I have played a fuck-ton of arcade scrolling shooters at this point. From the beginning of the arcade days with games like Space Invaders and Galaxian, to some of the more advanced in the genre at the time like Gradius and Varth: Operation Thunderstorm, I have basically brought this genre into my daily life, and will continue to keep playing them for many years to come. I dunno, there is just something about this genre that just feels so… right. They are hard as fuck, and yet, incredibly infectious, to where when you get that right set of powerups and start blasting down an endless horde of ships, man does it feel good. So, as such, I decided that I wanted to explore the genre a little more, find some titles that were a little less known when compared to others that I have tried out, and in my search, I have come across the Raiden series.

Before going into this game, I had no clue about what Raiden was all about. I liked the name, even though it is shared with two popular video game characters which make bringing this up in conversation much harder than it needs to, but I had no clue what it was all about, or even who the people that developed it were. Nevertheless, I went into it with as much enthusiasm that I typically would have or a scrolling shooter, and… it was pretty much exactly what you could expect from it. The game was still good at the end of the day, and it does provide the same shmup feel that fans of the genre would be looking for, but it does come off as pretty average when compared to other titles.

The story is, what a shocker, aliens have invaded in the year 2090 (I will be looking forward to that when I am an old man), so it is up to you alone to go take them down, which is the most overused plot at this point, but nobody cares about the plot in one of these games, the graphics are pretty good, but they do blend in with plenty of other games from the same genre of that era, which speaking of, the music also does the exact same thing, sounding pretty competent, but not really leaving much of an impact on my ears, the control is what you would expect from a scrolling shooter, so not much more to add there, and the gameplay is also what you would expect, but again, that isn’t a bad thing in this case.

The game is your typical vertical scrolling shooter, where you take control of the Fighting Thunder, which also sounds like the title for another generic scrolling shooter, go through a set of eight different stages, shoot down as many enemy air fighters, tanks, buildings, and machines as you can using bombs or your regular shot, gather plenty of powerups to give you more of an offensive edge against the foes that you will be facing, and take on plenty of big, bad, and destructive bosses that will keep you on your toes while constantly dodging their fire. It is the perfect blend to satisfy those shmup fanatics, and it manages to be fun for a good while even if it doesn’t really innovate on much.

Like with most of these shmups, the powerups are the things that primarily draw me in, and make or break the experience, and in the case of Raiden, the powerups we get here are limited, but pretty sweet. You get access to two primary shots, those being the regular shot and the lasers, which you can swap between when you find the powerups, and you can also stack them up to where they get much more powerful and versatile the more you grab them. Alongside that, you can also get either regular or homing missiles to help give you that little more of an edge against what will try to shoot you down. These powerups are already pretty effective, and satisfying enough to use, but what elevates them even more would be the use of the P icons. Upon collecting them, they upgrade the weapon you are using to their most powerful form, being able to clear screens of enemies and make short work of bosses, as long as you are careful about where you are moving and you manage to use bombs wisely. It isn’t much different from other games, but again, for what we get here, it is still satisfying to use.

But the game isn’t only generic in terms of its gameplay, no no no. It is typical in terms of its problems too. Arcade syndrome is in full effect here, where there are MANY different enemies that can be on screen at once, many different bullets flying your way in varying patterns, and you only have so many bombs and so much room to move around to deal with all of it. Of course, it isn’t impossible, but you will definitely need plenty of patience and skill to get through a lot of it. What also doesn’t help is that, unlike other games, you can’t just pop a quarter into the machine and pick up from where you died. Instead, there is a checkpoint system that you get sent back to when you get a Game Over, and while you may think that helps, it only does so for a little bit, as you can still get shot down pretty quickly. Not to mention, sometimes the checkpoints can be pretty scarce. This doesn’t make the game bad, mind you, but it just makes the experience more frustrating at points.

Overall, despite the hard-as-fuck difficulty and no real innovation on the genre, Raiden is still a perfectly competent shooter, one that will provide you with a good amount of fun, as well as that challenge for those that are looking for one. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the later games in the series, as well as for fans of shmups in general, as while it may not do anything new, it still is fun all the same. Let’s just hope that, for the next game in the series, they tone down on the difficulty just a bit. I know I can handle plenty of insanely challenging shmups, cause I have beaten like seven Gradius games at this point, but still, even I need a relaxing break every now and then.

Game #441

Played through The Raiden Project this time, a PS1 compilation release of pretty much direct arcade ports of Raiden 1 + 2. I had previously played the "Raiden Trad" versions on SNES and Genesis, both compromised a bit in different ways, but the original itself isn't really all that different. Well, maybe from the SNES version, but what I mean is it wasn't really any more or less engaging for me. It generally feels a lot like Toaplan's vertical shmups, but I find many of those more interesting to discuss than this one.