360 degrees of shmups, Cave titles coming to the Xbox 360

By Spencer . March 5, 2008 . 10:07am

360 degrees of shmups, Cave titles coming to the Xbox 360 images In an unlikely turn of events the Xbox 360 is becoming *the* premier console for shmups. Besides being a home for a library of classics like Time Pilot, Triggerheart Excelica and in the future Ikaruga, the list of new bullet dodging titles keeps growing. Let’s see… there is Castle of Shikigami III (to be fair there is a Wii version too), Radien Fighters Aces, Omega Five, DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label and Ketsui.

The last two are new additions. Insert Credit discovered them yesterday, but they are particularly notable because they are from revered shmup developer, Cave. Cave titles don’t sell billions of copies in Japan, but they have a strong following. Perhaps, enough pull to get a niche audience to purchase Xbox 360s?

TAGS: Cave, Shoot em up, Xbox 360

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Jaxel

Seems like an odd choice actually... No one really cares about shmups like Ibara, Homura, Mushihimesama or ESPGaluda (still the best shooter ever) in America, where the 360 is the premiere console. Those games would be much more suited on a Playstation console; where they have already been released.

Angelous

Please be region free, please be region free, please be region free, please be region free...

Tony

Perhaps the PS3 would be a better fit from a worldwide perspective, but clearly someone out there is telling these companies that 360 owners do infact care about shooters more than people might think. It's not much of a jump for a company to also put these to PSN to begin with.

Plus you can't underestimate the power of something being $10 compared to $30+ in retail. If there ever was a time for this genre to come back on a worldwide scale it's now.

Tony

Man, nevermind, I missed the part on Insert Credit that stated these were retail packages... I don't know in that case. I guess the 360 is just that easy to port to for these types of studios.

Carmen

"Seems like an odd choice actuallyâ€¦ No one really cares about shmups like Ibara, Homura, Mushihimesama or ESPGaluda (still the best shooter ever) in America"

I don't think anybody anywhere cares about Homura. But honestly, if MSFT keeps this up then I may in future think about getting an Xbox (provided they come to this side of the Pacific.)

honorless

What's a little frustrating about this is that the vast majority of JP 360 releases are region locked, and given Cave's tendency towards exclusivity I really doubt these won't be. And AFAIK, MS USA won't honor a Japanese 360's warranty.

This may sound pessimistic, but I could afford a PCB for the cost of a game, a 360, and the replacement 360 I'd have to buy when the first console failed...