It may be pretty obscure and generic when compared to many of the different shmups to have come out from the late 80’s to early 90’s, but all in all, the original Raiden was still a good enough time. It had fun and challenging gameplay, great weapons and weapon mechanics to mess around with, and it did feel immensely satisfying to get through some of these extremely challenging sections that were present in the game, despite arcade syndrome and its checkpoint system being a pain in the ass to deal with. Not only that, but it managed to do pretty well for itself as well, becoming one of the best-sellers for the arcade during its initial years, even if things were a tad slow at first, which meant that sequels were naturally going to follow. I mean, why not, it’s not like Seibu Kaihatsu had any other extremely popular games before this one… unless you are a huge fan of Dynamite Duke. But anyway, three years after the original game would come out, we would end up getting the sequel, Raiden II.
I wasn’t expecting too much out of this game, since it didn’t look like anything too impressive considering the screenshots I had seen from it, but I was hoping to get something noteworthy considering how long it took me to set it up. I had initially tried to get the game running on the totally legal Mame emulator, but I for the life of me couldn’t find the proper files for the rom online, whether it be due to roms not having it, or other websites preventing me from looking elsewhere because of my adblocker. So, eventually, I just decided to go with the version found on The Raiden Project, a collection for the PlayStation that features both Raiden 1 and 2 on it, with the port pretty much being one-to-one with the original arcade version. That was great to find, so I finally got the chance to jump into it, and what I got was… certainly more Raiden, alright. I would say it is better than the original Raiden, but that is only be a small margin, as in many ways, they are very similar in quality, but I did end up having a good enough time with the game anyway, so that is all that matters.
The story fills all the requirements of an arcade shmup sequel, where three years after their defeat, the Crystals return to take over Earth once again, thanks to the remnants of their machines forming a brand new army to take the planet over, so it is up to the Fighting Thunder to set out once again to take them down, which is about as generic as a sequel plot can get, but then again, I wasn’t expecting much from the story regardless. The graphics are practically identical to that of the original game, with only slight improvements seen here or there in terms of the icons and animations, but it still overall looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of decent tracks to listen to while blowing shit up, but nothing that managed to stick with me when I was done, and the control/gameplay is also practically identical to that of the original game, so any fan of the original can feel right at home with this game.
The game is a vertical scrolling shmup, where you take control of a Fighting Viper, go through eight different stages across several generic environments on Earth and in space, shoot down any enemy that comes your way using whatever weapons that you have at your disposal, gather plenty of different power ups and bombs to get yourself better equipped for the task, while also upgrading said power ups to their maximum potential, and take on plenty of big, threatening bosses that will give you a pretty rough time if you are not a god at dodging and firing back. A lot of this is what you would expect not just from Raiden, but from any other shmup of this era, although to its credit, it still manages to be fun enough for what we get here, and there are one or two new additions that do make things a little more interesting.
In terms of the main gameplay mechanics, nothing is changed: you are still flying along, shooting people down, and trying not to die, but what you shoot down people with has been improved upon in this installment. Most of the weapons and missiles that you get, along with the power ups that can upgrade them, are the exact same, with the exception of a brand new weapon known as the Bend Plasma. At first, when you get it, it doesn’t seem like much, just another regular shot weapon for your ship, but then when you fully upgrade it, it basically takes the form of a Proton Pack, with it being a laser that automatically homes in on whatever enemy is near, which makes it an instant favorite of mine. I love me some all-powerful lasers, and having one that can also home in on people is oh so sweet to get your hands on.
Right alongside this is a new type of bomb known as the Cluster Bomb, which is basically just one bomb containing a bunch of smaller bombs, which are deployed upon use and will consecutively blow up whatever is around you. I don’t think I prefer this one over the regular bomb, as it just does a lot more damage, but this one does cover a much wider range, so it could be useful for taking out any smaller enemies that are surrounding you at all sides, which is nice. And finally, for one last tiny change that was made to the game: the checkpoint system is gone, with it working much more like a regular arcade game whenever you die, and thank god for that too. Makes things a lot less stressful.
With that being said though, it doesn’t eliminate all stress completely. Just like with the original game, arcade syndrome is in full force, as you will be dealing with plenty of things at once shooting at you from all directions, and you need to be a shmup master in order to get through a lot of it. I don’t think I would say this is as hard as something like Truxton II, but it can still get pretty damn difficult. Aside from that though, there isn’t really much else I can say about this game. It is essentially just a slightly better Raiden, which is great to see, especially since it has its own set of stages, bosses, and different power ups to try out, but if you weren’t captivated by what the original Raiden gave you, then this game most likely won’t change your mind on that.
Overall, despite a major lack of change and how it is still incredibly difficult, Raiden II is a step in the right direction from the original game, and just a good game in general, taking everything that worked from the original game, improving on it with some changes and new additions, and just making for a really solid time that any shmup fan could get behind. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original Raiden, as well as for all those shmup fanatics out there, because while this is far from one of the best ones out there, it still manages to provide the explosive and challenging fun that many would look for from one of these games, and that’s all that matters. But before we go though, I do wanna briefly go over the slightly updated version of this game that was released just a year after this game, Raiden DX. Not much was changed with this version, except there are now a couple of new modes to try out that do change up how the game plays, which is cool, but it doesn’t really alter anything too much to where I would say you need to jump on it if you loved the original so much. And… that’s about it. I would go ahead and ask that the next game in this series tones down the difficulty like I did last time, but seeing as this game didn’t do that, I can only assume it will keep going up from here, and I will be dead by the time I reach Raiden V.
Game #537
I wasn’t expecting too much out of this game, since it didn’t look like anything too impressive considering the screenshots I had seen from it, but I was hoping to get something noteworthy considering how long it took me to set it up. I had initially tried to get the game running on the totally legal Mame emulator, but I for the life of me couldn’t find the proper files for the rom online, whether it be due to roms not having it, or other websites preventing me from looking elsewhere because of my adblocker. So, eventually, I just decided to go with the version found on The Raiden Project, a collection for the PlayStation that features both Raiden 1 and 2 on it, with the port pretty much being one-to-one with the original arcade version. That was great to find, so I finally got the chance to jump into it, and what I got was… certainly more Raiden, alright. I would say it is better than the original Raiden, but that is only be a small margin, as in many ways, they are very similar in quality, but I did end up having a good enough time with the game anyway, so that is all that matters.
The story fills all the requirements of an arcade shmup sequel, where three years after their defeat, the Crystals return to take over Earth once again, thanks to the remnants of their machines forming a brand new army to take the planet over, so it is up to the Fighting Thunder to set out once again to take them down, which is about as generic as a sequel plot can get, but then again, I wasn’t expecting much from the story regardless. The graphics are practically identical to that of the original game, with only slight improvements seen here or there in terms of the icons and animations, but it still overall looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of decent tracks to listen to while blowing shit up, but nothing that managed to stick with me when I was done, and the control/gameplay is also practically identical to that of the original game, so any fan of the original can feel right at home with this game.
The game is a vertical scrolling shmup, where you take control of a Fighting Viper, go through eight different stages across several generic environments on Earth and in space, shoot down any enemy that comes your way using whatever weapons that you have at your disposal, gather plenty of different power ups and bombs to get yourself better equipped for the task, while also upgrading said power ups to their maximum potential, and take on plenty of big, threatening bosses that will give you a pretty rough time if you are not a god at dodging and firing back. A lot of this is what you would expect not just from Raiden, but from any other shmup of this era, although to its credit, it still manages to be fun enough for what we get here, and there are one or two new additions that do make things a little more interesting.
In terms of the main gameplay mechanics, nothing is changed: you are still flying along, shooting people down, and trying not to die, but what you shoot down people with has been improved upon in this installment. Most of the weapons and missiles that you get, along with the power ups that can upgrade them, are the exact same, with the exception of a brand new weapon known as the Bend Plasma. At first, when you get it, it doesn’t seem like much, just another regular shot weapon for your ship, but then when you fully upgrade it, it basically takes the form of a Proton Pack, with it being a laser that automatically homes in on whatever enemy is near, which makes it an instant favorite of mine. I love me some all-powerful lasers, and having one that can also home in on people is oh so sweet to get your hands on.
Right alongside this is a new type of bomb known as the Cluster Bomb, which is basically just one bomb containing a bunch of smaller bombs, which are deployed upon use and will consecutively blow up whatever is around you. I don’t think I prefer this one over the regular bomb, as it just does a lot more damage, but this one does cover a much wider range, so it could be useful for taking out any smaller enemies that are surrounding you at all sides, which is nice. And finally, for one last tiny change that was made to the game: the checkpoint system is gone, with it working much more like a regular arcade game whenever you die, and thank god for that too. Makes things a lot less stressful.
With that being said though, it doesn’t eliminate all stress completely. Just like with the original game, arcade syndrome is in full force, as you will be dealing with plenty of things at once shooting at you from all directions, and you need to be a shmup master in order to get through a lot of it. I don’t think I would say this is as hard as something like Truxton II, but it can still get pretty damn difficult. Aside from that though, there isn’t really much else I can say about this game. It is essentially just a slightly better Raiden, which is great to see, especially since it has its own set of stages, bosses, and different power ups to try out, but if you weren’t captivated by what the original Raiden gave you, then this game most likely won’t change your mind on that.
Overall, despite a major lack of change and how it is still incredibly difficult, Raiden II is a step in the right direction from the original game, and just a good game in general, taking everything that worked from the original game, improving on it with some changes and new additions, and just making for a really solid time that any shmup fan could get behind. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original Raiden, as well as for all those shmup fanatics out there, because while this is far from one of the best ones out there, it still manages to provide the explosive and challenging fun that many would look for from one of these games, and that’s all that matters. But before we go though, I do wanna briefly go over the slightly updated version of this game that was released just a year after this game, Raiden DX. Not much was changed with this version, except there are now a couple of new modes to try out that do change up how the game plays, which is cool, but it doesn’t really alter anything too much to where I would say you need to jump on it if you loved the original so much. And… that’s about it. I would go ahead and ask that the next game in this series tones down the difficulty like I did last time, but seeing as this game didn’t do that, I can only assume it will keep going up from here, and I will be dead by the time I reach Raiden V.
Game #537