22 May 2011
Updated 10 November 2012

Thankfully, it's been getting easier and easier to enjoy Cave titles outside of Japan. But gaining access to Cave's offerings isn't very straightforward. There's everything from iPhone titles, iPad ones, games that play on both, as well as Xbox downloads and even some region-free Xbox 360 discs. This guide will help you balance all your options and get a grip on where to start building your library of Cave titles.

You may have heard the rumors about how the iOS platform is providing independent developers with a very accessible and easy way to bring games to market. Case in point, Cave has quickly become one of the best game developers on the entire platform, thanks to phenomenal ports of their popular shoot 'em ups as well as new original titles. If you want to quickly and affordably delve into Cave's software library, you'll find that the iPhone or—better yet, thanks to its larger screen and iCade potential—the iPad, offer incredible bang for your buck. Games range from $4 to $14, and—while the upper end of prices seems crazy high in this era of mobile free-to-play games—you'll soon realize that it's still a hell of a deal compared to the alternatives.

DoDonPachi's subtitles actually do represents three different games (Resurrection, Blissful Death, and Maximum). This time it's device compatability that makes life difficult; there are two different versions of Resurrection (HD and non-HD), Blissful Death is only available for iPhone, and Maximum works equally well on both iPhone and iPad. Amusingly, DoDonPachi's different titles summarize Cave's voyage across different devices and experiments with compatability. If you're new to bullet hell games, you're probably best off starting with Maximum. Not only does it reach out a little more to beginners, but its compatability across tablets and phones is a great bonus.

Espgaluda II's various offerings can make your head explode. Not only do you have different versions for iPhone and iPad, but Cave went crazy with pricing variations. Let's start cheap; for the iPhone you can buy the Smartphone version ($3.99) or Arcade version ($3.99) or both packaged together ($7.99). A comparable pricing scheme exists for HD versions that work on both iPhone and iPad for $6.99 each or the $13.99 combo.

Were you to go for maxium value across devices, you should purchase:

No doubt, grabbing all six of the titles above isn't cheap and will cost over $60, but then again, that's about the price of a single top-end Xbox360 or PS3 game today. Since the lone iPhone only game is a bit of an outlier, here's a taste of the awesomeness that can be found in DoDonPachi Blissful Death:

DeathSmiles is special because it's a horizontal shoot 'em up, whereas Cave normally takes the vertical approach. However, Mushihimesama BUG PANIC takes an even more interesting direction. Granted, there's still an emphasis on shooting, but here we have a bona fide run 'n gun, as you can see in this trailer:

Thank you Aksys Games and Rising Stars! At long last, Cave's shoot 'em ups are seeing full releases in the United States and Europe. For Deathsmiles, there's both a regular and limited/deluxe edition, which includes a console face plate and soundtrack CD. The international release of DeathSmiles represents an anomaly in the Cave library. Though Japan is known as land of the shoot 'em up fans, vgchartz.com reveals some surprising sales data for DeathSmiles:

Americas	Japan	Europe	Rest of World
110,000	50,000	40,000	20,000

...and perhaps Cave got the message, because within a year Rising Star Games did another full release of a Cave shoot 'em up in the Americas and Europe.

Xbox 360 Downloads ($10 to $30)

Everyone loves instant gratification, and if you're set on immediately playing a Cave game at home on the big screen, then Guwange is the best place to start for a cool 800 Microsoft Points. You should definitely get a taste for Cave's sort of game before shelling out the big bucks for the region-free import discs.

With DeathSmiles II X, Cave has started a new digital experiment, offering an entire original disc worth of a Japanese import in downloadable form. That means you will find some Japanese text in this title (as if you need to read when you play a shoot 'em up!) and that it has not been localized (some would say corrupted) from its original form. This new approach does not come cheap. Forget Microsoft points, the Xbox GUI prints it in real money terms: $29.99. It's way more expensive than the typical XBLA download, but when you weigh it against the cost of Japanese physical releases that are region-free, you'll see that 30 bones is a pretty attractive price.

Technically, you can also score Akai Katana ($15) through the Games on Demand service, but given the collectability of Cave games and the fact that for some strange reason digital copies of console games rarely seem to be a bargain when physical conuterparts exist, you're probably better off grabbing a real copy of Akai Katana.

Xbox 360 Region-Free Imports ($50 to $100+)

First off, Mushihimesama Futari was released as Bug Princess 2 on iOS. DoDonpachi: Resurrection and Espgaluda II also saw iOS releases, which only leaves Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets. Not coincidentally, the latter is also the most expensive region-free release of the bunch.

Cave is a special developer. If you're a fan of the shoot 'em up genre, stop reading this and buy one of these games. You don't have to splurge on the region-free ones. Do you own an iPhone or iPad? Do you own an Xbox 360? If the answer to either one of these is "yes" then there are some really affordable digital downloads.

Sure, there are other more hardcore options, like chasing after those region-free Japanese releases, but that's never going to help Cave appreciate that gamers outside of Japan are so interested in their titles. So start with the downloads, making your regional location obvious, and if you can give Aksys Games or Risings Star Games some business as well, that would be fantastic because they are heroes for publishing Cave games outside of Japan and they deserve the support.