STGT 2010: Raiden Fighters 2 thoughts

[sirmax]

Best STGT '10 game yet.

This.

[Kaiser]

Best STGT '10 game yet.

This.

[clp]

RF1 is my favourite but this badboy is a close second , definitley the best stgt game this year.

[MR_Soren]

So far, I prefer Raiden Fighters Jet from last year and 2008's practice week. In RFJ, I was able to do the medaling, and I could dodge bullets.

Problems with this game:
* I have no meaningful sound.
* The medaling is stupid. I have given up on it and resigned myself to collecting 9000 point medals. I just die if I try to skip the S powerups and release medals one at a time.
* I often die without realizing there is even a bullet on the screen.
* My hitbox seems to be incredibly large. I can rarely fit between the twin machine guns of the medium planes.
* I can't handle the controls. When fast bullets are coming towards me, I can't move out of the way quickly enough. When slow bullets are coming towards me, my tap dodge don't seem to move me far enough. My second tap dodge makes me hit a different bullet. If I resolve these problems by using a really fast ship, I can never get my ship to stop in the right place to fit between bullets.

Good things about this game:
* The train stage is pretty awesome.


I'm playing on a Mac using UberMAME with an HRAP2, but I feel like I will need to buy an Xbox and that Seimitsu HORI stick if I want a chance to do well.

[Battletoad]

* The medaling is stupid. I have given up on it and resigned myself to collecting 9000 point medals. I just die if I try to skip the S powerups and release medals one at a time.

I agree it´s a bit of a pain in the ass. But all it needs is a perfect stage 1 with all the secrets, so I might become used to it later. For now I´m restarting hell of a lot.

[clp]

So far, I prefer Raiden Fighters Jet from last year and 2008's practice week. In RFJ, I was able to do the medaling, and I could dodge bullets.

Problems with this game:
* I have no meaningful sound.
* The medaling is stupid. I have given up on it and resigned myself to collecting 9000 point medals. I just die if I try to skip the S powerups and release medals one at a time.

1.Use a different mame 2. spend all of 5 minutes reading the raiden fighters emporium site , it really isnt stupid or hard to get medals into the 10k + .Al the rest of your points = practice more .

[MR_Soren]

1.Use a different mame... Al the rest of your points = practice more .

That isn't very useful advice when you don't suggest an alternative. I tried a different MAME, and the game wouldn't run at all unless I played the Chineese 2000 ROM version (which was ridiculously easy).

And practice more... yeah, that's what I do every time I play. It doesn't change the fact that I don't think it feels right. I wasn't complaining about the bullets or ship handling on Mars Matrix or Cyvern.

Yes, I do intend to read up on how to find all the secrets and get a bunch of points medaling. No idea if I'll be able to do it, but it is clear that I'll have to do the research.

[ShadowWraith]

I like the Raiden Fighters games. I've played this one (and the first) a lot back after STGT '09 introduced me to the wonder that is RFJ, so I feel at home playing this.

I agree with sik though. Boss milking sucks ass.

[Aguraki]

when I play this game I believe I'm blind.

[Shelltoon]

Same here. Once I have a fully powered Judge Spear slave with two slaves, I can't see a damn thing on the screen.

[Acid King]

Yes, I do intend to read up on how to find all the secrets and get a bunch of points medaling. No idea if I'll be able to do it, but it is clear that I'll have to do the research.

Once you know a few of the easier miclus locations, it's really not that tough to get the medal values maxed. In either of the first two stages you can max the lowest medal values with the first miclus before a slave icon even appears. I just bomb the shit out of the bosses if I have two slaves and haven't maxed the medal value yet, otherwise, you'll lose a slave and have to wait until you get another before you can push the values up again.

[njiska]

Yes, I do intend to read up on how to find all the secrets and get a bunch of points medaling. No idea if I'll be able to do it, but it is clear that I'll have to do the research.

Once you know a few of the easier miclus locations, it's really not that tough to get the medal values maxed. In either of the first two stages you can max the lowest medal values with the first miclus before a slave icon even appears. I just bomb the shit out of the bosses if I have two slaves and haven't maxed the medal value yet, otherwise, you'll lose a slave and have to wait until you get another before you can push the values up again.

Actually if you play it right it's incredibly easy to unlock and boost to the 100,000 medal level on the airport stage.

[Dave_K.]

I'd like this game a whole lot more if I wasn't spending 90% of my time restarting stage 1.

[Icarus]

I'd like this game a whole lot more if I wasn't spending 90% of my time restarting stage 1.

Aside from the third miclus, getting X-Medals in stage 1 is really easy. I'd even say that the third miclus is optional for the less-experienced players, and getting the first miclus in the swamp stage to boost to 100k is easier and recommended.

[Kollision]

I'd like this game a whole lot more if I wasn't spending 90% of my time restarting stage 1.

Aside from the third miclus, getting X-Medals in stage 1 is really easy. I'd even say that the third miclus is optional for the less-experienced players, and getting the first miclus in the swamp stage to boost to 100k is easier and recommended.

This is exactly what I was thinking as I was trying to replicate the strategy yesterday.

[BulletMagnet]

As with the other RF games I like a lot about them, but some of those secrets are whacked-out, totally unintuitive...did some player actually figure them all out on his own or did Seibu just finally surrender and say "okay, here's where everything is" after fielding complaints?

[Ed Oscuro]

RF2 via Aces, in a nutshell:

Quit your current game and restart from the beginning?
(A) YES (B) NO

Restart syndrome is affecting me far less on RF2 than it was when I played RFA.

But then again, MAME Plus is only reporting that I've spent 42:24 (minutes:seconds) with the game this period, and I didn't play nearly this well before. But I think there's a lot of progress for me to make going to later levels, rather than focusing on the current levels too much.

I am also pleasantly surprised that my clumsy fingers are able to activate the Judge Spear + Airport stage combo for new game.

This STGT has been very good. Cyvern, Mars Matrix, and RF2 are all excellent games for scoring play and among my favorites of all time. Xexex would have been much more forgiving to me if I wasn't playing on an emulator and restarting whenever I didn't get a life - and instead tried to play through. But that game has Gradius syndrome for me (which for me is not so much dying and being underpowered, but more being bored out of my skull the whole level and then dying with a stupid mistake).

[mesh control]

It's a shame that Judge Spear is nowhere near animated as it is in VP1.

[MR_Soren]

Huh, maybe I was just tired or maybe I was using the wrong planes. Just tried a credit after work with Hell Diver. I felt like my focus was a lot better. I haven't read up on the secrets yet, so I just avoided the S powerups until I got each type of medal maxed. I started getting 10k medals on Stage 3. Thought the controls were fine. Dodged tons of shit. It seems to work best if I dodge before they start shooting. Game seemed to be on the same level of fun as Raiden Fighters Jet from last year.

Going to a birthday party, no more credits tonight, but I now feel like there is hope. I guess I'll post my score for now, read up on this when I have time, and quit complaining.

Er, well, the sound still sucks ass.

EDIT: Played a bit more. I still suck. Death Header is completely unplayable IMO. That plane is the embodiment of all my previous control complaints. Fortunately, I don't have to use it ever again.

[xris]

I've been enjoying this week the most so far. A great game that is pretty fair.
I've noticed that when I play as Aegis IV, play the swamp stage first, and die right at the beginning of the boss, the next stage the Aegis IIc ship will start the stage with me, and help for the first half of it. If it doesn't get shot down it flies off, and you get bonus points, 100,000 I think. Anybody else finding neat little secrets like this?

[clp]

Huh, maybe I was just tired or maybe I was using the wrong planes. Just tried a credit after work with Hell Diver. I felt like my focus was a lot better. I haven't read up on the secrets yet, so I just avoided the S powerups until I got each type of medal maxed. I started getting 10k medals on Stage 3. Thought the controls were fine. Dodged tons of shit. It seems to work best if I dodge before they start shooting. Game seemed to be on the same level of fun as Raiden Fighters Jet from last year.

Going to a birthday party, no more credits tonight, but I now feel like there is hope. I guess I'll post my score for now, read up on this when I have time, and quit complaining.

Er, well, the sound still sucks ass.

EDIT: Played a bit more. I still suck. Death Header is completely unplayable IMO. That plane is the embodiment of all my previous control complaints. Fortunately, I don't have to use it ever again.

Seriously dude play a slave ship it will help you out alot .

[Battletoad]

Alright my final thoughts:
Good game. At first it was very hard to get into the scoring, but the guide that is linked everywhere really helped a lot. Yet I can´t count the amount of restarts that I had to use. But it got a lot better in the end of the week, so I won´t criticize the game too much for that. I really like the general fast-paced action style of the game. The fast bullets can be frustrating sometimes, especially because panic bombing doesn´t always save you. But in the end it´s just about getting used to it. Additionally good positioning can save you a lot of trouble. Bullet visibility can be a bit critical, but I only had little problems with it in the Air Fortress Stage (stage 4 respectively 5).

It seems playing with the standard ships is much more fun, but for fast progress the slave was necessary for me. So if I´ll ever pick up a 360 and Raiden Fighters Aces, I´ll probably just use the standard ships.

[Herr Schatten]

As with the other RF games, being required to perform some sort of elaborate stunt in order to activate the real scoring system hidden underneath the fake one strikes me as trying to be different just for the sake of it. Or in other words: I think this is completely idiotic. Additionally, some of the secrets are triggered in such idiosyncratic ways that, like BM, I can't believe anyone ever figured those out without a little help from Seibu.

Other than that, there's a lot to like. It's a really good game with tight level design and beautifully crafted, albeit slightly generic, visuals. Only the music leaves much to be desired. I actually wish I had been able to play this.

[Ed Oscuro]

The medaling thing isn't a big deal to me; I got my 30M score with only one miclus (the one at the beginning of the Allied Airport stage) and have only managed a million better (at this writing) since then.

I don't see the need for restarting level one over and over...I'm sure that getting gold medals and a couple micluses in the second stage would land me a couple million more but that's not enough payoff for me to restart stage one over and over. For now, I'm content to keep trying for the third miclus on the Allied Airport stage (which I've had a bit of trouble doing).

What I dislike is the train stage, oddly enough...I keep losing the medal chain there. (The train stage is where I get my 100000 medals, as there's enough medals near the beginning of the stage to uncover 9 at a time). I always seem to lose a life or two there. Then I sail through the next couple stages and end up dying at the next desert convoy armored fortress thing. If I can just survive longer at that, I ought to be close to 5-10M points higher (my latest highscore is 1M higher than my posted yet I died earlier in the same stage).

Overall the game seems fairly easy, easier than Mars Matrix for sure.

[ColonelFatso]

Yeah, you have to be pretty careful not to blow the wrong thing up in the train stage (especially if you have the great misfortune of homing slaves at the time), but if you can keep careful it's worth a lot of points - whenever I DID clear the stage I got about 24-25mil out of it.

Anyway, amazing game, well worth the time I spent.

[Battletoad]

Are there any other STGs with bosses filling out multiple screens? That was extremely awesome.

[Skykid]

I absolutely loved this, it was brilliant to finally scratch beneath the surface. Thanks to Icarus for your help man, the X-Medals tech ruled and it felt great to uncover all the Miclii n' stuff (although I couldn't quite get the tank platform bonuses to work on Violet Head.)

The game rules and I managed 44mil last night which was incredibly satisfying - but I can't see myself getting past the stage 6 boss though .

It would be a great shame I need to swap it out of the cab now, if it wasn't for the fact I get to swap it for Dangun!

[Aquas]

Are there any other STGs with bosses filling out multiple screens? That was extremely awesome.

Mushihimesama's stage 3 comes to mind: a huge ass beetle husk of some sort, a nasty moth thing flies from under it at the end of the stage which is the boss. But it might as well count.

Raiden Fighters 2 was pretty damn fun. A toned down Raiden Fighters Jet, I enjoyed some of the bass thumping musics. A classic.

[KennyMan666]

Thoughts on blog already? It's more likely than you think! And this week, it's actually thoughts!

[nZero]

Are there any other STGs with bosses filling out multiple screens? That was extremely awesome.

Mushihimesama's stage 3 comes to mind: a huge ass beetle husk of some sort, a nasty moth thing flies from under it at the end of the stage which is the boss. But it might as well count.

In Omega Fighter Special, every stage is part of the giant boss