One of CAVE’s legendary bullet-hell shooters is finally on its way to Steam. Announced Friday, Mushihimesama (which translates to “Bug Princess”) is seeing a release very soon for PC via Steam. Originally released in arcades in Japan in 2004, Mushimesama also received a port for the PlayStation 2, as well as a sequel, Mushihimesama Futari, which released in arcades in 2006 and as a region-free release on the Xbox 360 in 2009. However, the first proper stateside release of this series was not until 2011 where both games were released on iOS devices. This HD port will also include the V1.5 mode as optional DLC, which is essentially a remixed version of the game with a new soundtrack. V1.5 was previously only available for two days exclusively on CAVE’s online store, so it is nice to have it see the light of day again.
As its translated name might imply, Mushihimesama is a shooter set in a fantasy world with giant insects. These enemies, known as Koju, attack in droves with a frenzy of projectiles that the player must dodge. Thankfully, the hitbox for the main character is rather small, as is common in CAVE, so navigation through the mazes of bullets on the screen is more manageable. Still, this is a bullet-hell, so it is certainly no cakewalk! The game features several difficulty levels and modes to play in, including one that is a little bit more friendly to newcomers of the genre. Additionally, local co-op, online leaderboards, replay sharing, and Steam achievements have also been thrown into the mix, so this release encourages replayability more than ever before.
Mushihimesama releases on Steam on November 5. Hopefully this is just the first in a long line of CAVE shooters released on the platform.
