Small nitpick - it's actually called the "Shooting Festa" (no "i"), which makes it even more amusing. On-topic, Guwange is awesome, despite its infamously unforgiving scoring system, so I very much hope Westerners have some way to get ahold of it...though i pine even more for a disc-based release.

Oh please, let this come over.

I'm wishing with the force of a million exploding suns, is that enough?

I played this game 2 weeks ago finally after constantly seeing it in a friend's place. Game isn't Ibara Black Label crazy, but shit can get complex with walls and walking being a factor to worry about.

though I didn't get far as I wasn't in a Shump mood when I was playing. Though I think the fact Cave heard us out on Futari and Aksys putting out Death Smiles here, I wouldn't be surprised to see this drop in american XBLA.

If only it could come to NA....I dearly hope so.

In the meantime y'all go download Shoot 1up


NOW!

I hope this isn't a desperate attempt at getting the Japanese interested in the console because that ship sunk before launching out to sea. Thank God for MAME on Wii!

Is this Ikaruga 2?

Woo. This is one of my staples every time I load up MAME.

Wow, I really wish shmups would come to the PS3 or something, so I could use a good controller. The d-pad is just not a shmup/fighter d-pad on the 360.

This game is pretty sweet, I hope it gets a domestic release. Failing that, it's not too hard to get Japanese Microsoft points is it?

The name is pronounced goo-wahn-gay.

This is easily my favourite shmup. If this comes over, I'm buying a 360. It's starting to become irresistible.

@BulletMagnet: So, my worse fear was true... the same happen with the old Panzer Dragoon games i think. Oh well, Treasure is working in some new shmup nowadays if i remember correctly, so that will heal the wound. :)

But yeah, is really lame that a company like Treasure can't even make remakes of his classics, because the company is small.

Like many shmups from the past two decades, Guwange is far better than Ikaruga. People only wax poetic over Ikaruga because it's one of less than a handful of arcade shooters Microsoft saw fit to allow on their precious XBLA (probably because it's ugly aesthetic makes it look like something like Gears of War). Seeing Guwange as a download will be nice, but it makes me even more pissed off about Microsoft giving Cave the shaft back in 2008 when they rejected Cave's dreams of putting Dodonpachi Diaoujou and Ketsui (both better than Ikaruga also) up as downloads. Microsoft seems so hellbent on keeping their American XBLA as distinctly American as possible, which means they'll lock out anything with a funny-sounding Japanese name, but it's okay for them to keep re-selling us pizza-parlor shit like Pac-Man and Galaga (a reprehensible trend that will definitely reach its peak with that hideously-cheap-looking Game Room applet). Even fucking iTunes has open avenues for foreign record labels to peddle their wares. The only reason R-Type and R-Type II were given clearance as 'R-Type Dimensions' is because they got smeared over with that ugly HD upgrade and christened with a bunch of lighting effects, etc... all crap to assuage the 1080p audience's endless bitching and whining about the obsolescence of pixel-art and sprites. Essentially Microsoft opened up an arcade that is designed to be as shallow and lowbrow as the ones Americans are used to (Jersey shore boardwalk, Dave-and-Busters). It's a shame crane-games and mechanical basketball hoops can't work in a virtual world or we might have nothing but those.

Sorry to bitch and moan, but I just wish Cave's games would stop coming out exclusively for a system that I absolutely do not want to buy. The fact that I'd have to buy an imported one makes it even worse. If that thing breaks or red-rings (which everyone knows is likely), I don't think I'd be able to send it to any of Microsoft's American customer service people.