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IGN Review of DeathSmiles
Two-dimensional shooters tend to be predictable affairs only truly appreciated by the hardcore fans who love the sight of their television screen covered with bullets. Deathsmiles is a solid shooter with some fun sights to see, but it's a niche game made for a small audience. If you count yourself among the ranks of 2D shooter fans, you'll enjoy this outing. The real problem, though, is that Deathsmiles would seem to make more sense as a cheap Xbox Live Arcade game than the $50 retail game it is.
Deathsmiles is a gothic horror shooter with Lolita characters. So instead of shooting spaceships you'll be blasting demons and monsters with cute anime girls in Victorian clothing. Don't enjoy the girls too much, though -- they're all under 18. There are some very cool end bosses to battle including a giant face tethered to the ground, a Poltergeist-style haunted tree, and an enormous bull that would dwarf Paul Bunyan's sidekick. The game supports two players locally and online, which is a nice touch.
There are several girls to choose from, each with her own "familiar," or little creature that flies beside them and helps shoot down bad guys. Think of your familiar like the Options you can earn in Gradius, except they're permanently by your side. Besides their appearances, the girls all have subtle differences in their behaviors.
An aspect of Deathsmiles you don't always see in shmups is the ability to shoot both left and right. Enemies will stream in from both sides of the screen and you can use the left and right triggers on your controller to cover all your bases. You are given three bombs you can use to deal heavy damage to everything on screen. The X button can be held to lock onto enemies that are close enough to you.
If you play Score Attack mode you'll be able to upload your score to the Xbox Live leaderboards. Replays can be saved locally and the top 20 can be downloaded so you can study their methods.
The graphics are nice but not stunning. "Xbox 360" mode updates the visuals so you can play in crisper, higher resolution. You can choose to play with the original highly pixilated arcade visuals, which I rather like, but then you are restricted to a smaller gameplay window.
Fans of achievement points should note that Deathsmiles generously deals them out for even the most trivial accomplishments. It thinks pausing your game is worth five achievement points, for instance.
This is a fun shooter, but I'm not sure it's $50 worth of fun. By nature it's a short, simple affair you're only going to play in short bursts. These sorts of games make perfect sense on Xbox Live Arcade, as we've seen with Ikaruga and Alien Hominid. A retail release feels excessive and unnecessary for a three-year old arcade shooter. I do appreciate the fact that they added new modes and updated the game a bit from its original version. You can now play the Mega Black Label mode and enjoy a new playable character, new level, and higher difficulty setting.
©2010-06-30, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Deathsmiles is a gothic horror shooter with Lolita characters. So instead of shooting spaceships you'll be blasting demons and monsters with cute anime girls in Victorian clothing. Don't enjoy the girls too much, though -- they're all under 18. There are some very cool end bosses to battle including a giant face tethered to the ground, a Poltergeist-style haunted tree, and an enormous bull that would dwarf Paul Bunyan's sidekick. The game supports two players locally and online, which is a nice touch.
There are several girls to choose from, each with her own "familiar," or little creature that flies beside them and helps shoot down bad guys. Think of your familiar like the Options you can earn in Gradius, except they're permanently by your side. Besides their appearances, the girls all have subtle differences in their behaviors.
An aspect of Deathsmiles you don't always see in shmups is the ability to shoot both left and right. Enemies will stream in from both sides of the screen and you can use the left and right triggers on your controller to cover all your bases. You are given three bombs you can use to deal heavy damage to everything on screen. The X button can be held to lock onto enemies that are close enough to you.
If you play Score Attack mode you'll be able to upload your score to the Xbox Live leaderboards. Replays can be saved locally and the top 20 can be downloaded so you can study their methods.
The graphics are nice but not stunning. "Xbox 360" mode updates the visuals so you can play in crisper, higher resolution. You can choose to play with the original highly pixilated arcade visuals, which I rather like, but then you are restricted to a smaller gameplay window.
Fans of achievement points should note that Deathsmiles generously deals them out for even the most trivial accomplishments. It thinks pausing your game is worth five achievement points, for instance.
This is a fun shooter, but I'm not sure it's $50 worth of fun. By nature it's a short, simple affair you're only going to play in short bursts. These sorts of games make perfect sense on Xbox Live Arcade, as we've seen with Ikaruga and Alien Hominid. A retail release feels excessive and unnecessary for a three-year old arcade shooter. I do appreciate the fact that they added new modes and updated the game a bit from its original version. You can now play the Mega Black Label mode and enjoy a new playable character, new level, and higher difficulty setting.
©2010-06-30, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved