Be Excellent To Each Other

YES.

Oh, that's really, really good news

Yep, it's excellent news. Fingers crossed for a Western release, though.

I don't know that a cowboys n' indians aesthetic would really suit the tight, fast schmup action, imho.

Y'know, it must be sleep deprivation because it took me fucking ages to get that. I even went back to the magazine scans looking for the western themed level. Doh.

Picked up Bangai-O Spirits last week. Blimey it's good. Once I managed to get over the impenetrable tutorial and the North Face of the Eiger difficulty level I found myself really having a blast. The fact that I can die within the first two seconds of a level and merely smile and restart instead of, say, heaving the DS across the room has got to be the mark of some good game design.

Definitely in my Game of the Year shortlist. Dunno if a UK release is scheduled, but I'd strongly recommend laying down the cash for an import copy if you can. Just prepare yourself for a bit of a, er, challenge.

It's out now, in fact - saw a copy on sale today. I will get it eventually, but I've only just got around to buying Space Invaders Extreme (after playing an ("import" - Ed) copy for a while first) so it may be a while before I get Bangai-O Spirits. I did play a ("dow... erm, import" - Ed) copy but found it nigh-on impenetrable, so maybe it'll make more sense with English text.

Gradius Rebirth gameplay footage!

First impression is that it looks a bit homebrewy, but I don't want to make too many judgements about it just yet*; it seems to play really well, and that's the main thing. The decision to use a bunch of remixes as the soundtrack is actually a bit of a relief, as it'll retain that all-important focus on romantic, spacey melodies, hehe. So far most of the music seems be from Nemesis 2 and Nemesis 3 on the MSX, but the first stage's theme is "Heavy Blow" from the FC version of Gradius 2. Nice!

*Although when you consider that there are only five levels, it doesn't exactly scream "labour of love", eh?

Raiden Fighters Aces!!!! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee *cough, hack, splutter* eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erm, it's very, very good.

Where did you get it from? I can't find it on-line - is it a PAL release?

I made my last post in September 2008. Gradius Rebirth was released in Japan and America shortly after. It is still not available here, despite the fact that absolutely no conversion or translation of any part of the game would be necessary.

I'd Homebrew Channel the fuck out of it, but I'm terrified that installing the WAD could 'brick' my Wii.

there are ways to change the region of the wad's. I don't remember where i saw that, but i'm sure there are

The WAD I have has apparently been made region-free, mate. I'm just not sure how to get it onto my Wii without ruining anything. I was told the usual WAD installers don't work on the latest firmware. Any truth in that?

i think yes, but there are ways to downgrade to 3.2. Just to be sure, my wii isn't online for a loooong time. Not that i need it anyway.

NTSC only chaps (and region locked at that). Valcon (who are publishing it over here) are apparently trying to partner with a European publisher to get it out in PAL territories, but I wouldn't hold your breath to be honest.

Sorry, didn't mean to get you excited but... squeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! It's lovely!!!!!!

pah, i've already downloaded and converted to region free. Have to try it when i get home.

So, i tried Gradius Rebirth. It looks great and also sounds good. This is how remakes should be done. I just don't happen to be a big fan of the game, it's too slow paced and suffers from the capital sin of stripping you of all your upgrades when you lose one life.

i downgraded yesterday to 3.2 so i could install starfall, and it was a breeze. Now i have all my channels region free. And there's no health warning when i turn on my wii and no background music either.

This rar has everything you need and is very well explained.
http://www.filesavr.com/eocgammapack-anyfirmware

Thanks a lot, RuySan. I can't connect to the internet with the Wii until the weekend, so I might not be able to downgrade just yet, but I'll definitely give it a shot.

I'm not sure having the player lose their power-ups when they die is a 'sin', though! It takes a while to get used to recovering from your deaths, but - coupled with limiting yourself to a single credit - it makes a better player out of you in a shorter amount of time.

yesterday i wouldn't get past the 1st level boss because of my puny pew-pew. That's the thing i always hated about shmups. Remember Apydia? Lovely game, but, lose a life and you may as well start all over again. That's probably why i love Cave games so much.

Concerning the wii, do you have already the twilight hack and homebrew channel?

I've got the Homebrew Channel, aye. I installed it with a thing called Bannerbomb rather than the Twilight Hack, though. The latter doesn't work with 4.0.

None of the WAD managers I've tried will install Rebirth, either, so what we speculated earlier seems to be true.

http://kotaku.com/5368190/bullet-hell-s ... x-360-game

All Eggbox-owning readers must support this. Even if you think there's no chance you'll ever get into it. Strike a blow for 2D games.

Ugh... 'shmups' is such an awful word.

That said, I recently fell in love with DoDonPachi.

Atomhex on the Xbox Indie games. All of you fuckers get it now. 80 MS Points for a brilliant "thinking man's" take on geometry wars.

I don't mind it, myself. It's almost as traditional a term as 'shooter', only without the possibility of your being mistaken for an FPS bore.

Edit: Malc! You're playing Raiden IV! Please tell me about it, you lucky sod.

So I take it that absolutely none of you have availed yourselves of the region free-ness of the last 2 Cave releases, Mushihimesama Futari and Espgaluda 2 Black Label?
Here is a piccy of Esp 2 for show-off porpoises.

@Klatrymadon - Sorry dude, I completely missed that post from, er, 6 months ago about Raiden IV. It's lovely stuff, and I need to get back into it now I have my SFIV joystick to play it with.

Opinions please!

How are they? I heard Cave balls up some game they ported to 360, so I'm a little hesistant.

I thought that said 'Futanari', which made me slightly worried for what the game would be like.

opinions indeed. heard they were coming, but now they are outr? and lovely?, my playasia screen is already opened

that futari, on non tate mode seems to havbe a very small screen
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-br- ... -3cq6.html

No. Please let me know if they're good!

Opinions! They're excellently converted, so absolutely no worries there. The number of options and game modes is frankly terrifying - there are novice modes, arrange modes, Xbox 360 modes, arcade modes. Tons of stuff. Of the two, I'd say that Mushi is "easier" (i.e. not quite as insanely difficult), but both are rock hard if you play the normal modes. Most importantly of all, they're both fun games to play, and even if you absolutely suck at shmups, there's a mode in there somewhere that will keep you occupied for a while (although if you choose to spend all your time on Novice mode you're missing out on a hell of a lot).
Down sides? Well, the main menus excepted, everything is in Japanese, so if you're going to get as much out of the games as possible, you'll need to consult a guide on what does what (the shmups.com forums are invaluable for this kind of thing). In addition, the games have quite ridiculously deep scoring systems and, again, reading up on exactly how scoring works is pretty much essential if you're going to get the most out of the games.
And they're difficult. Very, very difficult. If you've only ever played the Cave games that are emulated by MAME, expect to be shocked. There's been a quantum leap forward in compexity and difficulty from the days of DoDonPachi and EspRaDe.
If you love shmups, I can heartily recommend both. Buy one and try it out (like I said, I'd recommend Mushi over Esp 2 simply because it's a little bit easier), but expect to put quite a bit of effort in if you want to get the most out of either game.

I was interested right up until you said it's all in Japanese.. I haven't got the time in my life to do stuff like that anymore.

I wish I had though...

The main menus are in English, so you can select the different game modes and play away quite happily, but yeah, pretty much everything else (including the instruction manual) is in Japanese, which makes understanding the scoring system and even understanding how to upload your high scores or save a replay a bit of a trial-and-error chore.
The guides on shmups.com are excellent, though.

it's a real shame that Deathsmiles isn't region-free.

am tempted by these other two tho.

Oh my word - looks like Raiden Fighters Aces is getting a PAL release.

Pre-order from Play - here

*moistens*

About cunting time.

And cheap as well!

Well... they could have released it as an Arcade title, but I'm not complaining. Much.

You're right, but we're getting 1000 GS with this one! Yay! Plus, it's three games in one which they would've released separately on the Live Arcade. Probably at 1200 points a pop, completely undermining what you just said. HAHAHAHA!!1

Yeah, but what about?

WELL! Actually my friend, I might just pop that in the post this very today!

RayStorm HD tomorrow! Our eggbox is currently on The Big Telly in the living room, too! Yay!

I hope I have enough points left, it's 800 right?

1200

Oh, twat sticks.

Unless Rockstar have coughed up my 400pts now.

Nooooooo! I'm top of my friends list right now!

Okay, it's only me on my friends list, but I'm still top!

Hurrah!!