Bullet-hell iPhone shooter DeathSmiles getting 'big' update on August 6th; will add new items, weapons, mini-games, and more

Cave's horizontal iPhone shooter DeathSmiles will soon receive the 'big update' treatment, with new costumes, items, weapons, music, and mini-games all set to make an appearance.

Unfortunately, you can't access all of the new content by simply downloading the update, so you'll have to work your little backside off for it.

The new costumes for Tiara, for example, can be unlocked by "fulfilling conditions", with the new BGM only unlockable through a "special trick".

What that trick is, we just don't know, but we have been given this clue: "Flash flash? Tap tap!" Hmmmm.

There's also a new Jigsaw mini-game to complete, which unlocks an original illustration by Yukinatsu Mori, and brand new weapons from other Cave shmups Guwange and DoDonPachi Resurrection.

Finally, new items that increase the game's item drop rate, and highly requested features such as screen orientation will also be included.

For the historians out there, DeathSmiles was originally released in arcades back in 2007, before being ported to the Xbox 360 in 2009.

Cave will be streaming a preview of the latest update via its Ustream channel on August 5th at 11AM GMT, if you want to get an early look at the action. A "surprise announcement" is also teased.

The stream will be in Japanese, but will be accompanied by an English blog.

You can grab DeathSmiles from the App Store in anticipation for £7.99 / $11.99 / €9.99.