RAIDEN IV

[finisherr]

Has anyone played this? Is it sweet? I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

[A_Civilian]

Very fun. It's more fast than manic, but it's not too much of a change. Though watch out for sniper enemies.

[Moniker]

Highly recommended. Plays very differently from Cave games, in a good way. Raiden Fighter Aces is also excellent. Both are available on Games on Demand for the 360.

[rancor]

Has anyone played this? Is it sweet? I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

I have it. It's a fun diversion, but I don't see it as being in anyone's top 5 or anything. It's no Ketsui/DDP/Garegga.. Thats for damn sure.. haha..

[finisherr]

Does it support Tate?

[chempop]

I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

Someone needs a dreamcast and saturn.

[finisherr]

I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

Someone needs a dreamcast and saturn.

Lemme guess....Garegga?

[rancor]

There's a mountain of choice for the Saturn and Dreamcast.. And no.. Garegga isn't one of the first games I'd recommend. If you have those two consoles as well as a PC and a J-X360, you're unstoppable.

[chempop]

Saturn:
Layer Section
Batsugun
Soukyugurentai
Battle Garegga
Gunbird, Strikers1945
Sengoku Blaede/Blade
Parodius Deluxe, Sexy
Thunderforce V
Darius Gaiden

Dreamcast:
Mars Matrix
Gigawing, Gigawing 2
Gunbird 2
Zerogunner 2
Ikaruga
Bangai-O
Psyvariar 2
Shikigami no Shiro 2
Under Defeat

...just to name a few. Definitely look outside of CAVE, they may make some of the best games around, but it doesn't mean they make the only games around.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Raiden IV is pretty much the only shooter carrying on Toaplan's legacy, so it's pretty much essential.

[AntiFritz]

Raiden IV is pretty much the only shooter carrying on Toaplan's legacy, so it's pretty much essential.

Dangun Feveron?

[Hagane]

Has anyone played this? Is it sweet? I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

I think you should the Raiden Fighters games instead. Much better IMO.

[burgerkingdiamond]

fuck yeah Raiden IV is the shit. but hard as hell. All Raidens are though.

I was playing RIII on my cab today. It's not as good as IV but still fun. Good music too.

[denpanosekai]

I actually prefer 3 to 4, but nothing beats Raiden 2 IMHO.

RFA is also a sweet deal, 20$ bargain bin and all.

PS You should try Under Defeat HD!

[BPzeBanshee]

RAIDEN IV

WINNING

Seriously though, have a go. The 360 port should support TATE otherwise surely we'd be seeing more complaining about it here - and the Taito Type X hack of it going around is hard-set to rotate so if you use that one, flip that screen and make sure it's not a flatscreen.

Raiden IV is pretty much the only shooter carrying on Toaplan's legacy, so it's pretty much essential.

Dangun Feveron?

Dangun Feveron never particularly struck me as trying to be like Toaplan but then the game's not my forte.

[MauJustice]

I liked Raiden Fighters Aces better, but Raiden 4 was sweet.

[MathU]

I'm still very disappointed that Cyberfront didn't do a PC port.

[finisherr]

RAIDEN IV

WINNING

Seriously though, have a go. The 360 port should support TATE otherwise surely we'd be seeing more complaining about it here - and the Taito Type X hack of it going around is hard-set to rotate so if you use that one, flip that screen and make sure it's not a flatscreen.

Raiden IV is pretty much the only shooter carrying on Toaplan's legacy, so it's pretty much essential.

Dangun Feveron?

Dangun Feveron never particularly struck me as trying to be like Toaplan but then the game's not my forte.

My lady is letting me keep my CRT when we move. Pretty glad about that. Might eventually have to get a second 360 because she's going to want to play her Skyrim and whatnot on our flatscreen.

[spadgy]

Does it support Tate?

Yes! The JPN version does anyway. It's one of my favourite ever games.

And have a go at Double Playing it. It's not hard, and I'm certain it's how the game's meant to be played! I'm an average/just-below-average ability shmup player at best, and I did alright with Double Play. Playing it Solo, it's a good enough shmup. Playing it Double Play (1 player controlling both ships) it's bloody superb. I'd find it hard to go back to Raiden IV solo-play.

[Estebang]

Very solid game, but it does have one huge flaw. The difficulty spike on the Stage 3 boss is one of the worst I've ever seen in a shmup. You can do very well through everything before, and then get totally obliterated by him.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Very solid game, but it does have one huge flaw. The difficulty spike on the Stage 3 boss is one of the worst I've ever seen in a shmup. You can do very well through everything before, and then get totally obliterated by him.

yeah the game does stick it to you there. But with practice it's not too big of a hurdle.

[finisherr]

Very solid game, but it does have one huge flaw. The difficulty spike on the Stage 3 boss is one of the worst I've ever seen in a shmup. You can do very well through everything before, and then get totally obliterated by him.

yeah the game does stick it to you there. But with practice it's not too big of a hurdle.

It almost always seems to be stage 3. There is some developer's rule...

[Jeneki]

Has anyone played this?

Sure.

Is it sweet?

Points are based around how long it takes you to destroy stuff. Do you like being rewarded for exploding everything as quickly as possible? Also if you stop shooting for a couple seconds you get a big barrage of missiles with little score bonuses everywhere, and that my friend is SWEEEEEET.

I'm thinking about trying a non-Cave game for once.

Also see Psikyo, Toaplan, Raizing, Kaneko, Compile, etc.

[Casper<3]

Raiden IV has amazing atmosphere and aesthetic design.

It's flaws however become uncovered quickly with very little play. I want to like the game, I really do. It's just completely withheld of any form of balance. :/

The biggest issue is that you're always underpowered. It's not like CAVE games where your shot power just gets set back a little if you die, it is back to scratch completely. When you're fully powered up, you can destroy more than the one hit enemies, however when you die you're stuck with a pea shooter that can't take out a fly. This really ruins the game, if you die once, you might as well just reset the game. Not being able to take out enemies in a timely matter will flood the screen within a matter of second with enemies and bullets. Sometimes you'll have up to 5 enemies too powerful for you to take out even one, plus 6 popcorn enemies sniping you, and a few scenery tanks also shooting at you. This might be manageable if the bullets didn't move miles faster than your ship.

The next biggest flaw is that until you memorize ever inch of the game, you won't know what kills you like 90% of the time. You won't see bullets masked behind explosions, and even your bomb recovery, enemies off screen will snipe you.

I think overall I rank the game 4/10.

Great visuals, but the gameplay is just meh at best. Unfair unless you take hours upon hours to memorize the stages, the scoring system flat out sucks, your weapons totally blow. Your ship moves like a snail which often makes the game feel paint dry slow even when you're faced with blink death bullets.

[Estebang]

stuff

Sounds like you're thinking of Raiden III, especially with the slow ship speed remark.

[Austin]

The US version absolutely supports TATE. It's the only way I play it.

All in all it's a pretty good game and is a much better effort than Raiden 3 was.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

As nice as it'd be to get an Arcade 1-all(cause screw 360 mode as those 2 extra stages suck), I just couldn't get into the game.

[Iron Peach]

Highly recommended. Plays very differently from Cave games, in a good way. Raiden Fighter Aces is also excellent. Both are available on Games on Demand for the 360.

No! No! No!

Please do not support the overpricing of these games. You can buy either game much less expensive in fully boxed disc format. Jesus, Microsoft, your pricing of on demand games sucks...

[Bananamatic]

raiden III, stage 3 boss

not only its patterns tend to be worse than those of the final boss which is really easy, but there is always that motherfucking ship at the left bottom corner that snipes you before you can shoot it or even see it

[Aquas]

Raiden IV has amazing atmosphere and aesthetic design.

It's flaws however become uncovered quickly with very little play. I want to like the game, I really do. It's just completely withheld of any form of balance. :/

The biggest issue is that you're always underpowered. It's not like CAVE games where your shot power just gets set back a little if you die, it is back to scratch completely. When you're fully powered up, you can destroy more than the one hit enemies, however when you die you're stuck with a pea shooter that can't take out a fly. This really ruins the game, if you die once, you might as well just reset the game. Not being able to take out enemies in a timely matter will flood the screen within a matter of second with enemies and bullets. Sometimes you'll have up to 5 enemies too powerful for you to take out even one, plus 6 popcorn enemies sniping you, and a few scenery tanks also shooting at you. This might be manageable if the bullets didn't move miles faster than your ship.

Sounds like you've never tried earning a recovery and you're not into older shmups in general. To newcomers, it'll seem that dying is the end. But recovering is actually very do-able in Raiden IV. You may have to use a bomb after you die to get re-oriented but it's an essential skill and is required if you're taking the game seriously. And this game is primarily a survival shmup. It's a nitty gritty old-school shmup that won't care about kicking your ass.

With that said I love Raiden III and IV. The "underpowered" feeling is really satisfying to me because playing correctly is having good placement and stage knowledge. Both games have something to offer. I guess it's memorization heavy but the sense of accomplishment is there once you crack the 3rd bosses patterns and so on.