Deathsmiles - Xbox 360

Shooters, shoot em ups, shmups, whatever you want to call them, are a rare genre of games. They always have been somewhat of a niche category throughout the years, with limited production numbers, and a very loyal and vocal fan base. Sadly, fewer and fewer shooters have been released since 2008, and only a handful in recent years, usually only as digital copies. As such, collectors pay high prices for almost any shooter on disc or cartridge, pushing the prices for some games, like Musha or the Cotton series, through the stratosphere.The Xbox 360 had shooters though. From classics series like Raiden and R-Type to previous generation games like Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. Xbox 360 also had a large batch of new shooter games on the system. Some were released as digital download only and some were region locked to Japan, but many others were ported to North American and European regions and more still were released on region free discs. This means there are quite a few games to buy, collect, and enjoy.With the brief history lesson out of the way, we come to Cave games, who released some of the most critically acclaimed shooters and used several publishers to get their games over to America and Europe.This one in particular falls into the "cute em up" sub genre and is called Deathsmiles.The plot? Simply put, the theme is Halloween. You choose from a group of cute little anime girl witches and shoot like hell at enemies and bosses until the story ends, then you play as a different character. Like any good shooter, it supports 2 player and the challenge lies in avoiding bullets and using as few continues as possible, just like in the arcade.Simple right? Well I don't want to give away the minimal, but fun and interesting plot. It wasnt written by Hideo Kojima with convoluted plot threads and 30 minute cut scenes. It's an arcade style game, as are most shooters.Some people would call them "casual games" but there is nothing casual about it. Casual means crushing some candy or flicking birds at pigs with one finger while you sit on the toilet. If you tried that with a shooter, you'd end up on the floor with a mess to clean up. No, shooters are just as intense and challenging as fighting games like Street Fighter, Tekken, DOA, Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct.Deathsmiles received a sequel, digital only in North America, and region locked discs in Japan.Deathsmiles 2x takes place during Christmas and costs $29.99 on the Xbox store.Sadly, as of this writing only a couple shooters are backwards compatible on Xbox One, meaning that you are stuck playing on 360 for now, and most of the games are still at bargain bin prices. The exception being the region free games which can run $30 to $60 new, and the more popular long running series like Raiden IV and Raiden Fighter Aces, which fluctuate between $25 to $100 each, depending on condition and seller greed. If you like arcade shooters, I recommend you buy every cheap one you can find. The best part is most are rated 8/10 or better on Metacritic. Granted, some are "meh..." and only a small fraction of shooters are truly terrible. It seems even old ones that were crappy, like R-Type for the SNES, have a higher than average collector value, so one day you may be able to trade the game you don't like for one that you do.Deathsmiles:Pros: Shooter - but not a bullet hell shooter, hard to find, cute, excellent soundtrack, beautiful, shooter fans praise and love it.Cons: Storylines for each character follow the exact same plot with little variety, difficulty broken by unlimited continues.Final verdict: 8.5/10

Stylish and fast paced Deathsmiles is not for the faint of heart. If you are a fan of Tohou, Gothic Lolita Fashion, or Side Scrolling Shmups in general then Deathsmiles has a lot to offer you. If you aren't, then you probably want to go elsewhere. This is a game for a niche market, and as such I am not surprised it did not sell very well. However, being a fan of the above listed items I found the game to be a good, solid diversion and not a bad value for the price. If you're like me and share in these fandoms I recommend picking it up, if not, your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

This is a great shooter! Great graphics and soundtrack. If you like old school shmups, don’t hesitate to pick this up.

I don't remember what made me purchase this game, maybe the name, maybe the box coverart? Anyway, it is a scroller shooting type game, with some english subtititles and some Japanese voice overs. Lots of shooting and interesting characters to destroy, replay value is based on leaderboards. This title is so obscure, I don't think you will be able to find a online match through XBOX Live. I tried, it timed out a few times with no match found. Anyway, fun game for when you are on a long phone call and just want to blow things up in a frantic way. Not upset that I bought this, but definately not on my top 10 list. Enjoy.

This was not what I expected, however it was a surprise how mich I like thi game. Is is a sidescrolling galiga type game. Great graphics and many game modes. If you like unusual games , make sure to buy Death Smiles.

pros: old-school arcade action on my Xbox 360lots and lots of gamer pointsA worthy $20 titleCons:could be a little longerreplay value could've been addedGraphics could be a little better

It is a very good game in the side scroll shooter genre. Gave me countless hours of fun and was difficult being new to the genre.

I saw the cover and thought...my goodness this game is going to be awesome! and no reviews exactly told me what was going on there, but it is nothing like what i was expecting it's all 8bit and the words on the screen go too fast so you can't read and if you don't select an option fast enough you get an instant gameover! -_-I would not recommend this game to most gamers.

I am a huge fan of video games in general, but there is a special place in my heart for SHMUPs. This game is no exception, it is a wonderful title and deserves a place to be played by any SHMUP or Danmaku fan. It has a bit of Touhou feel in many regards without feeling like it is trying to rip off Touhou. It is a wonderful game and worth going back time, and time again for it's wonderful game play, great story and interesting characters.