Genesis ~ Raiden Review

Overview

Raiden is a popular series of top down view aircraft shooters on the arcade with a few ported to various consoles. Raiden Trad here is one of those conversions. I don't know what the "Trad" means, but that doesn't matter because all that matters is that we have ourselves a fun little shooting game here.

Gameplay

A typical top down view shooter game. You take control of an aircraft called the "Raiden" to blast your way through a bunch of enemies. These enemies range from hopeless little tanks on the ground, to flying aircraft of all sizes. And predictably there is a big boss awaiting your arrival at the end. As for the storyline, I don't know anything about it nor do I care to know anything about it. Save the world from destruction? What else could it be?

Initially the Raiden will have weak firepower. As you progress through a stage, you collect various powerups. These are only two types of your normal ammo firepower and two types of missiles. At a certain point after you've collected a certain number of those, your weapons will max out and collecting anymore will just turn to points. There is even a rare powerup that will automatically max your weapons. And of course when the going gets tough, you've got your reliable old bombs to blow everything up on the screen. So there isn't much variety weapons wise. Just another case of more could've been better.

The game is very straight-forward. You just keep firing at the enemies while dodging the things they fire at you that seem to look like orange orbs. Constantly blowing things up is naturally fun and at times it can be addictive. After destroying a big boss, you move onto the next stage. Although the game is action packed full of shooting and things blowing up, it is let down with the game moving at a slow pace.

8 out of 10

Graphics

A pretty good job has been done on the overall look of the game.

Because you're constantly blowing things up, you're going to witness plenty of explosions. The explosions in this game don't look as spectacular as they should, especially after working your butt off to destroy a big boss. It's just a few orange and yellow puffs here and there and you're shooting off to the next stage.

4 out of 5

Sound and Music

The firing sound effects are a pathetic & sissy "ding, ding, ding" sound. The background music is good enough, all brave and heroic. It is repetitive though, but when you're continually flying all over the place addictively blowing things up, you won't even notice it.

3.5 out of 5

Game Design

The game consists of 8 stages of increasing difficulty. As you progress through the game there is a fair variety of enemies, but at times they can be a bit too reoccurring. A bit more variety wouldn't have hurt. Nothing really challenges you until you get to the big bosses. The first few big bosses are quite easy. But later on they can get ridiculously hard even on easy. They'll spray huge volleys of orange bullets and fireballs that'll take extreme concentration and dexterity to dodge.

3.75 out of 5

Longevity

It will take you between around 40 minutes to complete the game. It is quite challenging on easy mode and noticeably harder on hard mode. Sadly there isn't even 2-player which is a real waste if you ask me.

3.25 out of 5

For: naturally fun and addictive blowing things up, good graphics, challenging.

Against: slow paced, sissy sound effects, explosions look ordinary, not many weapons, no 2 player, big bosses nearly impossible on hard.

A pretty decent port from the arcades. The game is action packed, but it's let down with a slow pace to lose that great arcade feeling.