It's way too late for me to be doing this.
I won't limit myself by excluding ports this time around.
1. Ketsui ; It has fast patterns, a smooth difficulty curve that starts off high by Cave's standards, downright badass music and visuals, satisfying rhythmic chirping when you're playing with the game's irresistable and crazy-risky scoring system, and two seperate second loops that
look absolutely ridiculous. This seems like Cave's best game. (Arcade mode)
2. Deathsmiles II ; The internet lied to me, but EOJ did me right. Shocker! Improves upon the original in every way possible. Even visually. And especially in terms of difficulty. Much like Ketsui, the scoring system is ridiculous and irresistable, even for my typically not score-minded self. Great fun to clear. (Arcade mode)
3. DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu ; Strong is a little ridiculous, autobombing put me off like mad initially, and I'm not a fan of the way the game seems built to be easy to clear, but I clearly see the appeal in the game's complicated scoring. Maybe the best-looking of Cave's heavily pre-rendered games, too. (Arcade mode)
4. Senko no Ronde: Dis-United Order ; A great sequel to Grev's original take on Virtual-On. The bombs and assists are great additions that add complexity to the game's basic combat mechanics, but the added variety in character selection takes it so much further. (Arcade mode)
5. Super Street Fighter IV ; Similar to Dis-United Order, really! It's the added character variety that's most important.
6. Vanquish ; This game solved some of the biggest problems with cover shooters. You really can't play it safe, and that is
wonderful. I think the focus on scoring was a little misguided, but the Challenge stages are a better choice anyway. Thankfully, we got both.
7. Virtual-On Force ; While it's clearly not as good as it's predecessor, but the change to a 2V2 game is a radical enough one to make it worth trying. I'll also go ahead and claim that it's a better game than OMG. Hitting enemy A with a dashing melee attack on your way to enemy B is undeniably delicious. Gorgeous, both with and without the arranged visuals.
8. Espgaluda 2: Black Label ; I love that Cave decided to make the second game the total opposite of the first, difficulty-wise. Zesshikai seems a little clunky in terms of how it plays into the game's overall scoring, but I'm not too bothered. (Arcade Mode)
9. Starcraft 2 ; I had a lot of fun playing this game with roommates that actually explained to me how to get beyond the "i have no clue what the hell i'm doing" phase of player skill. I have absolutely no clue how it stacks up to other games in the genre, though.
10. Deathsmiles ; Cute, and was fun to plot out routes in, even if the difficulty curve is both easy and uneven.
x. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown ; Wish I could have played it!
x. Akai Katana ; Wish I could have played it!
