Initial Impressions: Muchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets

Muchi Muchi Pork!

Cave have decided to release two of their Shmup's in one pack, the first game we are going to take a look at is Muchi Muchi Pork! Apparently Muchi Muchi is a greeting on the phone so loosely translated the title is Hello Pork!) So just what does a game called Hello Pork! entail? Well basically you blow the crap out of everything in sight.

In Muchi Muchi Pork! the basic aim of the game from what I can tell is to basically free all the pigs that have been captured and stored on board enemy ships and vehicles. Shooting one of the ships sees a pig with a parachute appear on screen which upon seeing my son said "Are those pigs with parachutes? You don't half play some crap!" which I have to admit is the case some of the time, but every now and then crap looking games deserved to be played. (E.D.F. and Onchanbara: Bikini Zombie Squad being two of them)


As far as weapons go you have your standard gun which with a few upgrades adds a wide shot to do more damage. Then you also have a type of grinder that shoots out from the front of your ship (each one different depending on which you choose) which grinds the ships and pigs into large chunks of meat for some reason.

As far as shooters go this game isn't to bad an overall experience, yet I have to say that the sound while playing isn't worth a shit though, luckily enough though you are to busy shooting everything in site to care about it. Graphically the game isn't amazing to watch, yet while playing you hardly notice with all the pig catching action. As shooters go this is probably one of the more easier games to play and as such is ideal for beginners to the genre.

Pink Sweets

Cave 's other shooter in this pack is again another shmup that is slightly harder than Muchi Muchi Pork! (at least it seems to be after playing the two games one after the other) The storyline in this game I have no idea about. The game is just as mental as Muchi Muchi Pork! only for different reasons. (The bosses seem to be scantily clad girls in giant robots for some reason)


While being a bit mental the game looks a lot more like a shooter that you could have played back in the day at any holiday/seaside resort arcade. This game is probably my least favourite of the 2 games in the pack if only for the reason that I felt like I had played the game a million times before. That is one of the stigma's of the Shmup genre though as a lot of the games do seem to be to similar for some players. (Myself included at times) Lets break it down Shmups are normally either top down, side scrolling or both, (3d doesn't count in my book as most 3d Shmups suck) and that really does put a lot of people off playing these types of games as you would do say a generic platform game or halo medal of duty clone number 67.

With that being said though Pink Sweets is still a solid Shmup and is definitely worth taking a look at. (especially considering that the game comes in this double pack) Cave are known as the best in the business in the Shmup genre these days and with good reason as they create solid shmup after shmup. (Yes they are that good) So just what makes Pink Sweets a great game? Well er.. nothing really it is just another quality example of how a Shmup should be.

Long story short is this double pack worth your money to import from play-asia or somewhere else? Well if they were seperate games then I would say no, as a double pack? er.. probably still no until the price comes down a bit or your fanatical about Shmups as £57 is a bit steep in my book even if it does include basic shipping. (Plus all the text is in Japanese to further put more gamers of purchasing) Muchi Muchi Pork! and Pink Sweets are both great solid examples of the Shmup genre, it's just a shame so many people will never experience the games.

Initial Impressions: Deathsmiles

It seems like an eternity since I last played a shoot 'em up like Deathsmiles, for some reason this genre of game is very hit and miss with gamers. I always think back to the 80's-90's arcade scene whenever I hear the word shmup, with games like Gradius, Pow 'n Twinbee and R-type probably being some of my favourite games of the genre.


Deathsmiles however fits into the category of pretty f'n weird Japanese shooters, (at least that's where I would put it) yet despite that Deathsmiles is pretty fun and shouldn't be overlooked. One thing that I like about this game is that before starting each stage is that you can pick the difficulty level, so if your finding that the game is a bit to easy you can always up the difficulty level. Cave have really catered for the newbies to the shmup genre. Which is good as it makes the game a lot more accessible than say Ikaruga and won't put people off playing other shmup's.

Deathsmiles features a storyline which I didn't really pay any attention to until the end. Basically 4 girls (selectable characters) who are all friends, have been trapped in another world and are trying to stop some dude from connecting the world they are trapped in to the Demon world. As far as the storyline go it does make a change to the usual crap about fighting off invaders from out of space. (It's probably just a matter of time until we get a storyline about a sperm being ejaculated from a penis and fighting your way to fertilize an egg in one of the more crazy Japanese shmup's)

Spanning about 8-9 stages this game will take about an hour and a half to 2 hours per play through. (although I could be wrong as I just put it on and played until completion without looking at the time) Graphically the game doesn't look to shabby (although it is hard at times to keep up with everything happening on screen as you switch direction to shoot the enemies) Cave have made a pretty good game with Deathsmiles, and the Pal version has been updated with extra modes and tweaks to the original 360 Japanese version. (That originally saw a release around 2-3 years ago)


Deathsmiles while being cheap (£17.99 from play.com) may not hold your attention for more than a day here and there. Especially in today's climate where games are mainly just thrown to one side rather than replayed more than a few times like back in the day, So for these reasons you may want to give the game a rent rather than a purchase. Although if you do like it please purchase the game so we may see other Shmup's being released in the future, and also to show your support for Cave and all the work they do.