21st September 2008, 7:24 PM
SNES
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Raiden Trad -- at first I had trouble figuring out why this game was so popular back in the early '90s, given its bland graphics, slow gameplay, and low difficulty level (until you die, upon which time it gets a lot harder, but still not REALLY hard), but as I played it more, somehow I started to like it more... I'm not sure why, because the game is kind of boring to play, and the graphics certainly are bland... but I can't help but like it anyway. It's not a fantastic game, but it's a good, simple, and mostly fun B or C-quality shmup, really. Vertical scrolling, shoot the enemies as they come down onto the screen, megabombs and two normal weapons to choose from in each of the two types of weapons you fire (your main gun (spread gun or straight laser) and your missiles (homing or straight). Collect lots of weapon powerups to reach full power... that is, don't die or it'll take a long time to hit max power again. :)
... Still though, that doesn't quite explain why it was so popular and got ported to so many systems. Arcade, SNES, Genesis. TG-16, Jaguar, Playstation... it was everywhere.
But anyway, after not playing it for several weeks, I tried it again today, and after a few tries, managed to beat it. The final boss (there are eight levels) was quite pathetic, even with only the basic gun... were they trying to pull a Gradius or something, by having a really weak final boss, or is the SNES port just really easy all around? The hardest boss in the game is actually the level 2 boss, probably, followed by the level 6 boss (both are variations on the same boss, in fact). The other six bosses were medium at best, most of the time... a couple are tricky (level 3, for instance), but not too bad.
Oh, the music is pretty good. Not great, but good. That does help a bit. :)
So yeah... fun game, but easy and with bland graphics. It's great that the SNES port has a two-player simultaneous mode, but that'd make it even easier, wouldn't it... :)
I should try the arcade version, it's surely harder. But it is kind of boring... this is enough, probably, for now. But if you want a two-player simultaneous shmup on the SNES, this is one of your only choices.
--
Raiden Trad -- at first I had trouble figuring out why this game was so popular back in the early '90s, given its bland graphics, slow gameplay, and low difficulty level (until you die, upon which time it gets a lot harder, but still not REALLY hard), but as I played it more, somehow I started to like it more... I'm not sure why, because the game is kind of boring to play, and the graphics certainly are bland... but I can't help but like it anyway. It's not a fantastic game, but it's a good, simple, and mostly fun B or C-quality shmup, really. Vertical scrolling, shoot the enemies as they come down onto the screen, megabombs and two normal weapons to choose from in each of the two types of weapons you fire (your main gun (spread gun or straight laser) and your missiles (homing or straight). Collect lots of weapon powerups to reach full power... that is, don't die or it'll take a long time to hit max power again. :)
... Still though, that doesn't quite explain why it was so popular and got ported to so many systems. Arcade, SNES, Genesis. TG-16, Jaguar, Playstation... it was everywhere.
But anyway, after not playing it for several weeks, I tried it again today, and after a few tries, managed to beat it. The final boss (there are eight levels) was quite pathetic, even with only the basic gun... were they trying to pull a Gradius or something, by having a really weak final boss, or is the SNES port just really easy all around? The hardest boss in the game is actually the level 2 boss, probably, followed by the level 6 boss (both are variations on the same boss, in fact). The other six bosses were medium at best, most of the time... a couple are tricky (level 3, for instance), but not too bad.
Oh, the music is pretty good. Not great, but good. That does help a bit. :)
So yeah... fun game, but easy and with bland graphics. It's great that the SNES port has a two-player simultaneous mode, but that'd make it even easier, wouldn't it... :)
I should try the arcade version, it's surely harder. But it is kind of boring... this is enough, probably, for now. But if you want a two-player simultaneous shmup on the SNES, this is one of your only choices.