There's no doubt that Deathsmiles is bound to garner some attention for its clearly underage witchy schoolgirl protagonists who must battle through evil hordes and demonic forces in provocative attire. However, this gothic-themed Lolita shooter isn't haphazardly slapped together by just anyone. It's a finely honed bullet-hell shoot-'em-up crafted by Cave--the Japanese developer responsible for a remarkable number of insane arcade shooter games in the east. As such, the game is less about catering to pervy-minded gamers who get cheap thrills from a few up-skirt shots and more about delivering a seriously palm-sweat-inducing ride through a deadly hailstorm of insurmountable bullet fire. It's a bit of a rare treat for stateside gamers to get a shot at surviving the psychotic deluge dished out by Cave games, short of importing them at a high price. Games like Deathsmiles make it well worth the wait because the glut of play modes, crazy gameplay, and over-the-top boss battles draw you into a twitch-laden vortex from which it's brutally hard to escape. And you won't want to escape.
As an arcade game that revolves around sending throngs of satanic beasties to their doom, Deathsmiles doesn't concern itself with the most elaborate of plots, and that's fine. A handful of little girls have mysteriously been plucked from their normal existences in the mortal realm and dropped into a twisted alternate dimension called Gilverado. There, these young "angels" develop mystical powers and the ability to summon friendly demonic familiars to their side. Capable of unleashing a potent array of firepower, the girls are enlisted to help the king keep peace in the kingdom. Unfortunately for them, it's not long before the gates of hell are thrown open and a torrent of rampaging creatures is unleashed across the land. There are scores of vile monsters storming your way, and you need to blast the living hell out of them.
After selecting the girl of your choice, you set off to slay monsters across dank swamplands, creepy castles, molten crevices, rancid graveyards, and other terrain. Every location throws a swarm of gnarly creatures at you, and enemies approach from all four sides of the screen, forcing you to frequently change your firing direction to compensate. The left and right triggers switch up your shooting direction, and the face buttons can also be used to engage a more powerful attack in either direction. The trade-off for using these heftier blasts is a slower movement-response time, but it's necessary during boss battles and when facing larger enemies. Your handy little familiar helps out as well. It floats around and fires along with you, so you can position it strategically to block some bullets and blast at enemies approaching from blind spots. And because no bullet-hell game would be complete without a screen-destroying explosion button to wipe out everything in sight, Deathsmiles has that too. Monsters drop glowing skulls that you'll gather to boost your score and your kill meter. When it maxes out at 1,000 kills, you can trigger a power-up mode that substantially boosts your score and firepower for a short time.
