Deathsmiles
Gameplay. "Deathsmiles" is a horizontal side-scrolling bullet hell where the players and must stop monsters from invading the world of Gilverado. There are 5 playable characters: Windia (Wind Magic), Follett (Fire Magic), Casper (Death Magic), Rosa (Spirit Magic) and Sakura (Magician). There are 8 stages in total, with one being optional. After selecting a character, you can choose from one set of three stages: the Port Town, The Forst of the Lost, and the Lake Shore. After completing any level from the first set, a second set of levels, the Graveyard, the Swamp Wastes, and the Volcano, appears , and a level must be completed there in order to access a level from the first set again. After all 6 initial levels are completed, players can either play a difficult extra level, the Gorge, or head straight to the final level, Hades Castle. There is also a unique approach to difficulty in this game. Before a stage starts, you must pick between 3 levels of difficulty. Level 1 difficulty features easier patterns and gives players 3 bombs per life while Level 3 difficulty features suicide bullets that are fired torwards you after defeating an enemy, as well as one  bomb being given per life. On arcade mode, a difficulty level will be locked out if 2 stages are played on that difficulty level. on Xbox 360 and Version 1.1 mode difficulty levels can be chosen more than twice, so players have to strategize on whether or not they will play all the levels on Level 1 difficulty for a more comfortable experience, or play the levels on Level 3 difficulty for more scoring opportunities. In addition, items hidden in the environment such as life-resoring parfaits and extra bombs can be found on levels selecting with higher difficulty levels . Players have 3 main attacks: a standard shot, a more focused shot, and a "Targeting Area" that locks onto enemies that enter the area. Tapping the shot buttons will produce a standard shot. Holding either shot buttons will slow down your character for more accurate dodging, and your companion fighter will fire projectiles that will pierce enemies, dealing more damage. Holding down both shot buttons will create a "Targeting Area", and any enemy that enters the area will be destroyed. The Targeting Area will decrease your item counter on the bottom left side of the screen. Unlike other shoot 'em  ups, you are given 2 shot buttons to fire either to your left or your right, as enemies can arrive from either direction of the screen. This game also uses a life bar instead of a traditional lives system. When the game begins, the player has a maximum of 3 life bars. Colliding with an enemy will remove one half of the life bar, and colliding with a bullet will remove 1 life bar. When all 3 life bars are depleted, the game ends and the continue screen is shown. Life-restoring parfaits can be found in levels on higher  difficulties and extra life bars are obtained at 20 and 40 million points (this number changes depending on the gamemode). Releases. Mega Black Label. Mega Black Label is a limited (200 copies total) arcade edition of the game released 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. Xbox 360 and PC release. An Xbox 360 port was released in Japan on April 23, 2009, in both regular and limited editions. The Limited Edition includes a "Manabu Namiki Selection Deathsmiles Premium Arrange Album" soundtrack  CD. New game modes include an Xbox 360 mode and Ver 1.1 mode. The player can also adjust the screen brightness, background frame, game screen position and zoom level. Hori produced a controller for the Xbox 360 game that was an Amazon Japan exclusive. On April 8, 2010, the Platinum Collection re-release came out in Japan, containing both the main game and the Mega Black Label downloadable content on the disc. Aksys Games has released the game in North America on June 28, 2010. A Limited Edition was released that includes, along with the game, an exclusive Xbox 360  faceplate and a "Premium Arrange Album" soundtrack CD. As with the Japanese Platinum Collection re-release, the North American port integrates the Mega Black Label (MBL) content, providing a total of 6 game versions selectable from the front-end menu: Arcade, Ver 1.1, Xbox 360, MBL Ver 1.1, MBL Arcade, MBL Xbox 360. The additional playable character, Sakura, is available in the MBL versions. Rising Star Games released the game in Europe on February 18, 2011, as "Deathsmiles: Deluxe Edition". This contained a soundtrack CD and a CD intended for use on the PC including desktop themes. Originally the soundtrack  CD was misprinted and was released as a data CD including the music as .wav files. iOS/Android release. Cave released a port of Deathsmiles on the Apple iOS App Store in 2011. On July 22, 2013, the game was released for Android devices. On September 9, 2019, Cave updated the game's port for compatibility with recent iOS versions, along with the other games that have said ports. PS4, XB1, and Switch release. A compilation of both "Deathsmiles I" and "Deathsmiles II" is set to release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in Japan in 2021. Development . After the release of Progear, Tsuneki Ikeda believed that horizontally scrolling shooters weren't a good fit with the idea of dodging bullets, hinting a potential development switch to vertically scrolling projects instead. A few years later, he decided to revisit the concept, but with an aim to appeal to a broader audience, deterred by hardcore shoot-em-ups. Ikeda pitched a concept for the game that would later become Deathsmiles, explicitly instructing the lead programmer Takashi Ichimura to break out from the usual style of the previous developed games. Cave modeled the characters around the gothic lolita theme, trying  to make use of a then popular Japanese fashion style. The team's idea was to apply a new artistic take to a shooting game, while lending itself to creating "cute" designs at the same time. Media. On the back of the arcade game poster, there is a template for a skirt blowing game. In the game, the player attempts to blow up the skirt or petticoat of the model to see her underwear. The player scores 30 points for blowing up a skirt and 50 points for blowing up a petticoat. Points are deducted if a pumpkin or tombstone  is knocked over. Reception. The game received "favorable" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. In Japan, "Famitsu" gave the X360 version a score of three sevens and one eight, for a total of 29 out of 40, while "Famitsu Xbox 360 Monthly" gave it one eight, one nine, one seven, and one eight, for a total of 32 out of 40.