The US is sorely lacking in one video game department, and that is the bullet hell, cute ‘em up shooter. Fortunately, Aksys is rectifying that by releasing Cave’s Xbox 360 game Deathsmiles in North America. Since it’s such a special and rare release, the company has even announced a special limited edition release which will only be available for a short time. After all, bullet hell games don’t show up every day outside of Japan.

Oddly enough, it looks like the only edition available is the limited edition. So if you’re interested, you don’t really have a choice whether you get a cheaper standard edition or a more costly special edition. Fortunately, the limited edition only costs $49.99…

Aksys is going to do something that many shoot’em up, bullet hell fans probably thought would never happen, it is going to localize the Xbox 360 Cave shooter DeathSmiles for North America. It’s surprising, because the SHMUP genre doesn’t as much love and support as it deserves outside of Japan and because DeathSmiles is notable for its extensive gothic and gothic lolita imagery. A release date and price haven’t been announced yet, but it should be enough for fans for now to know that the game is on its way.

In DeathSmiles, players pick one of four gothic lolita girls, Casper, Follett, Rosa or Windia, and then head out on a journey across multiple levels to try and reach and defeat Tyrannosatan. Each character has life points, instead of lives, so when you’re journeying through the stages you have to be careful not to run out of life points or the game is over. (It helps keep the game flowing without interruptions.) Each character also has a familiar that helps her by attacking enemies or acting as a shield…

Good news importers, Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 comes out November 26, 2009. The Xbox 360 game Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 is not only Cave’s latest bullet hell shoot ‘em up and sequel to Mushihime-sama, it’s also region-free. That means that you can play it, no matter what region your Xbox 360 is.

It’s also notable for another important reason. As Cave told Kotaku, the company made Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 region-free to test the waters, so to speak. If there’s a large import response to the game, then it could mean more Cave region-free games and North American versions of previous Cave shooters like Espgaluda II or Death Smiles. Siliconera helpfully pointed out that the menus are in English, which would make importing even easier.

The Xbox 360 version includes the 1.5 version of Mushihimesama Futari, as well as all previous versions. The game follows the story of the search for a lost prince named Aki, who went into Reco’s forest to stop monstrous insects from preying on his people. Aki never returned, and now his brother Palm goes to find out what happened…