Back in 2004, CAVE released the manic shooter Mushihimesama (Bug Princess translated) into arcades to a warm reception from shmup fans, and two years later released a sequel called Mushihimesama Futari, which was also ported to Xbox 360 in 2009. Then, as most of you probably know, an iOS spinoff based on the Mushihimesama series called Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$6.99/Lite] was released late last year to critical acclaim. It wasn’t the typical CAVE scrolling shooter, and instead was more of a dual-stick action game with similar bullet hell craziness and over-the-top enemies.
Today, CAVE has released a teaser video for their new forthcoming iOS game, and it looks like they’re going back to that original title from 2004 Mushihimesama and bringing it to the App Store as Bug Princess this winter.
We don’t have many solid details on Bug Princess just yet, but based on CAVE’s previous iOS efforts you can bet that there will be all sorts of additional functionality over the original game, like the retooled “smartphone" modes in their other shooters. What we do know is that the game will require at least 3rd generation hardware, which is expected by now from a CAVE release, and that the game is scheduled to launch “winter 2011". While winter is a vague timeframe, the good news is that there’s really only about a month and a half left in 2011, so as long as they stay on schedule we should be playing Bug Princess on our iPhones and iPod touches in the next several weeks.