People who love obscure video games now have another ally on their side. Rising Star Games, which brought games like Contact, Little King’s Story, Rune Factory, Harvest Moon and Bit.Trip Saga to Europe, is now going to be publishing games in North America as well. It just opened an office in California.

Everybody loves new game announcements, and I think information about the iOS port of Cave’s Deathsmiles counts even though we’ve known the game is in development for a few months. We still don’t know when we’ll get to experience an all new, adorable, bullet-hell shooter on our portable devices, but we do know that it’s going to be a lot different than we expected. Cave isn’t just porting the shooter to the iPhone, it’s adding in lots of extra content.

I mean, an all new gameplay mode is pretty huge. That’s what Deathsmiles iOS port is getting…

A big first is coming up soon, as the Xbox 360′s Games on Demand service is going to be host to its first import game. Shmup fans will be pleased to know that the title in question is Cave’s Deathsmiles IIX, or Deathsmiles 2X if you prefer, the sequel to Cave’s Deathsmiles. Unfortunately, Deathsmiles IIX isn’t getting an English, retail release from Aksys like Deathsmiles did. If you want Deathsmiles IIX, you’re going to have to download it and deal with Japanese text.

Thankfully, text isn’t a big deal when it comes to bullet hell shoot’em ups (Or in this case, cute’em up?) like Deathsmiles IIX…

Cave producer, Makoto Asada has announced that Guwange will be given a worldwide release on Xbox Live Arcade which means it will join Ikaruga and Triggerheart Excelica in the ranks of excellent SHUMPs on the service. While no release date or price has yet been given, its a safe bet that SHUMP (Shoot’em Up / Shooter) fans are already salivating over the thought of taking on giant demon baby creatures and kitty-spiders and other crazy mythological Japanese demon beings (did I mention this is yet ANOTHER insane Cave shooter?).

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…

I’m so glad to hear that Natsume is localizing Princess Debut rather than Ubisoft. I know Natsume will do a great job with it. Princess Debut, also known as Ohimesama Debut, is a dancing game in which players step in for a princess to enter a dance competition with one of six elligible princes. The bottom screen offers patterns to follow to make the princess substitute dance.

The game is also a bit of a simulation. You have to practice and learn dances to succeed. You also have to meet princes and build a relationship in order to find a suitable dancing partner. There’s only one month before the ball and dance competition, so players have to work fast to become fabulous ballroom dancers once the game is released in Fall 2008.

Title: Ohimesama DebutPrice: $48.90 (Wait a while, it it’s coming to North America)System(s): DSRelease Date: May 29, 2008Publisher (Developer): Cave (Cave)ESRB Rating: N/A; Cero A (All Ages)Pros: Touchscreen dancing is fun, the story is charming and there’s a nice simulation/dating sim aspect following the six princes.Cons: Most of the girl’s costumes aren’t cute. The 3D versions of the characters are hideous. Dances are only challenging initially, until you learn the patterns.Overall Score: 7.5/10As many are aware, I am fortunate enough to have some friends who also import video games from Japan. This means I get to sample games I normally wouldn’t play, and, in the case of Ohimesama Debut, be pleasantly surprised.

Yes, an Ouendan-loving friend of mine bought Ohimesama Debut. Since it has multiple save slots, she was gracious enough to let me claim one. Of course when Natsume releases it in the US, I totally intend on buying a copy.

Ohimesama Debut is a surprisingly fun game, though I don’t think we’ll see many boys or men running to stores to pick it up. Even though there are some less than pleasant visuals, the gameplay and entertaining concept make up for it. If Natsume hadn’t localized it as Princess Debut, I’d have bet money that Ubisoft would have brought it over as Imagine: Ballroom Dancer.