CAVE

CAVE Co. LTD.

CAVE Interactive Co., LTD (CAVE) is a game developer that specialized in making bullet hell STGs for the arcade. Established in 1994 by former Toaplan employees, they would go on to create many iconic STG franchises, such as DonPachi and Mushihimesama, as well as one-off games such as Ketsui and Guwange.

"CAVE" is an acronym for "Computer Art Visual Entertainment".

General Play Style

CAVE games have become very well-known and synonymous with the bullet hell sub-genre of shooting games, with their later games especially pushing huge bullet counts and dense, complex patterns.

CAVE games are also well-known for having highly esoteric scoring systems, and small player hitboxes, with some titles such as Mushihimesama Futari and DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu featuring hitboxes as small as one pixel, allowing them to weave through massive brain-bending patterns.

Earlier CAVE titles featured basic power-up systems, downgrading the player on death, but their later work often put the player at a fixed power level throughout the entire game.

Shooting games developed by CAVE

DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm is not on this list as it is not a game developed by CAVE. Bee Storm is listed under the DonPachi series.

Game	Year	Publisher(s)
DonPachi	1995	Atlus
DoDonPachi (DDP)	1997	Atlus
ESP Ra.De.	1998	Atlus
Dangun Feveron / Fever S.O.S.	1998	Nihon System
Guwange	1999	Atlus
Progear	2001	Capcom
DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou (DOJ)	2002	AMI
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi	2003	AMI
Espgaluda	2003	AMI
Mushihimesama	2004	AMI
Ibara	2005	AMI
Espgaluda II	2005	AMI
Ibara Kuro: Black Label	2006	AMI
Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara	2006	AMI
Mushihimesama Futari	2006	AMI
Muchi Muchi Pork!	2007	AMI
Deathsmiles	2007	AMI
Deathsmiles Mega Black Label	2008	AMI
DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu (DFK)	2008	AMI
Deathsmiles II	2009	AMI
DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label (DFK BL)	2010	AMI
Akai Katana	2010	CAVE
DoDonPachi MAXIMUM	2012	CAVE
DoDonPachi Saidaioujou (SDOJ)	2012	CAVE