Raiden Fighters Aces finally coming to the US...

[Square King]

I know it's a bit of a long shot- but hopefully you speak of the US demo?

Unfortunately, no. I had to start a Japanese account and download it there. I'm able to play it on my US account, though. Curious...

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Nice. Have it preordered. Hopefully they don’t delay it too long. That seems to be a very quick release date.

[HeWhoGoverns]

It's been pushed back now. Amazon now has the release date listed as March 24th

[Gmintyfresh]

Nice. Have it preordered. Hopefully they don’t delay it too long. That seems to be a very quick release date.

It wouldn't take that long to translate really as most of the menus are in English

[Xonatron]

It's been pushed back now. Amazon now has the release date listed as March 24th

Wonder what this means? I wonder when the REAL release date is?

[HeWhoGoverns]

It probably means it doesn't have a real release date yet. This happens with a lot of low-profile games. chances are the march dates are tentative. It's quite possible we won't really see this until the summer, but hopefully I am wrong.

[Dragoforce]

Any word on a european release or if it will be region free?

[TodayIsForgotten]

speaking of english menu's. Why is that? I noticed on one of the games on the japanese release, the storyline was in english, but then the other two were in japanese. I would love to know why this is so. Any takers (: ?

[seattlexc]

When is the last time the US/PAL has gotten a retail shmup (non-download game)? Was it Raiden III? Anyways, RFA has to be the best stateside shmup since Ikaruga......if it ever makes it over here.

[HeWhoGoverns]

Ultimate Shooting Collection came out here for the wii a week ago or so. And Castle Shikigami III came out before that. Hopefully, this Raiden fighters Aces will be next. It wouldn't leave my system.

[spadgy]

Anyway, I have a contact at Zoo Digital UK. I don't know him too well, but I'll shoot him an email at Lunch time today...

Pah! Never heard back!

Boxart for the US version is up so somethings happening along with the new addition of publisher 'valcon games'?

James over on TNL actually called up Valcon and they confirmed that they are, indeed, the US publisher of the game. The current release date though is just an Amazon estimate.

So the release is most definitely official, but the release date is still indefinite.

Seems US is definate though, as confirmed over in the main Raiden Fighters Aces thread, where the above came from!

[lgb]

speaking of english menu's. Why is that? I noticed on one of the games on the japanese release, the storyline was in english, but then the other two were in japanese. I would love to know why this is so. Any takers (: ?

I think that was in the original game. It's definitely not JET; it's probably either 1 or 2. (I reckon 1, but too lazy to check)

Anyway, it sounds like the main question here is whether the games on the US RFA will be the original US games (2 loops) or whether they'll be translated from the Japanese Aces. Would be cool to see the latter.

[Jeneki]

Recently I had a chance to play Jet on an arcade pcb. Maaaaaaan, that attract mode and title screen are awesome. Insert coin -> OMG THE SCREEN IS ON FIRE!

Is there any way to get these to show up on the 360 version?

[ZacharyB]

The intros for each game will show up by waiting long enough on the title screen, but I don't know about the attract plays. They might play after the intros and I just don't remember.

[Ed Oscuro]

Did you get a look at the motherboard for the Jet? Curious to know whether it was small (i.e. not much wider than the cartridge) or the older SXXC 2.0 version (slightly larger, better output). I've seen a Jet for sale on a larger PCB though (just not sure of the region), so it's not a huge mystery.

Anyway, it sounds like the main question here is whether the games on the US RFA will be the original US games (2 loops) or whether they'll be translated from the Japanese Aces. Would be cool to see the latter.

As it turned out this is how it was. It would've been pretty silly to release a game for all regions with the scoring differences seen from US to other versions.

I got lucky and scored a new Aces recently for $34 shipped. A very reasonable price compared to the usual seen on the 'Bay. The quality of the cover image isn't very clear though - I wonder how the Japanese / Asian releases compare.

[Jeneki]

I've only come into contact with two Seibu SPI boards, one with Viper Phase 1 and this one with Jet. Both look the same size to me, with the cartridge a little over half the total surface area. Viper Phase 1 pics here. I know the one with Viper Phase 1 is Japan region, haven't checked the Jet one.

I have both Japan and North America versions of the Raiden Fighters Aces disc. The cover art is very similar with the same background, however the North America version adds a bit more color.

*searches a bit* Ok here's a comparison:
Japan
North America

[Ed Oscuro]

If you blow up the picture for the US region RF Aces, you should notice that the art is notably blurrier than the print quality. The Japanese one is too small to tell.

Probably most people won't notice this because a 360 game box isn't that big. Personally I find it annoying. It's not as bad as Ninja Five-O though.

[Jeneki]

Ah ok. I never looked that closely at the covers. Unless it's something like Steam Hearts.