Raiden II

Raiden II (雷電II, Raiden Tsū), developed by Seibu Kaihatsu, was the second game

in the Raiden series. Raiden II was ported to Windows by Kinesoft and Microsoft Corporation. The Windows version uses Red Book audio for music. This game and the original Raiden were rekeased for the PlayStation as The Raiden Project.

Wikipedia contributors. "Raiden II." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia. 7 May, 2023.

Gameplay:

• Pro: It's a complex combat stage filled with a high variety of attacks. The weapons are pretty accurate.

• Con: The game interaction is limited to shooting down enemies and grab the rewards. Your movements are limited by the screen borders.

Story: The events take place three years after VCD repelled the invasion of the

Crystals in the first game of the series. The battlefied alternates between Earth and the cosmic space over eight stages of the game.

• Pro: The story is dull and very short.

• Con: The scenario where you eradicate entire enemy forces is not very believable. And, of course, your mission is to destroy every possible enemy on the map. The dificulty of the combat actions could become frustrating over time because of too many enemies.

Characters: It's just you and your combat airship Fighting Thuinder. Your ship

can be destroyed by any enemy hit or collide. But do not worry, because you still have few reserves (max 9 credits x 3 lifes each one) of your ship. When the last of your ships is destroyed, your mission also fails. As weapons you can use three automatic guns loaded with different kinds of ammunition, two missile launchers and two types of bombs. While the auto-guns and missiles have unlimited ammunition, you can carry only a limited number of bombs. The bombs are special weapons that deal a huge damage over a wide area and cancel out enemy fire.

• Pro: The enemies have a high variety of units and arsenal.

• Con: Your gear consist of ship's active weapons and nothing more. There are no other NPCs except the swarming enemies. The enemy's increase number of units over time makes the combat mission more dificult and, eventually, will end with much frustration.

Video:

• Pro: The design of the combat units is very diversified. The textures are pretty good taking in consideration the old generation of the game engine.

• Con: The game engine provide poor shadows and light reflections.

Audio:

• Pro: N/A

• Con: A very low quality of the sound and background music.

User Interface:

• Pro: Works just fine on Windows.

• Con: A simple menu with no artistic presentation. There is no game controller option for the Windows version.