Raiden Trad is an over-head vertical-scrolling shooter, based on an arcade game of the same title. It features two forms of weapon upgrades and two types of missiles (normal or homing). You start the game with several bombs which you can use to destroy most enemies on the screen to get yourself out of a jam. Each level ends with a large boss or bosses.
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Cleared on May 7th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 64/160)
You know, having gone through a good chunk of the Sega Genesis library, I've reviewed shoot em ups that go horizontal, 3D, ones that have you go on foot, and even one that goes diagonal, but barring that one level in Twinkle Tale, this is the first vertical shoot em up that I've reviewed, despite the system having so many that I haven't even catalogued them all. Raiden Trad is... ok, I guess. It's nothing special and it gets really really hard.
The first two levels start out easy enough. You still die in one hit, but if you're familiar with the gameplay style, you should be able to manage and if you do well enough, you can get some really beefed up weaponry. You can equip both a missile and a gun at the same time for massive damage output, but the bad news is that there are only two of each type and one is more favorable than the other. For the missiles, you have one that fires a barrage of missiles in a straight line for massive damage which isn't too bad if you end up getting it for boss battles, but the homing missile will fire rapidly and shoot down nearby enemies and the more you collect, the more missiles you fire. As for the gun, you have either a spread shot or a laser. The laser can be good for damage, but when it comes to dealing with enemies, it requires you to move around which may put you in a bad position if you're not careful which is why spread shot is more preferably as at max rank, it can cover almost the entire area which gives you more leeway to focus more on positioning. Much like with the shoot em ups, if you lose a life, you lose all of your powers, but the game does have a bit of a mercy aspect with a fairy that will drop off a few items that you can pick up to barely get back in power. One time when I was down to one life, it just gave me a max power of both the missile and gun which I suppose is supposed to be a last ditch effort. That's a cool touch if that's the case.
Of course, the game demands great precision with your dodges which becomes especially apparent during the 2nd half of the game and even beforehand, Boss 3 and 4 are arguably harder than even the final boss (well, the one before the credits, anyway). Boss 3 in particular is batshit insane with how it just barrages you as soon as you down its weapons in addition to the enemies assisting it. At least to the game's credit, you can utilize bombs to nuke all foes on screen. Oh, and if you aren't using save states, you don't just lose a life and then pick up where you left off, you gotta start back at a checkpoint which I suspect will be a huge annoyance when you think you're so close.
But one thing that stood out to me is that this is probably the first case that I've ran into on the Sega Genesis where it has a post game level that you can go through once the credits finish rolling, and it's fucking brutal even on easy difficulty. Enemies come in fast, enemies shoot fast, high in numbers, harder to take down, and there are points where its down right impossible to get through without your bombs and if you lose a life, you're shit out of luck because weapon upgrades are more scarce then ever before. Not only did I have to save scum to stand a chance, I came up with a new strategy called pause scumming where as soon as the foe shoots, you pause, then you analyze where you can dodge and just go there. It is a useful tactic if you're playing on original hardware. In fact, you're going to need it especially even if you can get to the superboss by some miracle. It's projectiles are already one of the more difficult to avoid, but it takes so much damage and the more damage it takes, the more aggressive its attacks get shooting more space trash at you and just shooting from its mouth and whatever turrets it has left.
The game also gets negative points for having only two level tracks that rotate between 8 levels, the special level doesn't get its own track, and neither the final boss nor the superboss gets its own boss theme either. It's just the normal boss theme.
Overall, it's just a run of the mill vertical shooter. I imagine there are better ones out there in the Genesis line-up.
You know, having gone through a good chunk of the Sega Genesis library, I've reviewed shoot em ups that go horizontal, 3D, ones that have you go on foot, and even one that goes diagonal, but barring that one level in Twinkle Tale, this is the first vertical shoot em up that I've reviewed, despite the system having so many that I haven't even catalogued them all. Raiden Trad is... ok, I guess. It's nothing special and it gets really really hard.
The first two levels start out easy enough. You still die in one hit, but if you're familiar with the gameplay style, you should be able to manage and if you do well enough, you can get some really beefed up weaponry. You can equip both a missile and a gun at the same time for massive damage output, but the bad news is that there are only two of each type and one is more favorable than the other. For the missiles, you have one that fires a barrage of missiles in a straight line for massive damage which isn't too bad if you end up getting it for boss battles, but the homing missile will fire rapidly and shoot down nearby enemies and the more you collect, the more missiles you fire. As for the gun, you have either a spread shot or a laser. The laser can be good for damage, but when it comes to dealing with enemies, it requires you to move around which may put you in a bad position if you're not careful which is why spread shot is more preferably as at max rank, it can cover almost the entire area which gives you more leeway to focus more on positioning. Much like with the shoot em ups, if you lose a life, you lose all of your powers, but the game does have a bit of a mercy aspect with a fairy that will drop off a few items that you can pick up to barely get back in power. One time when I was down to one life, it just gave me a max power of both the missile and gun which I suppose is supposed to be a last ditch effort. That's a cool touch if that's the case.
Of course, the game demands great precision with your dodges which becomes especially apparent during the 2nd half of the game and even beforehand, Boss 3 and 4 are arguably harder than even the final boss (well, the one before the credits, anyway). Boss 3 in particular is batshit insane with how it just barrages you as soon as you down its weapons in addition to the enemies assisting it. At least to the game's credit, you can utilize bombs to nuke all foes on screen. Oh, and if you aren't using save states, you don't just lose a life and then pick up where you left off, you gotta start back at a checkpoint which I suspect will be a huge annoyance when you think you're so close.
But one thing that stood out to me is that this is probably the first case that I've ran into on the Sega Genesis where it has a post game level that you can go through once the credits finish rolling, and it's fucking brutal even on easy difficulty. Enemies come in fast, enemies shoot fast, high in numbers, harder to take down, and there are points where its down right impossible to get through without your bombs and if you lose a life, you're shit out of luck because weapon upgrades are more scarce then ever before. Not only did I have to save scum to stand a chance, I came up with a new strategy called pause scumming where as soon as the foe shoots, you pause, then you analyze where you can dodge and just go there. It is a useful tactic if you're playing on original hardware. In fact, you're going to need it especially even if you can get to the superboss by some miracle. It's projectiles are already one of the more difficult to avoid, but it takes so much damage and the more damage it takes, the more aggressive its attacks get shooting more space trash at you and just shooting from its mouth and whatever turrets it has left.
The game also gets negative points for having only two level tracks that rotate between 8 levels, the special level doesn't get its own track, and neither the final boss nor the superboss gets its own boss theme either. It's just the normal boss theme.
Overall, it's just a run of the mill vertical shooter. I imagine there are better ones out there in the Genesis line-up.
You can take the jank out of Toaplan but you can't take the Toaplan out of jank
I’ve never played Raiden, so I had no real expectations coming into this, and consequently I had myself a pretty good time. It feels like a perfectly functional port of a perfectly functional shooter, perhaps with the difficulty turned down a touch (it’s still plenty hard), and with some graphical and audio downgrades.
The best thing I can say about it is that I don’t have anything, really, that bad to say about it. It’s good, and it made me look more forward to diving deeper into the AC version at some point.
The best thing I can say about it is that I don’t have anything, really, that bad to say about it. It’s good, and it made me look more forward to diving deeper into the AC version at some point.
Like tears in the rain, the name, along with every memory of this game will be erased from my mind as I complete this post.
I've been depressed so I'm just looking through SNES library and try out stuff that I have no idea about. This is a very simple shmup for SNES that looks and sounds like you'd expect a verticle shmup on SNES to. Two weapons and twosubweapons that are fired at the same time with pretty big upgrade trees for both and the fact that the game starts on Earth but goes to space are the only memorable things about it.
I'm usually pretty bad at shmups, but I fired this one on hard difficulty and aside from your ship moving at the speed of a donkey, I haven't had much trouble. Granted, I do usually save at the beginning of each level to not waste continues. Still, with maxed out weapons everything but bosses was just erased, and only a few bosses provided some challenged, mainly because you're slow as hell and that their bullets can disappear from the screen thanks to technical limits.
It's ok.
I've been depressed so I'm just looking through SNES library and try out stuff that I have no idea about. This is a very simple shmup for SNES that looks and sounds like you'd expect a verticle shmup on SNES to. Two weapons and twosubweapons that are fired at the same time with pretty big upgrade trees for both and the fact that the game starts on Earth but goes to space are the only memorable things about it.
I'm usually pretty bad at shmups, but I fired this one on hard difficulty and aside from your ship moving at the speed of a donkey, I haven't had much trouble. Granted, I do usually save at the beginning of each level to not waste continues. Still, with maxed out weapons everything but bosses was just erased, and only a few bosses provided some challenged, mainly because you're slow as hell and that their bullets can disappear from the screen thanks to technical limits.
It's ok.
It's a decent arcade style shooter.
Graphics are not very colourful and look a little dim, but are ultimately fine.
The track was pretty good.
Enemy patterns are rather predictable and the biggest challenge you'll encounter is the kinda sluggish maneuverability you have, though that's a bigger problem during boss battles.
Graphics are not very colourful and look a little dim, but are ultimately fine.
The track was pretty good.
Enemy patterns are rather predictable and the biggest challenge you'll encounter is the kinda sluggish maneuverability you have, though that's a bigger problem during boss battles.
My raiden is very happy taking the submissive role in our relationship, cooking for me, doing housework and being horribly addicted to Barbiturates