Review: Deathsmiles

Developer: Cave
Publisher: Rising Star Games
Released: February 18th
Price: £24.99

Rising Star Games may be one of my favourite publishers out there right now, with their knack of bringing great games to Europe by publishing some greats like No More Heroes and Luminous Arc, but will the publishing of the first retail Cave-developed shooter be another string to the Rising Star bow or will it be just another shooter.
First, history quiz for Cave. They are THE daddies of the side-scrolling shooter, having produced vertical and horizontal games for arcades and later consoles since 1995, though, granted the list of games they've produced doesn't sound like the household names they should be. On to Deathsmiles. As said before this is the first game to make it over to the game shelves of Europe, so is it any good?

Deathsmiles puts you in charge of one of five playable girls who have the ability to shoot all the demons in their path, you have to help guide them through the moving maze of bullets and try to kill everything that moves. The graphics have an old school sprite charm to them, much like the whole game. Getting through the game unscathed will take hours of practice and many playthroughs until you find the sweet spot for getting through the game without dying, and this is where the main chunk of the game is, memorising your paths to get a good score at the end of the game.

Now, you'll notice I haven't spoke much about the story as, well, there isn't one. Or at least one in game. There isn't any huge cutscenes or epic CGI videos to gawk at, instead you'll have to read the manual to understand what the overarching story is, and how all the girls ended up in the "Otherworld". Not much else to say on the story front, its there, but you won't really notice it all that much.

There's several different modes of bullet hell you can choose, the original Arcade version, a version which was optimised for the xbox 360 and a version 1.1 which up's the difficulty even more. Also included is the appropriately awkward sounding Mega Black Label DLC which adds a 4th difficulty from the normal levels of 1, 2 and 3 called the ominous sounding level 999. Is it deserved? Oh yes.

Level 999 gives a whole new meaning to the term bullet hell that the shoot-'em-up genre is famous for. Bullets will be coming at you from all angles and it'll feel like the game is just determined to make you give up and run away. Of course it's Level 999 that provides the most points so if you want that precious leaderboard postitions then it'll take lots of practice and watching replays.

But what if you haven't played a "bullet hell" game before? Does Deathsmiles still provide a fun experience for newcomers. Unquestionably, you can easily "complete" the game in a half hour with a character and the levels do get progressivly harder, but you'll feel yourself get better at them. It also doesn't take itself too seriously. In one of the most memorable boss battles I've seen in a while had me facing off against Mary. A GIANT COW. It was a truly epic experience and still makes me laugh even now. The boss battles are definitely a lot of fun and will frustrate but when your final boss battle is against a demon called "Tyrannosatan" you know its going to be an thrilling ride. Oh and that isn't a typo. Tyrannosatan. Let that sink in....Tyrannosatan.

So if you've ever been interested in the shoot 'em up genre of games or maybe would just like a change of pace from everything else out there, I definitely recommend Deathsmiles. Now if you don't mind, I've still got to kill Tyrannosatan again.