Following the welcome weekly cycle of game releases, the Xbox Live arcade for Windows Phone unveils a traditional "up the screen" arcade shooter. The DoDonPachi range started back in 1997, and has proved a long lived title, with six main entries in the franchise. Now it's time to enjoy it on Windows Phone. 

Let's get something straight here, the game will be at a disadvantage by using the touchscreen as the control input, but with no physical stick, developers "Cave" had little choice but to go for a 'drag round the screen' option. You'll get a good taste of it when you die in the demo. And you will die. Lots. And be overwhelmed with weapons and waves of enemies.

You know what? I'm looking forward to it already. I like my games like I like my cheese. Hard, and a bit old school. It looks like DoDonPachi follows the Japanese arcade style of being hard. And I don't mean hard  in terms of "having to try a few times". I mean hard. If you ever played "Darius" in the arcades of your youth... that level of hard. Think Chuck Norris withstanding a small thermonuclear device exploding over Sheffield. That hard.

Costing £3.99 in the Windows Marketplace, we'll have a review in the near future.

[text via Ewan, who's on a plane to the USA for the SXSW media conference]