Radiant Silvergun (Sega Saturn) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 508
11Treasure takes to the sky in this classic Saturn shoot 'em up
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Radiant Silvergun
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_Silvergun
Radiant Silvergun[a] is a shoot 'em up developed by Treasure. It was originally released in Japanese arcades in 1998 and subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn later that year. The story follows a team of fighter pilots in the far future who are battling waves of enemies summoned by a mysterious crystal dug up from the Earth. The player hosts an arsenal of six different types of shots to choose from, and a sword to destroy nearby targets. The stages are tightly designed to present players with scenarios that can be approached differently with the various weapon types.
Treasure was primarily known for developing action and platform games for home consoles before Radiant Silvergun. Despite the company's concerns about the financial viability of arcade games and the shooter genre, they felt they had a good premise for a game and decided to pursue it. Radiant Silvergun was developed by ten people, with Gonzo outsourced for animated cutscenes. The game was developed for the ST-V arcade board first and later ported to the architecturally similar Sega Saturn. Towards the end of development, the team recruited professional gamers that held high scores in shooters to play test the game.
Radiant Silvergun was first released in Japanese arcades in May 1998. Treasure president Masato Maegawa went in person to arcades to gauge the reaction of players. The Saturn port was released two months later in Japan. Despite its region exclusivity, Radiant Silvergun was imported by Western critics and received critical acclaim. Journalists agreed that the game revived the shoot 'em up genre, which had fallen by the wayside after the rise in popularity of arcade fighting games in the 1990s. In retrospect, it is considered one of the greatest shooters and Sega Saturn games of all time. It received a spiritual sequel in the form of Ikaruga (2001), and was ported to the Xbox 360 in 2011.
Since the company's inception, Treasure had primarily been a developer of action and platform games for home consoles.[2][5] Sega had repeatedly asked the company to develop an arcade game for them, but Treasure president Masato Maegawa was concerned the shrinking arcade business would be too risky from a business perspective and arcade goers would not appreciate the effort placed into their game.[6] Despite this concern the team had wanted to develop a 2D arcade style shoot 'em up for some time.[5] Much of the staff were fans of the genre, having grown up during the genre's golden age, but entering their careers after fighting games started filling arcades.[6] Director Hiroshi Iuchi was especially passionate about starting the project.[7] Although the team was eager to develop the game, there were still concerns. Maegawa believed that the shoot 'em up genre was dying, and was risky from a sales perspective.[5][8] Iuchi was also concerned there would be no place for a 2D shooter in an arcade space that was advancing more towards large and specialized 3D game machines.[6] In the face of these concerns about commercial viability, the team felt they had a good concept and pushed forth.