Deathsmiles II X (Xbox 360) review"Released on the Xbox 360 as a retail title in Japan, it did not meet the same fate elsewhere, dooming it, like so many standalone shoot-em-ups these days, as an NTSC J exclusive. However, the Cave-developed horizontal shooter still managed to find an outlet in the most interesting of places: Xbox Live's Games on Demand US service." |
Deathsmiles II X is a title that has always piqued my curiosity, but more for its unusual predicament as a product than the actual game itself. Released on the Xbox 360 as a retail title in Japan, it did not meet the same fate elsewhere, dooming it, like so many standalone shoot-em-ups these days, as an NTSC J exclusive. However, the Cave-developed horizontal shooter still managed to find an outlet in the most interesting of places: Xbox Live's Games on Demand US service. Here, players are able to download this title easily without the hassle of importing the region-locked Japanese disc. But my curiosity stopped at the purchase option, though not due to its $30 (or 2400 points) tag; for me, the concern was what that $30 entailed. Having played the original Deathsmiles, I enjoyed the experience, what with its trademark bullet hell template by Cave and the... "interesting" scenario of Lolicon-Goth girls battling a demonic outbreak on All-Hallows-Eve. It's fun, but there really isn't anything new or groundbreaking, nothing that made me want to go out of my way to buy a sequel that, on the surface, looks and plays like its predecessor.
Tis the season, though, and since the sequel has a Christmas theme, I figure now would be as good a time as ever to give it a go. Even if the voice acting is in Japanese and all text in its native language, I thought, "Hey, it's a shoot-em-up, what's to miss?" And that's the mindset I had going into the slideshow intro, displaying one of the girls from the previous adventure prancing around a city littered with Christmas decoration. The beginning of this introduction gave the impression that II X would be a lighthearted journey to defuse an insignificant crisis.
Then, the rest of the intro played out, where the girls' caretaker, Dior, lay injured on the ground.
Featured community review by dementedhut (December 24, 2012)
I actually played Rad Mobile in a Japanese arcade as a kid, and the cabinet movement actually made the game more fun than it actually was. Hence, it feeling more like an "interactive" experience than a video game. |
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