Raiden (video game)

Raiden (雷電, Raiden) is a 1990 scrolling shooter arcade game that was developed by Seibu Kaihatsu. It was the first game in the Raiden series of scrolling shooter arcade games. Raiden was released in September 1990. The game was distributed in Japan by Tecmo, North America by Fabtek, Taiwan by Liang HWA Electronics, Korea by IBL Corporation, Hong Kong by Wah Yan Electronics, and a few other countries such as Malaysia, though the publishers in those countries are unknown.

The title in Japanese translates to "Thunder And Lightning". Rai means thunder, and den means lightning. The closest English approximation of the pronunciation is /ˈraɪdɛn/ RY-den. "Raiden" is the name of a Japanese WWII Fighter.

Plot

In the year 2090, Earth has suddenly become the target of deranged aliens known as the Cranassians. Following the invasion, the World Alliance Military builds a new cutting-edge weapon, the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter. Based on a captured alien craft, it is humanity's only hope for survival.

Gameplay

Raiden consists of eight vertical scrolling missions where the player maneuvers the Raiden craft dodging and destroying enemy robots, buildings, ground targets, and aircraft. There are bombs and missile powerups as well as collectable medals which add to the score. When player dies, the fighter's fragments become projectiles that damage enemies.

After defeating the Stage 8 boss, the mission is completed, and player receives 1 million points for each completed loop. Afterwards, it will start back to Stage 1. This time around, enemies shoot faster and at a more rapid rate.

Ports and related releases

Raiden was ported to the FM Towns Marty, PC Engine, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Amiga (prototype, never released), MS-DOS, and the mobile phone. The MS-DOS port was coded by Nigel 'Freddy' Conroy, Steve Cullen and Martin Randall, and was spearheaded by Martin Hooley. There also exist port of game for Atari Falcon made by Imagitec Design.

Raiden Trad

Raiden Trad is a spin-off and port of the original game for Super FC/Super NES, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and FM Towns.

Raiden Project

The Raiden Project, originally released in Japan as simply Raiden Project (雷電プロジェクト) is a port of the arcade games Raiden and Raiden II to the PlayStation. It was also a launch title for the system released September 9, 1995. This would be the only time that Raiden II would be released on a console. The game is an arcade perfect port (hence Project), not emulated, probably because emulating this game on PS1 hardware is not possible.

PSN

The original Raiden (not the Raiden Project) is available as a download from the Japanese PlayStation Network store. The downloadable version can be played on the PlayStation 3 console or PlayStation Portable.

Soundtrack

A Raiden/Raiden II soundtrack was published by INH CO.,LTD. It includes soundtracks from Raiden (arcade, PlayStation), Raiden II (arcade, PlayStation), Raiden DX (arcade) and Raiden Densetsu (FM Towns), as well as a booklet; Go Sato liner note; gallery.

Reception and legacy

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Atari Jaguar version an average of 6 out of 10. Their four reviewers agreed that it was virtually identical to the arcade version, but were divided about the quality of the game itself. Two of them described Raiden as "above average", and two described it as mediocre, saying that the ship moves too slow, enemy fire often blends in with the background, and the graphics are subpar given the Jaguar's capabilities.^[1] GamePro similarly criticized that the gameplay is outdated, the ship moves too slow, and that the graphics do not live up to the Jaguar's potential. They concluded that "A snoozer like Raiden just seems out of place on a powerful system like the Jaguar."^[2]

Due to the success of Raiden, several sequels and related games were made.

References

External links

• Raiden at the Killer List of Videogames
• Raiden at MobyGames
• HAMSTER page
• INH soundtrack page