Razing Storm - Namco/Bandai

[ST Dragon]

Yesterday I played Razing Storm at an Arcade exhibition. An awesome Light Gun shooter jointly produced by Namco/Bandai, with immense firepower, battle mechs and very loud speakers! The bass while shooting the heavy machineguns & rocket launchers was overwhelming!
Another very cool aspect is the total mayhem and the fact that you can completely destroy the surrounding environment which you battle in. Walls, columns, gates, windows, vehicles, everything even whole buildings get trashed in the process and you even manage to survive a whole missile barrage fired at the bridge you’re standing on between 2 huge buildings!

I did manage to complete all 4 stages and at the end sequence it’s reported by H.Q. that Bravo team needed help at the industrial complex and that it's sure to be a trap. But your squadron leader insists on helping them anyway.
However, there are no more stages after that?!...
It's not supposed to end like this; do the rest of the stages have to be unlocked somehow?!

So, has anyone else tried this cool game and what are your opinions?

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

It was at an exhibition, right? So maybe they haven't quite finished the game. A light gunner with more than 4 levels !? Well, all for the better if they manage to keep the whole experience compelling with no filler.

[ST Dragon]

No, the game looked pretty finished to me!
Some of the cabinets had all ready been sold !

The twin cabinets were huge with two 62" monitors!

I guess the thrill of frentic mindless shooting was just too much for some people to resist!

I wouldn't mind having one of those monsters in my apartment's living room either! lol!!

[Ed Oscuro]

lol @ first pic.

So yeah, here's hoping a free-roaming follow-up is released someday. It does look pretty crazy for sure. Also, some guy attempting to shoot the cockpit with a pistol in the last one?

[Smraedis]

I 1CCed the test version after a few plays last year, tis a nice game.

The stages are quite long, and it felt too easy, until the bosses, which were too hard. The scoring system was weak too at the time.
I hope that they have made some changes since then, also the cabinet looked very expensive, with the stupidly complex guns (The basic guns for Crisis Zone cost a huge amount).

[maxlords]

Wow...that looks really amazing

[nash87]

Is the last boss Geese Howard?

[Leandro]

This title is familiar, I remember some fighting game character shouting it

[ST Dragon]

lol @ first pic.

Yeah, that scene is hilarious. You're driving a huge hummer and crash into a battle mech whilst in motion and it gets trashed and knocked on the side like a rag doll.

So yeah, here's hoping a free-roaming follow-up is released someday.

You mean a sequel?

It does look pretty crazy for sure. Also, some guy attempting to shoot the cockpit with a pistol in the last one?

Yeah,
Some guys hold their guns in weird position in order to shoot you around the corner, or above stationary objects. It looks even funnier as there is no time to shoot like that with all the shooting mayhem taking place around them!
There are also a couple of scenes when 100s of armed terrorists pile up in front of you and charge, only to get blown away by your heavy machine guns.

[ST Dragon]

I 1CCed the test version after a few plays last year, tis a nice game.

The stages are quite long, and it felt too easy, until the bosses, which were too hard. The scoring system was weak too at the time.
I hope that they have made some changes since then, also the cabinet looked very expensive, with the stupidly complex guns (The basic guns for Crisis Zone cost a huge amount).

By the way, are there any more stages after all levels of Stage 4 are complete?
The ending left it open for a sequel or more hidden/unlockable stages...

[Cthulhu]

That's the nicest looking light gun game I think I've ever seen

Hmm, wonder if there's a chance in hell somewhere in this state will get it...

[Skykid]

It's Crisis Zone 2.

[Alec]

those graphics look rad. i probably wont see one of those cabs but i'll keep an eye open ya know i will

[gameoverDude]

I 1CCed the test version after a few plays last year, tis a nice game.

The stages are quite long, and it felt too easy, until the bosses, which were too hard. The scoring system was weak too at the time.
I hope that they have made some changes since then, also the cabinet looked very expensive, with the stupidly complex guns (The basic guns for Crisis Zone cost a huge amount).

Sounds like it's patterned after PS2 Crisis Zone with the bosses. The arcade CZ bosses are quite a bit harder on the PS2 version, while the A-0940 and Jared Hunter in the extra scenario are damn hard.

The ending sounds like a Quake 4 "Kane, you have new orders" style cliffhanger.

I thought RS was a single cabinet with 2 guns, from the pictures I've seen. The 4th screenshot reminds me just a bit of F.E.A.R. for some reason.

Is it about the same time to complete as Time Crisis 4 (half an hour)?

I wouldn't doubt a PS3 port early next year or even maybe around Christmas time, since the Guncon 3 needs something new. System 357 is PS3 hardware, so the home port is probably more than half done. IIRC the Crisis Zone gun was $800 or something. Pretty obscene.

I'll watch GameWorks for this one. It can't be much longer before it turns up, and I'd bet on this one putting Sega's Rambo to shame.

[Vexorg]

Crisis Zone is one of my favorite arcade gun games, so I'll definitely have to keep an eye to see if this shows up at the GameWorks here.

[gameoverDude]

My Gameworks just got Razing Storm in. If you've played Crisis Zone, this will be one you can jump right into. I actually don't mind the new Crisis Sighting system- the enemies will be marked when they're GOING to shoot, rather than just as they shoot. You can take enemies down without giving them a chance to shoot. There is a delay on the shield going up when you let off the pedal- probably to simulate that sucker being heavy. Stripping away an enemy's cover is awesome.

Is it enough to survive stage 3's "Emergency Mission" to go on to stage 4? I had finished the game on stage 3 with the "That sucked" ending but never got to the Name Entry, even though my score was high enough to go up.

Now I'm wondering what the deal is with the damn dogtags. When you get to the Emergency Mission, it says how many you have found. HZH1987 did say on Youtube that there are ten, but he hasn't found all of them yet. His record currently is around 4M.

Could the good ending have been left open to set up a 2nd scenario for the PS3 version?

[DEL]

Smraedis played this game at our recent London Meet. He can indeed 1CC it. (Plus Time Crisis 3, 4 and many others).
Good soundtrack, visuals, pace. It looks pretty excellent (for a rail FPS ).

[spadgy]

Played just one credit on Friday in London with the glamourous mr_m0nks.

It was very showy and impressive, but a bit to trigger-happy for me. Just rasping away with a machine gun isn't my bag... but then I've played just one credit! Great cabinet too - massively over-the-top!

[Dave_K.]

those graphics look rad. i probably wont see one of those cabs but i'll keep an eye open ya know i will

Golfland Milpitas has the cab. I didn't have time to play it, but the game play looked like it was stuttering at around 30 FPS.

[mr_m0nks]

Played just one credit on Friday in London with the glamourous mr_m0nks.

eh??? glamourous WTF?

[gameoverDude]

The music in the stage 1 intro is "Ashes" by Five Finger Death Punch. Good song. Ingame BGM is by Takeshi Miura (Time Crisis 3 & 4).

Hopefully the turnaround between arcade version and port is shorter this time. TC4 hit arcades in mid-2006, but didn't go to PS3 until November 2007. Some of that time was probably spent developing the then-new Guncon 3.

Wait til you confront enemy soldiers WHILE still having the rocket launcher in the middle of a boss battle. Ragdoll time.

Sometimes the Kraken's sweep laser makes a 2nd (or even 3rd) pass.

[Khan]

so what your saying is we can expect a home port then?

[gameoverDude]

so what your saying is we can expect a home port then?

I don't see why not, since the Guncon 3 is starving for new games. Even though the graphics should be exact, the arcade version will still have some edge with its heavy recoil gun units (and not everyone will have a 5.1ch DTS sound system hooked up to their PS3).

[Aru-san]

those graphics look rad. i probably wont see one of those cabs but i'll keep an eye open ya know i will

Golfland Milpitas has the cab. I didn't have time to play it, but the game play looked like it was stuttering at around 30 FPS.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO PLAY?

I live close to Milpitas, and I go to Golfland whenever I can get the chance, so this is really big news to me.

[gameoverDude]

GameWorks has theirs set for 8 credits/$2.00, or 7.2 credits/$1.80 for VIP members. These dollar figures are before the discounts you get on a $25 or $35 card reload.

I'd guess a regular US arcade would charge $1 or maybe $1.25.

[Smraedis]

I'll have bound to have maximized my scoring before a console port comes out, but I did enjoy the console port of Crisis Zone some (most likely because no arcades had it by the time of the console release)

Is it enough to survive stage 3's "Emergency Mission" to go on to stage 4? I had finished the game on stage 3 with the "That sucked" ending but never got to the Name Entry, even though my score was high enough to go up.

From how the stage 4 boss is, I would say that a full 4 stage clear, is a proper clear. I can get to the final boss without getting hit, but then usually get hit once or twice on the final boss, even when I am trying to not get hit..
Just aim for the big missiles on the emergency mission, you can shoot them before the missiles break away from it, and you will easily make it to the 4th stage.
I am no good at scoring in the game yet!

[Dave_K.]

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO PLAY?

I live close to Milpitas, and I go to Golfland whenever I can get the chance, so this is really big news to me.

I didn't play it, but believe it was set for 4 credits / $1.

[gameoverDude]

I'll have bound to have maximized my scoring before a console port comes out, but I did enjoy the console port of Crisis Zone some (most likely because no arcades had it by the time of the console release)

Is it enough to survive stage 3's "Emergency Mission" to go on to stage 4? I had finished the game on stage 3 with the "That sucked" ending but never got to the Name Entry, even though my score was high enough to go up.

From how the stage 4 boss is, I would say that a full 4 stage clear, is a proper clear. I can get to the final boss without getting hit, but then usually get hit once or twice on the final boss, even when I am trying to not get hit..
Just aim for the big missiles on the emergency mission, you can shoot them before the missiles break away from it, and you will easily make it to the 4th stage.
I am no good at scoring in the game yet!

Thanks. I'll try that on the missiles. Does the number of dogtags you find have some effect on the damage gauge for this part?

EDIT: Sure it does. Right before the Emergency Mission, the game counts down all your dogtags and the health bar charges. I played this again at GW tonight, and watched closely. Right afterward, I went on to finish with about 2.14M.

I'm thinking time plays a bigger part in scoring than in TC4- I've seen a lot of my points coming from time at the end of sections. The combo bonus is there but doesn't seem as big. IINM this combo bonus is also based on every 10 hits.

GameFAQs doesn't have Razing Storm in their list. Shame. I was hoping to find something (a FAQ or a board discussion to lurk in) at least.

Hopefully a console port would add something extra, like a 2nd scenario (the good ending seems to leave it open for this).

[gameoverDude]

The deathtraps you can use to do away with enemies in some places are awesome. In stage 2 there's a HACS that's running from you. He goes into this market stand to try to take cover (big mistake!) then there's a certain board in the back wall that flashes. What if you shoot this when he's inside? The shack collapses right on top of your hapless target. So long sucker.

In a sequel, I wouldn't mind being able to get enemies electrocuted (i.e. by shooting a fuse box, like in F.E.A.R.).

[Smraedis]

Yeah, the dogtags increase that bar, so I guess poor play would make it almost impossible to clear.

It does seem like time is very important, pretty much like Crisis Zone. It took me quite a while to get good at scoring on Crisis Zone, as I'm so used to comboing for points instead. I'll just have to play it more, I've only just got over 2.3 million here... replays would help

Am still enjoying the game too!