So what are your favorite Cave games?

[XcessiveNinja17]

Mine are:
- ESP Ra.De. - Such an incredibly bleak and harsh world, and JB-5th is a straight-up cold-blooded killer. Beautiful artwork.
- Guwange X-Box 360 Arrange - Very friendly to casuals while still being crazy and challenging you to get the highest score possible. The twin-stick format could easily be adapated to KB+M control as well. And of course, an even more harsh world than ESP Ra.De. The oni-mask dude is like one of the best character designs ever.
- Mushimesama Futari - I gotta be honest, the first game in the series (which is the one that has just been released on Steam, and which we are in the discussion board for) had worse gameplay than DoDonPachi. But the second game, Futari, is one of the most visually-brilliant and auditorially-amazing arcade games to have ever existed. The X-Box 360 arrange mode is also decently casual-friendly.

Honorable Mentions:
- Dangun Feveron - The gameplay is so unbalanced and unnecessarily-hard... but the soundtrack is so fun!
- Ketsui - Love how the gameplay forces you to take risks and get closer to enemies! It is, however, one of the more difficult Cave games, requiring lots of practice in order to reach the true final boss, since avoiding death is not enough. You also have to understand the scoring system. The stage 1 music is so good, I had it as my phone's alarm tone.
- DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu - The way the game forces you to switch between shot & beam is pretty interesting. Definitely one of the easier games to learn for casuals, while still being extremely challenging.
- Deathsmiles IIX (X-Box 360) - The X-box mode is very casual-friendly, definitely encourages new players to keep trying to achieve a perfect no-miss game. However, the art style of Deathsmiles 1 was a lot better and felt like it had more darkness and depth.
- Akai Katana Shin (X-Box 360) - Kickass rock soundtrack from the late Ryu Umemoto. Unfortunately the gameplay is pretty complicated, but at least the art style and everything else keeps it interesting. Love how the story has a real-history connection.

[Little Game Fairy]

I like the trilogy sequel of sorts to DoDonPachi.

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou, DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu, and DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou.

The lore and story is incredibly depressing and all about war and suffering. But it's probably the most famous Cave series, so I wanted to get good at it.

I'm the best at DoDonPachi DaiOuJou of all Cave games. I've been able to 1cc it, before. Even though it's very difficult. Though I'm not an expert at chaining. I can chain pretty well on the first level and get a fairly decent fraction of the score that pros make.

But on the second stage onward, I'm very bad at chaining, and it's hard enough just for me to not lose ships from level 3 onward.

It's hard to explain, but I'm familiar with the game and I like the feel of it. So, in a way, I like it most.

I haven't made much time for other DoDonPachi games, because I've spent so much time trying to master DaiOuJou.

But I want to spend more time with other DoDonPachi games and I think the direction they went with DaiFukkatsu and SaiDaiOuJou is interesting. I would actually rather have DaiFukkatsu or SaiDaiOuJou on Steam than DaiOuJou.

[Best Fox Ever]

I have all Cave shmups that work with my PAL region Xbox 360. So I got and I have played these games:

Steam:
Mushihimesama
Xbox 360:
Mushihimesama Futari
Guwange
Deathsmiles
Dodonpachi Resurrection (DaiFukkatsu)
Dodonpachi SaiDaiOuJou
Espgaluda II
Muchi Much Pork & Pink Sweets (Ibara Sore Kara)
Akai Katana


CAVE shmups I don't have played (because region locks or I don't have a console/tablet that works with these games):

Dangun Feveron
DonPachi
DoDonPachi
Dodonpachi DaiOuJou (Blissful Death)
Ketsui
Deathsmiles II
ESP Ra. De.
Espgaluda
Ibara
Don Paccin
Progear



So there is plenty of CAVE shmups that I don't have played so it would be impossible to choose which is best. I hope they will release Deathsmiles II on Steam because there is no European version available. And Espgaluda has much better music than Espgaluda II so I would like to play also that! :)

[hoax]

Nothing will ever get as good as Dodonpachi. Its sequel (not counting ddp 2) came close, but the original is perfect. Ketsui is second in my opinion.

[Michel Baie]

My favorite is DDP SaiDaiOuJou.
It has DDP gameplay and great presentation.

Aside from this one, hum...
I'd say, mostly in that order :

- DDP Daifukkatsu ( AKA the easy one, because while I like shmups, I suck at it )
- Deathsmiles 2 ( AKA the other easy game from cave )
- Akai Katana for the arrange version you find on Xbox 360 (once you get the hang of it, throwing giant katanas is fun)
- DDP DaiOuJou ( too hard for me but still great )

[sockesocke]

im more of a casual shmup player so i havent played everything from them but guwange (especially the 360 version) is my fave. its one of the few shmups i can 1cc.

[Morty2989]

Ibara for damn sure. (Huge Battle Garegga fan). I'd drink my morning coffee before work and play that in my cab before heading out every day. Good times.

[Slurp Dog CDXX]

Personally my favorite is Deathsmiles. Mushi Futari is a close #2 though. Espgaluda 2, Guwange, and Deathsmiles 2 are all also fantastic games. Really the only cave shmup I couldn't really get into was Akai Katana, but I think some other stuff I was interested in came out around that time also, so maybe I didn't give it a totally fair shake.

I should hook up my 360 and play some of these again, but it's buried in my closet and I don't have any room on my TV stand, so release them on steam and I'll buy them all over again, Cave!

[espibara]

KETSUI

BEST CAVE SHMUP EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would buy it in a flash, but as 5pb ported it to 360 not sure if we will see a STEAM release

[espibara]

ANy chance of another 5pb release Bullet Soul beng ported?

[Evil Shrimp Of Death]

My best of Cave:
1-Dodonpachi DaiOuJou White Label.
2-Mushihime Sama
3-Ketsui

My Best of Shmup:
1-Raiden DX
2-Dodonpachi DaiOuJou White Label.
3-Strikers 1945 I

[beyert]

My personal favorites from Cave are Ketsui and Progear. I like the way the bullet patterns change speed and trajectory as they travel in those games.

All of their games are very good.

[PAN]

Futari was the first time i'd ever seen these kind of games so i've grown attached to it.

[netdoll]

My favorite Cave games would probably have to be Dodonpachi Daioujou BL and Ketsui, but special mention goes to ESP Ra.De. Can't live without my button tapping :) (and I know it's not a Cave game, but I have to mention Strikers 1999 anyways)