I actually bought this game by chance upon browsing my local video store about six or seven years ago. At the time, I would browse the video game section of the store and look for cheap Super Nintendo games. Raiden just happened to be one of them, but I didn't know that Raiden was an arcade game until coming on to this website.
Raiden is a space shooter (Iridion, Gradius, R-Type, etc.) and it's very straight forward, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.
I actually bought this game by chance upon browsing my local video store about six or seven years ago. At the time, I would browse the video game section of the store and look for cheap Super Nintendo games. Raiden just happened to be one of them, but I didn't know that Raiden was an arcade game until coming on to this website.
Raiden is a space shooter (Iridion, Gradius, R-Type, etc.) and it's very straight forward, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. In fact, I remember playing this game with my friend (yes, it is two player) for hours at a time. There doesn't seem to be much of a story, but I wouldn't expect this kind of game to have one. You're a fighter
plane that basically goes up against a seemingly unlimited fleet of enemy ships and you collect certain icons that boost your power. These icons include the fire bullet/laser and the missile/heat-seeking missile. By this I mean that you can't have both the fire bullet and laser weapon at the same time (same goes for the missile and heat-seeking missile), but you would have the fire bullet or heat seeker or laser or missile or whichever. You collect and upgrade the weapons by gathering square icons that are red indicating fire bullets (the red squares turn blue after awhile indicating the laser weapon). It's similar for the missiles (the missiles are indicated by either H for heat seekers or M for standard missiles). The fire bullet and heat seeker are more of sprayers that spread across the screen, quickly dispatching of multiple ships, while the laser and missile are significantly more powerful. You can also get the P square which automatically upgrades your standard weapon and missile to their max. You also have bombs which nullify every enemy bullet on the screen while doing massive damage. Though, you only have two (unless you collect more) with each life. Most of the other icons that can be collected give you extra points while some, the faeries, grant you another life.
Speaking of life, you may need them because the game gets progressively more difficult. It's hard because you only need to take one hit to die and once you do, you lose all your weapons (except for the first level fire bullet). Though this is standard for a space shooter so anyone who's played games similar to Gradius or R-Type will have no problem with this game. I mentioned that Raiden does get progressively harder, but it remains fair.
All in all, it's a fun game. It's a little dated, but that hasn't stopped it from being a classic in my book. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for some mindless fun.
