| CAVE Interactive Co., Ltd. | |
| Native Name: | Japanese: 株式会社ケイブ |
| Type: | Public |
| Foundation: | June 15, 1994 |
| Location City: | Meguro, Tokyo |
| Location Country: | Japan |
| Key People: | Kenichi Takano Tsuneki Ikeda Shinobu Yagawa |
| Industry: | Video games |
| Products: | Bullet hell shoot 'em ups |
| Assets: | JP¥ 1,094,000,000 (FY 2020)[1] |
| Num Employees: | 97 |
| Num Employees Year: | 2020 |
| Subsid: | Beads Mania (merged with Cave on June 1, 2008) Mini4WD Networks Co., Ltd. (44.8% stake) Declease ltd. 2014 (9.2% stake) |
| Homepage: | cave.co.jp |
is a Japanese video game company founded in 1994 by former employees of Toaplan following its bankruptcy. They are known primarily for their "bullet hell" shoot 'em ups; from 1995 up to 2013, CAVE was one of the most prolific shoot 'em up developers in the Japanese market. Alongside this, CAVE has produced a variety of other types games for arcades, home consoles, PCs, and smartphones, also dating back to 1995.
"CAVE" is an acronym for "Computer Art Visual Entertainment".
During a stockholder meeting in August 2011, the company changed the English company name to 'CAVE Interactive Co., Ltd'.[2] However, the foreign www.caveinteractive.com domain name had already been established on May 15, 2011.[3]
Key staff members include Tsuneki Ikeda (director and COO[4]) and Makoto Asada (game development department head[5]) who left the company in 2013.[6] On January 24, 2014, community manager "Masa-King" announced that the Cave-World Twitter and blog were shutting down on February 28, 2014,[7] terminating all existing English social media presence in the west.
Within the Guinness World Records, CAVE holds the record for the "most prolific developer of danmaku shooters", having released 48 games in the genre since 1995 as of October 2010.[8]
CAVE's arcade titles have used various arcade boards over the years. Earlier titles used a CAVE-designed board based on a Motorola 68000 CPU,[22] with later releases moving over to the PolyGame Master hardware,[23] and then, starting with Mushihimesama, onto boards based on the Hitachi SH-3 CPU.[24] [25] CAVE dabbled in PC-based hardware for Deathsmiles II,[26] but switched back to SH-3 for later titles.
| Game | Year | Hardware | Publisher(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DonPachi | 1995 | CAVE 68000 | Atlus | |
| Othello Derby | 1995 | Toaplan Version 2 | Tsukuda Original | |
| DoDonPachi | 1997 | CAVE 68000 | Atlus | |
| Steep Slope Sliders | 1998 | Capcom | ||
| Puzzle Uo Poko | 1998 | CAVE 68000 | Jaleco | |
| ESP Ra.De. | 1998 | CAVE 68000 | Atlus | |
| Dangun Feveron / Fever S.O.S. | 1998 | CAVE 68000 | Nihon System | |
| Guwange | 1999 | CAVE 68000 | Atlus | |
| Progear: Storm of Progear | 2001 | Capcom | ||
| DoDonPachi DaiOuJou | 2002 | AMI | ||
| 2003 | AMI | |||
| Espgaluda | 2003 | AMI | ||
| Mushihimesama | 2004 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Ibara | 2005 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Puzzle! Mushihimetama | 2005 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Espgaluda II | 2005 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Ibara Kuro: Black Label | 2006 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| 2006 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | ||
| Mushihimesama Futari | 2006 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Muchi Muchi Pork! | 2007 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Deathsmiles | 2007 | CAVE CV1000B | AMI | |
| Deathsmiles Mega Black Label | 2008 | CAVE CV1000D | AMI | |
| DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu | 2008 | CAVE CV1000D | AMI | |
| DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Ver 1.5 | 2008 | CAVE CV1000D | AMI | |
| Omatsuri Yasan: Kingyo Sukui | 2009 | CAVE PC | Cave | |
| Omatsuri Yasan: Ganso Takoyaki | 2009 | CAVE PC | Cave | |
| Deathsmiles II: Makai no Merry Christmas | 2009 | CAVE PC | Cave | |
| DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label | 2010 | CAVE CV1000D | Cave | |
| Akai Katana | 2010 | CAVE CV1000D | Cave | |
| DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou | 2012 | CAVE CV1000D | Cave | |
| DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou EXA Label | 2020 | exA-Arcadia | exA-Arcadia | |
| Akai Katana EXA Label | 2021 | exA-Arcadia | exA-Arcadia |
On March 28, 2013 Cave released a special bundle called which contained all Xbox 360 titles published by them to that date (Akai Katana, Deathsmiles, Deathsmiles IIX, DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label, DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.5, Espgaluda II, Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets, Mushihimesama, Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5, and a download voucher for Guwange on XBLA), a disc containing all DLC for the aforementioned titles, 7 "superplay" DVDs, and a 10-disc soundtrack selection with songs from all of the included games except Guwange.[27] This bundle was re-released as Cave Shooting Collection Complete on May 22, 2014 including DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou but not including the soundtrack collection.[28]
| Game | Year | System | Publisher(s) | JP | NA | EU | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delisoba Deluxe | 1995 | ||||||
| Touge: King the Spirits | 1995 | ||||||
| DonPachi | 1996 | ||||||
| DonPachi | 1996 | SPS | |||||
| Touge: King the Spirits 2 | 1997 | ||||||
| DoDonPachi | 1997 | ||||||
| Steep Slope Sliders | 1997 | ||||||
| Peak Performance | 1997 | ||||||
| Trick'N Snowboarder | 1999 | ||||||
| Touge Max 2 | 1999 | ||||||
| Touge Max G | 2000 | ||||||
| Snowboard Heaven | 2000 | ||||||
| 2001 | |||||||
| DoDonPachi DaiOuJou | 2003 | ||||||
| Espgaluda | 2004 | ||||||
| Mushihimesama | 2005 | ||||||
| Ibara | 2006 | ||||||
| 2007 | |||||||
| Princess Debut | 2008 | Cave (JP) Natsume Inc. (NA) Midway (EU) | |||||
| Ketsui Death Label | 2008 | ||||||
| DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label Extra | 2009 | ||||||
| Deathsmiles | 2009 | Cave (JP) Aksys Games (NA) Rising Star Games (EU) | |||||
| Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 | 2009 | Cave | |||||
| Espgaluda II Black Label | 2010 | Cave | |||||
| 2010 | |||||||
| Deathsmiles IIX: Makai no Merry Christmas | 2010 | Cave | |||||
| Guwange | 2010 | Cave | |||||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection | 2010 | Cave (JP) Rising Star Games (EU) | |||||
| DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label | 2011 | Cave | |||||
| Muchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets: Ibara Sore Kara | 2011 | Cave | |||||
| Nin2-Jump | 2011 | Cave | |||||
| Akai Katana | 2011 | Cave (JP) Rising Star Games (NA & EU) | |||||
| Instant Brain | 2011 | Cave | |||||
| DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Double Pack | 2012 | Cave | |||||
| Mushihimesama HD | 2012 | Cave | |||||
| DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou | 2013 | Cave | |||||
| 2013 | |||||||
| Mushihimesama HD | 2015 | Degica | |||||
| Deathsmiles | 2016 | Degica | |||||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection | 2016 | Degica | |||||
| Dangun Feveron | 2017 | ||||||
| 2018 | |||||||
| ESP Ra.De. Psi | 2019 | ||||||
| Mushihimesama HD | 2021 | LiveWire | |||||
| Espgaluda II | 2021 | LiveWire | |||||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection | 2021 | LiveWire | |||||
| Deathsmiles I･II | 2021 | City Connection | |||||
| Akai Katana | 2022 | City Connection |
| Game | Year | Platform | Publisher(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja Tower | 2004 | Mobile | Nuvo Studios | |
| Loveny's Picture Book | 2006 | Mobile | Cave | |
| Switch | 2008 | Mobile | Cave | |
| Espgaluda II | 2010 | Cave | ||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection | 2010 | Cave | ||
| Mushihimesama Bug Panic | 2010 | Cave | ||
| Deathsmiles | 2011 | Cave | ||
| Espgaluda II HD | 2011 | Cave | ||
| Bug Princess | 2011 | Cave | ||
| DoDonPachi Blissful Death | 2012 | Cave | ||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection HD | 2012 | Cave | ||
| Bug Princess 2 | 2012 | Cave | ||
| Bug Princess 2 Black Label | 2012 | Cave | ||
| Espgaluda II | 2012 | G-Gee | ||
| DoDonPachi Resurrection | 2012 | G-Gee | ||
| DoDonPachi Maximum | 2012 | Cave | ||
| Mushihimesama BUG PANIC | 2013 | G-Gee | ||
| Deathsmiles | 2013 | G-Gee | ||
| Hello Kitty Puzzle Chains | 2014 | Mobage | ||
| Don Paccin | 2014 | Mobage | ||
| PSYCHO-PASS Koushiki Appli | 2015 | Cave | ||
| 2015 | Cave | |||
| DoDonPachi Ichimen Bancho | 2015 | Cave | ||
| Cube Drop | 2016 | Cave | ||
| Lord of Dungeon | 2017 | Cave | ||
| Sangoku Justice | 2018 | Cave | ||
| World Witches United Front | 2020 | Cave | ||
| Touhou Gensou Eclipse | 2023 | iOS, Android | Cave |