Raiden Fighters Aces (360)...

[josekortez]

I picked up Raiden Fighters Aces (360) last Friday. It was only $19.99 at Gamestop. I think it was supposed to come out today, but it was already on the shelves, so I took a chance and it's good!

The game includes Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet. These are not the original Raiden games. They're the later arcade titles that came out between 1996-1998.

I used to go to the same laundromat just to play Raiden Fighters 2, so it's good that I don't have to go back to that laundromat anymore!

[corn619]

I wasn't even aware this was released in the U.S yet! I'll be picking this up soon.

[NebachadnezzaR]

I think I already know the answer, but...it's region locked, isn't it?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

We've already got a thread on this particular topic.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10660

@ josekortez:
Please search the forums before accidentally creating extra or double threads.

[RadarScope1]

Finally got a chance to dig into this with a friend yesterday. Played through all three games on co-op. Here are some thoughts.

As far as skill/difficulty level, RFA is exactly what I was looking for: challenging but not something that has to be memorized and won't make you throw a controller. You can set it to free play to get a feel and then adjust the credits down as you see fit to challenge yourself. When you die, you begin right where you died and most of the power-ups you've collected are right there for you pick back up. There are about six difficulty levels to choose from. There's also a boss rush mode, score attack and training mode. A small benefit of this being a retail release is there are 32 achievements for 1000 points (rather than 12 for 200), so there's achievements to shoot for in every mode and difficulty across all three games.

Speaking of powerups and weapons. Tons of them, including Raiden's trademark "toothpaste laser." Screen filling blasts and explosions are the norm. Blowing stuff away is satisfying and fun to watch and control. Some might be put off that there are no options for customization or switching on the fly, but remember these games are based on the Raiden series, which is terribly old-school -- you get what you pick up and just keep powering up.

The graphics are just fine. Looks nice to my eyes -- it is what it is: a series of decade-old shmups. The graphics hold up IMO, especially with all the options available.

Which bring us to... the options. Wow. It's unreal how much there is to choose from, going WAY beyond screen size or a few filters. RFA sets a standard for retro releases in this department. Dozens of ways to display the game. I dont' much use emulators, but I doubt even the best emus off this this many. Choose between 60 fps or the original 54 fps (recommended). I also recommend the "nearest neighbor" filter that brings all the pixels into stark contrast and looks appropriately retro-licous. You also set the credits anywhere from 1-9 or freeplay, lives anywhere from 1-99, number of bombs, everything. There's much more, but I'm not going to list them all.

If anyone else here on the forum has RFA and isn't on my friends list, send me an invite for the leaderboards. My tag is the same as my forum name here.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, I've been playing this a bit in between RPGs. I still need to figure out which ship has the weapons best suited for me.

[RadarScope1]

Wanted to come back after finding some talk about the options in RFA.

Retronauts: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=899 ... Id=4547783

Giant Bomb has a whole vid on it: http://www.giantbomb.com/raiden-fighter ... wn/17-650/

[Octopod]

These games do require memorization if you want to get any kind of good score at all.