Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara

Pink Sweets ピンクスゥイーツ

Pink Sweets (ピンクスゥイーツ abbreviated: PS) is a bullet hell shoot-em-up developed by CAVE in 2006. It was later ported to the XBox 360 in 2011, as a double-pack of Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets.

Story wise, this game is a sequel to Ibara

Gameplay Overview

Controls

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Pink Sweets is a 2-button game in normal play, with an 8 directional joystick for movement.

• Not shooting will build up your Shield and charge your Rose Cracker. 142 frames after the last regular Shot from your ship, the Rose Cracker Gauge is fully charged.

• A: 1) Fires your Shot & Rose Hips. However, pressing the button fast enough will raise the internal autofire rate; 2) In case your Rose Cracker Gauge is fully charged, you will additionally release a Rose Cracker.
• B (press): Cycles through your Rose Hip Formations, if you have any collected on your current life. Cycling between: Forward, Wide, Back, Reverse & Turn in that order.
• B (hold): Fires your Rose Hips only.
• A+B (press): 1) Changes your speed; 2) The current charge of the Rose Cracker Gauge is cancelled.

In-Game HUD

1) Rose Cracker Gauge. When fully charged you'll be able to release a Rose Cracker

2) Speed meter. There are 4 different levels of speed

3) Internal auto-fire rate (#10, #12, #15, #20, #30)

Characters

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Each character has 4 different sub-types to choose from. These types usually have slightly different attacks from Shot Level 1 onwards. Shot Level 0 is the same for each type. The types are decided by which button you press when you select a character: A, B, A+B, and Start.

The 4 types of each character and their Rapid Shot as well as their Wide Shot at Shot Level 3 are as follows.

Gloire De Meidi&Midi
A	Rapid	Six straight shots to the front
	Wide	Five wide shots to the front
B	Rapid	Four straight shots to the front Two straight shots to the back
	Wide	Five wider shots to the front
A+B	Rapid	Four straight shots to the front Two straight shots to the back
	Wide	Five even wider shots to the front
Start	Rapid	Two straight shots to the front Three wide shots to the back
	Wide	Two straight shots and one shot each at 45° to the front One shot each at 45° to the back

Hana Kasumi
A	Rapid	Six missiles to the front and your level 0 Shot
	Wide	Six homing rockets to the front and your level 0 Shot
B	Rapid	Six missiles to the front and your level 0 Shot
	Wide	Six homing rockets to the front and your level 0 Shot
A+B	Rapid	Six missiles to the front and your level 0 Shot
	Wide	3-way homing rockets from each side and your level 0 Shot
Start	Rapid	Six missiles to the front and your level 0 Shot
	Wide	Homing rockets from all sides and your level 0 Shot

Mount Shasta
A	Rapid	Two fixed laser beams to the front
	Wide	Two laser beams to the front (leaning angle 20°)
B	Rapid	One fixed laser beam and your level 0 Shot to the front Single straight shot to the back
	Wide	One laser beam (leaning angle 60°) and a 5-way shot to the front
A+B	Rapid	One fixed laser beam and your level 0 Shot to the front 3-way shot to the back
	Wide	One laser beam (leaning angle 80°) and a 6-way shot to the front Laser locks on to enemies
Start	Rapid	One fixed laser beam to the front 4-way shot to the back
	Wide	One laser beam (leaning angle 90°) and a 6-way shot to the front Laser locks on to enemies

French Lace
A	Rapid	Three straight lightning beams to the front
	Wide	3-way wide lightning up to 30° to each side
B	Rapid	Two straight lightning beams to the front One straight lightning beam to the back
	Wide	3-way wide lightning up to 45° to each side
A+B	Rapid	Two straight lightning beams to the front One straight lightning beam to the back
	Wide	3-way wide lightning up to 60° to each side
Start	Rapid	One straight lightning beam to the front Two straight lightning beams to the back
	Wide	3-way wide lightning up to 90° to each side

Speed

There are four levels of speed you can switch to by pressing A+B anywhere in the game. In terms of speed, Meidi&Midi and Shasta are both faster than Kasumi and Lace. The speed values in the two tables below are measured by counting the frames it takes to cross the screen horizontally. Therefore, a high value corresponds to a slower speed and a low value to a faster speed.

Speed Level	0	1	2	3
Meidi&Midi / Shasta	140	105	71	53

Speed Level	0	1	2	3
Kasumi / Lace	171	128	86	64

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Rank

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There are two separate settings determining the rank in Pink Sweets. Difficulty 1 determines only the starting rank and has no further effect on the gameplay. After the player has started a run, the rank is then gradually increasing determined by difficulty 2, which is the per frame rank increase.

Difficulty 1 (starting rank)	in dec (hex)
Super Easy	16,252,928 (F80,000)
Very Easy	15,728,640 (F00,000)
Easy	15,204,352 (E80,000)
Normal [default]	14,680,064 (E00,000)
Hard	14,155,776 (D80,000)
Very Hard	13,631,488 (D00,000)
Super Hard	13,107,200 (C80,000)
Unbelievable	12,582,912 (C00,000)
Difficulty 2 (per frame rank)
Minimum Slow	4 (4)
Very Slow	8 (8)
Slow	12 (C)
Medium [default]	16 (10)
Fast	20 (14)
Very Fast	24 (18)
Maximum Fast	28 (1C)
Unforgettable	32 (20)

Notes:

• Rank maxes out at 00,000,000 (000,000 in hex) regardless of the difficulty settings.
• Starting rank for Score Attack mode is the same as on Normal.
• Starting rank for Extended mode is 11,010,048 (A80,000 in hex) on loop 1 and 8,257,536 (7E0,000 in hex) on loop 2 on default settings.

Both the overall rank and the per frame rank are influenced by certain actions of the player, e.g. firing your Shot or picking up an item. All of the actions that have an effect on rank are listed in the tables below. Even though, an increase in difficulty is actually measured by a decreasing rank counter, the numbers below are listed as if the rank counter would count up. This is simply to make things easier to follow.

Action	Rank increase in dec (hex)
Death from 0 lives > Game Over	-2,097,152 (-200,000)
Death from 1 life > 0 lives	-1,048,576 (-100,000)
Death from 2 lives > 1 life	-524,288 (-80,000)
Death from 3 lives > 2 lives	-262,144 (-40,000)
Death from 4 lives > 3 lives	-131,072 (-20,000)
Death from 5 lives > 4 lives	-65,536 (-10,000)
Death while on infinite lives	-1,048,576 (-100,000)
Death during Score Attack mode	-524,288 (-80,000)
Speed Change	16,384 (4,000)
Formation Change	4,096 (1,000)
Absorb a bullet w/ Shield or RC	16 (10)
Shoot a destructible bullet	16 (10)
Seal a bullet	1,024 (400)

Notes:

• Simply pressing the A or B button has no effect on rank. It is only the action that counts.
• Grazing enemy bullets has no effect on rank.
• Absorbing enemy lasers with your Rose Cracker has no effect on rank.

Action	Per Frame Rank increase in dec (hex)
Shot Special Power Up	1 (1) [permanent]
Search Formation	1 (1) [permanent]
Rose Hip equipped (per Rose Hip)	10 (A)
Rose Cracker Gauge fully charged	64 (40)

Notes:

• The per frame rank increase from activating Shot Special Power Up and Search Formation stays even after the player dies or unequips them.

Item	Rank increase in dec (hex)
100~900 Medals	256 (100)
1,000~9,000 Medals	1,024 (400)
10,000 Medal	4,096 (1,000)
100pt. Rose Item	256 (100)
200pt. Rose Item	512 (200)
400pt. Rose Item	768 (300)
800pt. Rose Item	1,024 (400)
Power Up Item	16,384 (4,000)
Rose Hip Item	16,384 (4,000)
1-Up Item	524,288 (80,000)

Notes:

• Dropping a medal has no effect on rank.

Attack	Rank increase in dec (hex)
Any character, Shot (power Level 0)	5 (5)
Rose Hip Shot	10 (A)
Rose Cracker	32,768 (8,000)
Meidi&Midi, Twin Shot	5 (5)
Kasumi, Napalm	20 (14)
Kasumi Homing	15 (F)
Shasta, Laser (per frame)	6 (6)
Lace, Lightning (per beam)	60 (3C)

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References

1. Primary info provided by Pearl and Plasmo
2. Rank info from Archer's website: http://archerstg.web.fc2.com/pinksweets/bitterrank.htm