After long overlooking my obligations to Bandicoot12 Studios and this blog, it is wonderful to return to the art of weekly updates with an equally overlooked genre: the shmup.
For those of you not familiar with the term shmup, it is a portmanteau of "shoot-em-up" and refers to the typically ship-based shooters evolved from classics like Zaxxon or Space Invaders. They come in different varieties: horizontal (Gradius, R-Type), vertical (Ikaruga, 19XX), or arena (Geometry Wars). These games are typically Japanese arcade exclusives and are notorious for their unrelenting, rape-you-until-every-orafice-bleeds difficulty. The genre requires the quickest reflexes and ability to navigate enemy attack patterns known only as "bullet hells."
Even Hell, shadowy and forsaken abyss for the lost and the damned and the eternal prison of torment and hate reserved for Lucifer and his legions of avarice who so defiled the grace of Heaven...doesn't seem harsh enough of a term for this bullcrap.
Being such that the genre demands more dedication and mastery than a fighting game, these games are the very definition of niche, thus falling right up my alley. The genre has been rather dormant on the Xbox 360, with only a few XBLA games filling the void. Enter Raiden Fighters 
Aces to save the day (and make you look like a bitch). Most of us are familiar with Seibu's Raiden series. The original hit arcades way back in 1990 and has devoured our quarters ever since. However, we laymen who have sought refuge in consoles since 1995 may be oblivious to the spinoff trilogy Raiden Fighters. Lucky for us shmup fans, Valcon has brought us a compilation of all the games:
Aces to save the day (and make you look like a bitch). Most of us are familiar with Seibu's Raiden series. The original hit arcades way back in 1990 and has devoured our quarters ever since. However, we laymen who have sought refuge in consoles since 1995 may be oblivious to the spinoff trilogy Raiden Fighters. Lucky for us shmup fans, Valcon has brought us a compilation of all the games: Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive, Raiden Fighters Jet, and Raiden Fighters Episode 4: Khan Strikes Back Harder.
The games themselves are extremely straightforward. Pick a ship, fly through an assortment of stages (around nine areas per game) while avoiding enemy shots and unleashing havoc. Attacks include shot, charge shot, and bomb. Each ship has two shots depending on the pickup type you grab (Laser or Missile) and each ship has unique helper drones that add to your firepower and can absorb damage for you. Don't think this means little variety, though: the trilogy boasts a 
ridiculous 14 fighters (even more than the Castle Shikigami series!), including a cameo by the Raiden MK-II from the classic Raiden trilogy. The trail to a legendary score is blazed by a combo system based on how quickly and in succession you are able to destroy enemies the moment they spawn and dotted with combo-based medals and other rare pickups. The bosses are immense, some of them actually comprising the entirety of the stage, leading to some rather lengthy and challenging battles. Unfortunately, this series runs on the one-hit system, so even grazing an enemy bullet will kill you, and since the hitboxes are a little too large to even be considered forgiving, the beginning player will die. A lot. Mercifully, you can bump up the default three continues all the way up to free play, so you don't have to see that gamer over screen so often. Additionally, you don't have to share this burden alone, as the trilogy includes the genre staple of 
local co-op. Oddly enough, the compilation lacks online play...but that doesn't mean this port isn't loaded to the hilt with some impressive features.
ridiculous 14 fighters (even more than the Castle Shikigami series!), including a cameo by the Raiden MK-II from the classic Raiden trilogy. The trail to a legendary score is blazed by a combo system based on how quickly and in succession you are able to destroy enemies the moment they spawn and dotted with combo-based medals and other rare pickups. The bosses are immense, some of them actually comprising the entirety of the stage, leading to some rather lengthy and challenging battles. Unfortunately, this series runs on the one-hit system, so even grazing an enemy bullet will kill you, and since the hitboxes are a little too large to even be considered forgiving, the beginning player will die. A lot. Mercifully, you can bump up the default three continues all the way up to free play, so you don't have to see that gamer over screen so often. Additionally, you don't have to share this burden alone, as the trilogy includes the genre staple of 
local co-op. Oddly enough, the compilation lacks online play...but that doesn't mean this port isn't loaded to the hilt with some impressive features.Those looking for an arcade perfect port won't be disappointed, but there's plenty else to do here. Exclusive to this collection are classic modes such as boss rush, score attack, and even a new expert mode, which increases the hectic enemy shot patterns tenfold. Beyond increasing playability, this home version includes features to please the hardcore shmup obsessive. Along with the obvious online leaderboards, the game includes a practice mode with an optional bullet time feature that puts the game into slow motion and allows players to easily identify exactly how to navigate a certain bullet hell. The most laudable feature here, however, is the ability to save recordings of your runs and upload them to Xbox Live. This way, players can not only show off their skills, but study the techniques of the world's top shmuppers.
These are the exact sort of things needed to invigorate the shmup community on the 360, and hopefully this compilation will inspire others to bring this genre back to console prominence. Though Raiden Fighters Aces is not the most complex or difficult shmup out there, the 20 dollar price tag, easy achievement points (I racked up around 400 gamerscore after about an hour of play), and incredible extra features make this an irresistable package to the hardcore shmup fan or those interested in the genre. Of course, if you're actually looking to break into the genre, I only have one piece of advice:
Buy a Dreamcast.
Final Score:
8.9
(I don't care how you guys voted, I like the single floating point system.)
Editor's Note: Buy this game so those lucky Japanese bastards feel compelled to release Raiden IV for the North American version of XBLA.
Hit boxes?
ReplyDeleteHitbox refers to the actual area of the player sprite that can be damaged by an enemy. It's a common concept in shmups, as usually only the cockpit on a ship sprite is affected by a bullet. That way, players have a full ship that's capable of navigating through impossibly tiny gaps in a bullet hell. Some games make the most of this mechanic with "grazing," a gimmick that increases score or power when a player flies as close to a bullet as possible without actually being hit (Castle Shikigami is an example of this).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, most of the ships in Raiden Fighters have fairly prominent hitboxes...though, nothing is as bad as Giga Wing 2.