Overall Feeling:
Deathsmiles is a game that somehow defies the expectations most have about the shmup genre. Even though you still shoot stuff, dodge endless energy pellets and face incredible bosses, the game is far from being your ordinary shmup. A unique art style that is one part Victorian and one part anime/manga combined with gameplay that is fun and relatively easy to get into warrants Deathsmiles a must play for shmup genre enthusiasts.
The Pros:
The art style works well even though it combines 20 different things into a bouillabaisse of awesome. Gameplay is rather addicting and offers a nice amount of challenge on the higher difficulty levels. Really good soundtrack that has a mid-90s retro feel to it. The Achievements are rather easy.
The Cons:
There are a few rather noticeable framerate drops when the action gets really intense. It would’ve been nice if the story was fleshed out a bit more with static cutscenes. The price is a tad high given what the game offers.
So far this year I’ve played a few games that have genuinely surprised me due to how crazy they are. I’m all for games taking a risk and presenting new things to the player, but I’ve had the pleasure of playing games where I didn’t know what the hell was going on. It’s no surprise that most of these befuddling games are from Japan, the land of all things awesome and wacky. The latest contribution from the Japanese video game industry is the North American version of the 2D shmup Deathsmiles. Originally released for the Xbox 360 in Japan three years ago, fans of the s