Lightning Fighters (aka Trigon)

AWJ · Post by **AWJ** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:51 pm

Is it just me, or does this game seem extremely "Raiden-ish", despite being too old to be a Raiden clone? The limited side-to-side scrolling, the powerup system (particularly the two kinds of bomb, one offensive and one defensive, closely analogous to Raiden 2 even if how each bomb type looks and works is very different), the types of enemies that appear and their movement/shot patterns, and the way the game looks and sounds are all very close to the early Raiden games.[/i]

gs68 · Post by **gs68** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:54 pm

I usually play Trigon instead of Lightning Fighters, and it feels more like a sci-fi version of Flying/Sky Shark than Raiden, mainly because the bullets are very few and you have checkpoints.

straight · Post by **straight** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:15 am

gs68 wrote:I usually play Trigon instead of Lightning Fighters, and it feels more like a sci-fi version of Flying/Sky Shark than Raiden, mainly because the bullets are very few and you have checkpoints.

How are they different?

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:46 am

According to the review here, there is a special hidden weapon in Trigon that isn't in Lightning Fighters. As far as I know, that's the only difference, except for the fact that you play as Vash the Stampede in Trigon.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:47 am

I think the bigger difference is that Trigon uses checkpoints, while Lightning Fighters reincarnates you right where you died. Trigon is considered superion because you have to learn to beat hard situations, not just continue past them.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:53 am

dboeren wrote:I think the bigger difference is that Trigon uses checkpoints, while Lightning Fighters reincarnates you right where you died. Trigon is considered superion because you have to learn to beat hard situations, not just continue past them.

ahh. I need to read the review again.

AWJ · Post by **AWJ** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:28 am

The reason for the lack of checkpoints and the absence of the homing weapon in the US version is that the US version is always in "2 player mode". As the review notes, Trigon (and the World version of Lightning Fighters) has some rules differences between 1- and 2-player games:

1-player:
You start with no bombs
When you die, you restart at a checkpoint
The homing pod weapon appears
A second player cannot join in mid-game

2-player:
Each life starts with one defensive bomb (Lightning Sword/Plasma Beam)
When you die, you respawn in-place
The cooperatively-controlled pods appear, but only when two players are actually present
If one player runs out of lives, they can reenter at any time

The US version always uses the 2-player rules, even when you start with only one player. I think they did that so that a second player could join in mid-game (which isn't allowed in the non-US versions)

Another difference between Trigon and Lightning Fighters (both World and US) is that the blue, defensive bomb is called "Lightning Sword" in Japan and "Plasma Beam" everywhere else.

Anyway, I need to play more late-80s verts! On closer investigation, it turns out that just about all of them look and play like that. So I guess Raiden is really just a final, "perfected" expression of that sub-genre. The only vert I played in arcades much during that time period was 1943, which of course was a major oddball due to having a lifebar.