Raiden (Atari Jaguar) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 540
12Hop in your experimental super sonic jet, it's time to fight aliens!
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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...
Raiden
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiden_(video_game)
Raiden[a] is a 1990 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu and published by Tecmo in Japan.[1] The game's story takes place in the year 2090, when an alien species known as the Crystals invaded Earth. Players assume the roles of the Vanquish Crystal Defense pilot duo, taking control of two state of the art Fighting Thunders aircraft to defeat the Crystals and save the Earth.
The game was conceived after Dynamite Duke, Seibu Kaihatsu's prior title, failed to sell as well as expected. During development, the game was designed as a vertically scrolling shooter due to the popularity of the genre at the time. Cheaper arcade hardware had to be used due to financial constraints caused by Dynamite Duke's poor sales.[2][3]
Although Seibu doubted Raiden's success, it managed to sell 17,000 arcade units worldwide, helping to recuperate the company's investments through word-of-mouth. The title became a critical success, with its most lauded features being the graphics, music, gameplay and co-operative play.
Due to the success of Raiden, several sequels and related games were made. Raiden was ported to home computers and various home video game consoles in the early to mid 1990s. The game was released as part of several compilations and through download services such as PlayStation Network. The ports received mixed to positive reception.
According to graphic designer and current MOSS CEO Toshinobu Komazawa, the creation of Dynamite Duke gave Seibu Kaihatsu the opportunity to begin developing Raiden, as the former did not sell as well as Seibu had hoped. In order to recoup the costs of developing Dynamite Duke, the decision was made to develop a shoot 'em up instead of a sequel to it.[3] Komazawa noted that the development of Raiden had a negative outlook, but an earnest beginning, since the shoot 'em up genre was "relatively inexpensive to produce" games for, as well as increasing in popularity at the time. Due to financial constraints, the company opted to use arcade hardware less powerful than those used in their previous titles. Seibu could only afford to develop a shoot 'em up with their development budget, with the project becoming a financial decision, as they had no other choice of game to make.[3] Seibu took production notes from the overseas market, borrowing ideas from popular titles such as Capcom's 1942, Xevious from Namco, and Twin Cobra by Toaplan.
The production of Raiden was led by Seibu Kaihatsu president Hitoshi Hamada, while Tetsuya Kawaguchi served as its designer and programmer K. Kondo and S. Mori were the other programmers.[1][3] Komazawa, H. Matsuo, T. Matsuzawa and T. Wada were responsible for creating the in-game artwork.[1][3] Y. Segawa was responsible for creating the arcade hardware.[1] Near the end of development, Komazawa praised the programmers at Seibu for being able to produce a high-quality game on less powerful hardware.
The music for Raiden was composed by Akira Sato.[1] A Raiden/Raiden II soundtrack was published by INH Co., Ltd. It includes soundtracks from Raiden (Arcade, PlayStation), Raiden Densetsu (FM Towns), Raiden II (Arcade, PlayStation) and Raiden DX (Arcade) as well as other extras.