CAVE has a new shmup they are testing in Japan, called Red Sword (or Red Katana if you want to make it sound cool). It’s not surprising news that Cave has a new shooter coming to arcades – it’s all they do really -but strangely this has attracted some attention on some mainstream gaming blogs, despite the fact that Cave shooters stick to the Japanese market (sans console releases to platforms like XBLA) and their games aren’t terribly accessible to many players today. The attention certainly isn’t a bad thing, it’s simply good example of how useful creating a fanbase for a company can be when it comes to promoting new games in the blogosphere.
Here’s a trailer for the game that makes no sense unless you understand Japanese. No footage from the game being played yet; this site has a brief description of how the game works, it will be a horizontal shooter with selectable characters, where each character has their own unique attacks. Red Sword will be released late summer/early fall.
[Red Sword official site] [Via Am.Net.jp]
“despite the fact that Cave shooters stick to the Japanese market”. This coment reminds me of that Simpsons chapter where they go to Japan only to dinner in Gringoland… If i consume a japanese game, i want it to be a japanese game!!!.
I’m talking about the arcade market – Cave does not promote their coin-op arcade games outside of the Japanese market, i.e. no distributor carries their PCBs or sells their games outside of Asia. There are some exporters that sell them but that’s it.