Akai Katana

19.08.2010
Critic 60/100
Users 69/100
Genre: Shooter Arcade
"Akai Katana" is a horizontally scrolling shooter bullet hell developed by Cave and released in Japan on August 20, 2010 for arcades. A port to the Xbox 360 with additional game modes, "Akai Katana Shin", followed on May 26, 2011 in Japan. Rising Star Games published the console release in North America and Europe on May 15, 2012 simply as" Akai Katana".
Set in a parallel world resembling Japan's Taisho period, the people have discovered the powerful Blood Swords. Requiring human sacrifices to unleash their immense destructive power, these swords have been used by the empire to crush neighboring countries. However, all the bloodshed and power gained through sacrificing close family members has made some of the swordsmen reconsider. With new fighter planes and the powered up swords at their disposal, this small band of rebels now fight back against the tyrannical empire.

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Expanded games

17.02.2022

Crimson Katana: exA Label is a fresh take on Cave's sidescrolling arcade shooter Akai Katana incorporating elements from its Xbox 360 port. In addition to its several game modes, this release features several bonus options available in all game modes. A soundtrack selection menu lets players choose between the original arcade soundtrack, the Xbox 360 arranged soundtrack, or a new FM synth arranged soundtrack created by Keishi Yonao. A loop selection option lets players choose to begin from the harder second loop instead of from the beginning of the game. When played in English, dialogue is now subtitled for the first time.

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20.04.2012

DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by Cave in 2012. It's the sixth chapter in CAVE's DonPachi series. A Japanese region-free release was released on May 30, 2013.

01.09.1981

The objective of Galaga is to score as many points as possible by destroying insect-like enemies. The player controls a starfighter that can move left and right along the bottom of the playfield. Enemies swarm in groups in a formation near the top of the screen, and then begin flying down toward the player, firing bombs at the fighter. The game ends when the player's last fighter is lost, either by colliding with an enemy or one of its bullets, or by being captured. Galaga introduces a number of new features over its predecessor, Galaxian. Among these is the ability to fire more than one bullet at a time, a count of the player's "hit/miss ratio" at the end of the game, and a bonus "Challenging Stage" that occurs every few levels, in which a series of enemies fly onto and out of the screen in set patterns without firing at the player's ship or trying to crash into it. These stages award a large point bonus if the player manages to destroy every enemy. Another gameplay feature new to Galaga is the ability for enemies to capture the player's fighter. While the player is in control of just one fighter, a "boss Galaga" (which takes two shots to kill) periodically attempts to capture the fighter using a tractor beam. If successful, the fighter joins the enemy formation. If the player has more lives remaining, play resumes with a new fighter. The captured fighter flies down with the enemy that captured it, firing upon the player just like normal enemies, and can be shot and destroyed. The player can free the fighter by destroying the boss Galaga while in flight, causing the captured fighter to link up with the player's current fighter, doubling his or her firepower but also making a target twice as large. Galaga has an exploitable bug that can cause the attackers to stop firing bullets at the player, due to a coding error. In addition, similar to the famous "Split-Screen bug" in Pac-Man, a bug exists in Galaga in which the game "rolls over" from Level 255 to Level 0. Depending on the difficulty setting of the machine, this can cause the game to stall, requiring that the machine be reset or power-cycled in order to start a new game.

20.12.2001

In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and vice versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your energy gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship causes them to fire revenge bullets which can be absorbed and fired back by the player. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun, featuring similar level and boss design, as well as it's buddhism inspired themes and aesthetics. Both are directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, who also composed Ikaruga's soundtrack.

19.10.2007

Deathsmiles is CAVE's bullet-hell shoot-'em-up where you take the role of one of five Angels to defend the magical land of Gilverado from an invasion by Hell itself! Eradicate this devilish assault!

25.11.2005

Espgaluda II is a manic shooter originally released by Cave in the arcades in 2005 as a sequel to Espgaluda.

28.01.2003

Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku-tachi is a vertical bullet hell shoot 'em up developed by Cave and released in 2003.

07.06.2007

THE ROAR OF THUNDER IS BACK! THE SERIES THAT CHANGED THE HISTORY OF ARCADE SHOOT'EM UPS IS COMING TO XBOX 360! Instill fear in your enemies with devastating attacks and earn the acclaimed title of Master Ace!

24.06.1999

Guwange is 2D vertically scrolling shoot'em up played with a character moving on foot. The game takes place during the Muromachi period in Japan with strong fantasy elements. The shikigami demons possess the people and give them great opportunities, but they die after exactly one year. Three heroes want to get rid of the curse. They must kill the evil deity Guwange, but first they must find five elemental scrolls. The game belongs to the "bullet hell" range of shooters, with lots of bullets on the screen where precise movement and pattern detection is required. The player can choose from three characters, each with a different attack style. They can be moved around the screen and need to shoot enemies and bosses. They have access to basic weapons and special shots, but as the characters move on foot, they cannot shoot enemies on rooftops or freely move around the level when there are structures or obstacles in the way. The player can summon shikigami, increasing firepower. The Xbox 360 version has two additional game modes: Arrange Blue Mode (a more challenging version) and Arrange Xbox 360 mode (small changes in gameplay, for example shikigami is controlled separately with the right analog stick).

27.10.2006

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10.10.2008

Deathsmiles Mega Black Label is an especial edition of the game released for arcades in Japan. It added Sakura as playable character, as well as the Crystal Shrine stage, and Level 999 difficulty level. There are other scoring changes.

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