worth keeping an eye on.

And I know the screen size increase is only small. But I really think it makes a difference.

I am happy with my purchase, I don't think the DSi is a waste of money anymore. As long as we keep getting some awesome DSiWare titles.

@Ryan Meehan: I'm with BFB on this one.

I've played a lot of bullet hell shooters. This just makes me want to bust out my dusty dreamcast and Ikaruga.

Cool. Now can I get a sequel to Einhander on my DS, 360, or Wii?

@ngamesnick: Generally, the ship is bigger than the hitbox itself, which would explain the sides of the ship being grazed. I always want to know how big the hitbox is exactly so that i don't mess up though...

Ganji

@Archaneus: I donno if it was just to show how the game worked, but it looks like you can't die/get hurt, from the video.

The ship was getting hit with tons of stuff right at the end of the first video. This confuses me.

@shimage: Cave games don't come to the NA. Back in the day, there were some Cave arcade games distributed by Atlus, but those days are gone.

Arika ports many Cave games. I'm sure Nintendo's creative hand in this is minuscule.

Wow. I gotta admit, I thought the DSi was a complete waste of money considering I already had a sometimes-functioning fat DS. Stuff like this actually makes me consider getting it.

A thousand little pellets flying at you that are hard/impossible to dodge.

superkong

@breadtruck: yeah bullethell hitzones are small often, it is like "the core" of your ship must be hit. Anyway, the thing like Ueziel said above is that, in my experience, bullethell shooters simply require more practice/work than other games. EG. I can get to the last boss in Guxt without taking a hit but it took some practice (to be fair, this is not really a bullethell shooter but it is a somewhat challenging shmup).

Wow, looks sweet. Its the kind of game I would love if I weren't so awful at these kinds of games.

I've still got scars from Ikaruga man. SCARS. On my ASS. That game raped the SHIT out of me, man. And I couldn't press charges because... well, I was asking for it, really.

@Selah: Maybe YOU improve quickly. I still haven't beaten any of the Touhou games on anything above easy...but I'm bad at every game in this genre so whatever.

Danved

@Bichatse: There's Big Bang Mini. I haven't tried it, but it got decent reviews:
[www.metacritic.com]

[www.youtube.com]

So, uh, when is this coming to NA? Did Ketsui ever come to NA? Seems like it should be easy to localize ... and the incremental cost of distributing digitally should make this more likely, shouldn't it? For some reason, I'm still not optimistic.

@BubbleF**kingBuddy: I would have died 5 times in the span of that video.

Warning Forever and Tower of Heaven in DSiWare could be an excellent idea.

About this game... Damnit, I need a DSi! :(

Rev-bin

I love me some bullet-hell shooters, but on a DS screen? I mean, I'm used to a lack of wiggle room while playing them but on something that small I'd imagine it would get a bit ridiculous.

NeoStarr HD

@asdf4321: Triggerheart Exelica does this as well, IIRC.

I love me some shooters, but I can't play these hell-dodgers that well at all. I wish we could get some 1942-ish like stuff, to where the damn screen isn't covered in 1,000 bullets.

Now this looks like a good $5 purchase. The last DSi game I bought was Minis March Again which was a huge disappointment to me.

It doesn't look like it involves DS controls at all, though. Oh well, I guess it doesn't really have to. But when I think DSi Ware, I'm usually interested in innovating projects.

Nice music.

Jake Earl

@beril: ... the obvious difference being that you can use an analogue stick or plug in an arcade stick on the 360... it's not so much of an option on the DS.

I'd be interested to see how a touchscreen-based shooter would work - stylus on the bottom screen moves ship to corresponding position on top screen - but I expect it'd probably have the same difference in feel as mouse shooters on the PC...

Bichatse

Blue Wish much?

gold163 BLOOD HEAT

@kwant: anyone know if you control these with the dpad or the stylus? seems like the stylus would be pretty accurate and smooth compared to the dpad.

either way, i will be getting this :)

@Archaneus: They're not as impossible as they look. The key is small twitch movements instead of wide sweeping ones. Once you get into that mindset, you improve quickly.

Selah

@sc00t420: in bullet hell shooters, typically your hitbox is much smaller than the sprite of your ship -- often being no bigger than 1-2 pixels.

pretty convenient how when destroyed, not only the crafts but their bullets turn into points too. still, seems kewl.

asdf4321

ahhh i want it!!! and its only 500points! come to North America! NOW! PLS

@Ryan Meehan: all I could think while watching it is "why the hell hasn't he died yet? is there no hit zone?"

bullets go through him like 15 times over the course of that video.

sc00t420

@ninjafetus: Technic Beat-o, people.

mintycrys is HOT for Bayonetta

I want it. Immediately.

I bet it would be 800 points in Europe though.

There are a lot of Japanese DSiWare games I would love but have no release on the horizon :(

melonpans

I find myself very annoyed by this style of game. I love this genre itself, I used to play them incessantly back in the DOS days, but the ones that are released these days are all so absurd. It seems to me that a games difficulty curve should be that you do not have to be a Korean pro gamer to be able to dodge the attacks.

And for a second I almost wanted to buy a DSi. Thank god a still have Ikaruga to play on my Wii.

Looks amusing, and difficult, but lacks the elegance and beauty of Touhou. =\

Kia

@L___E___T: I would prefer to remember them for TGM -_-

@wohdin:

And Street fighter EX! :)

@BubbleF**kingBuddy: Comparing other games to Ketsui DOOM and then saying that the other game looks easy is a pretty big no-no. Like, "Man, this sure does look easy compared to doing a quad backflip while lifting a building off its foundation!"

Besides, the video clearly shows someone who's extremely practiced at it already.

Think you meant Arika, Bash. They are also the fine people who make the Tetris Grandmaster series.♥

Oh nice! This will be the first DSiWare purchase on mine totally!

@BubbleF**kingBuddy: Sorry, I tend to mess up the tags.

@Ryan Meehan: Here's an example from another game. In Doom Mode, from Ketsui Death Label on the DS, you have to fight this boss several times in order to progress.

@BubbleF**kingBuddy: easy? are you serious?

Ryan Meehan

@kwant: you do relize that people even play schmups on the 360 right? I'd say the DS d-pad will work just fine

beril

@kwant: I play Ketsui just fine on my DS Lite.

I wonder if we'll see an equally surprised post when Sin & Punishment 2 comes out next year.

Showmeyomoves!

geez that guy is super good!

I do wonder if the tiny little dpad on the DS is detrimental to the gameplay at all...

The video makes it look easy. Does it get harder later on?

Oh man. I bought a DSi just yesterday - if they brought this out I'd buy it in an instant!!

These kind of games are not made for me.
But it really suprises me to see this coming from nintendo, must be a mistake.

rolfke

Here's hoping this is released outside of Japan, I'd buy it even though I know I'd be crap at it. Do these bullet hell shmups often come with easy modes?

looks pretty.

Kinda wish I had a DSi now haha (that is, if they bring this to our DSiWare store).