Raiden III - PS2 version

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:14 am

Icarus wrote: I've noticed that you increase in power even if you pick up a different weapon powerup, unlike the earlier Raidens where you'd switch weapon and stay at the same power level if you picked up a different weapon powerup. Makes weapon recovery a bit easier I guess.

Honestly, the most frustrating aspect of Raiden and Toaplan shmups for that matter was the massive powerdown after dying; turning the game quickly into a one-life or not-at-all scenario. It sounds like they've done a lot to improve that.

Shearie · Post by **Shearie** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:24 am

The only thing I find suspect about Raiden III's gameplay is that the normal straight missiles aren't as strong as the new missiles making them pretty much worthless. While first playing the game I thought they felt weak compared to the old games but I wasn't sure so I watched the superplay vids to see if they ever use them in any situation in the game. They never touched them once. I decided to make a few tests going through the bosses with the same routine and same main weapon but with different missiles. Every single time I beat the bosses with a .1 better multiplier with the new missiles than the regular ones. Why use the regular missiles when they don't home in on enemies and our weaker than the new ones.

One thing I like that's different than the old games is that the screen doesn't scroll to the left or the right anymore. There were lots of times in Raiden 1 where I would be moving to my right and the screen would scroll and reveal an enemy right next to me and shoot me down without me ever knowing what hit me.

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:12 pm

Something I noticed that I don't think has been mentioned before - bonus enemies. One time just before the Stage 2 boss a huge amount of popcorn enemies appeared that I hadn't seen before. I believe I was using Vulcan/Homing at the moment, so destroying the non-bonus enemies fast enough might be the trigger.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:23 am

This is very good. Excellent presentation in the menus etc, nice options and features.

Gameplay is excellent, and at Arcade Difficulty is on par with II, DX etc. Really great patterns from the bosses and later stages are very cool.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:16 am

all i can say about this game is "i told you so". recalling the old raiden III threads, i think me and randorama were the only ones looking forward to this game.

my only gripe is that there is no improvement in ship speed. this game would be platinum status if you could unlock the Ixion.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:28 am

Stormowl wrote:i think me and randorama were the only ones looking forward to this game.

I am still looking forward to it.. .__________________________.
Well, I did play a burned copy for about 5 minutes, but I'm still not expecting my copy to arrive for at least another week. But I just got Ikaruga recently so I consider my gaming time fully booked :D

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:38 am

Stormowl wrote:all i can say about this game is "i told you so". recalling the old raiden III threads, i think me and randorama were the only ones looking forward to this game.

my only gripe is that there is no improvement in ship speed. this game would be platinum status if you could unlock the Ixion.

I was always on board.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:43 am

Stormowl wrote:all i can say about this game is "i told you so". recalling the old raiden III threads, i think me and randorama were the only ones looking forward to this game.

not true man, i was looking forward to it and hoping for the best despite my bitching about no sprites. i'm glad it turned out well.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:17 am

Well my copy just arrived so it's a big thumbs up from me for Yes-Asia. So far i'm really impressed with this game, I think it's a quality shooter. I've been playing it on a 15khz 29" monitor and it doesn't look all that bad. I'd like to see it running on high res though.

Naiera · Post by **Naiera** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:39 pm

Got my copy from Play Asia today. Definitely quicker than NamCollection and a lot quicker than Mushihime-sama as well. Marked as MERCHANDISE as well. No customs bother here

Five days after release isn't too bad, and only a week after they sent it.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 2:13 pm

Stormowl wrote:all i can say about this game is "i told you so". recalling the old raiden III threads, i think me and randorama were the only ones looking forward to this game.

I am always happy to have my skepticism proved wrong, especially on something like this.

Glad to hear you got yours already, Naiera. Maybe I won't have to wait til' Saturday/Monday to get mine.

Naiera · Post by **Naiera** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:14 pm

The game looks awesome on my arcade monitor. It's a standard raster-thingy. I don't know why people are saying it looks poop on standard arcade monitors...

Gekiohsama · Post by **Gekiohsama** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:12 pm

Theres also something else that i just found interesting while looking through the key config and i dont think its been mentioned. You can dual wield ships!! While in the main menu the triangle toggles between solo dual and double play options. Choosing double lets you play with both red and blue ships with the left dpad or analogue controlling the red and the right 4 buttons or r analogue controlling the blue with l and r buttons controlling your shot and bomb. It's weird at first but after a little while it really does add a little more spice to the single player experience "though i think you need independent eyeballs to master it." It also adds to the scoring opportunities since while playing in double you only have 1p score to worry about.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:19 pm

Gekiohsama wrote:Theres also something else that i just found interesting while looking through the key config and i dont think its been mentioned. You can dual wield ships!! While in the main menu the triangle toggles between solo dual and double play options. Choosing double lets you play with both red and blue ships with the left dpad or analogue controlling the red and the right 4 buttons or r analogue controlling the blue with l and r buttons controlling your shot and bomb. It's weird at first but after a little while it really does add a little more spice to the single player experience "though i think you need independent eyeballs to master it." It also adds to the scoring opportunities since while playing in double you only have 1p score to worry about.

Yes this has been mentioned (see the first page of this thread). There are superplay vids of a guy (FMK, iirc) going through the whole game this way.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:35 pm

Played some 2-player Raiden III today & really enjoyed it. Feels a lot like Trizeal in parts.

Overall it's good and worth picking up, imo. Maybe not better than Raiden II/DX but that was always going to be a hard act to follow. Surprisingly smooth so now I'm hopeful about the Type X PS2 conversion of Homura.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:43 pm

Well i've played this for a bit more and I think it's an excellent conversion and so far probably the best console port released this year. I've pr-ordered my copy of homura and have high hopes for it.
Well I don't know about you folks but I think it's been an excellent year for shooting games so far!

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:42 am

http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5406

visuatrox · Post by **visuatrox** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 5:28 am

This game gets my seal of approval too. I was a bit worried that the port would turn out bad considering the arcade games hardware platform. But I was very pleasantly surprised by the fast loading times, good presentation, graphics, all modes I need. The gameplay is fun and even though the music is maybe not very memorable, it has a cool "retro" feel to it, I like it!

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:25 pm

I am not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but there is a way to get a bonus man on stage 3. You have to destroy all the side cranes towards the end of the stage (and maybe some other enemies, I am not 100% sure) and a 1up will come out.

If you finish the game (any difficulty, any settings) you will have access to a super-replay by SOD. It is a very nice replay.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:22 am

Yeah- you also have to collect the 1up before the boss comes in or it flies away quickly.

There is a second 1up toward the end of stage 6- destroy all of the little turrets on each of the 3 large rotating sections on the central core thing and it pops out.

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:32 pm

just ordered mine from yesasia its gonna take nearly a month to arrive but im in no hurry im still enjoying Gradius V and tate-ing and un-tate-ing my tv is a pain in the arse.

if its even half as good as DX il be a happy chappy

agony · Post by **agony** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 5:52 pm

got mine yesterday

and hell it looks great, but I have problems with these "not much bullets but very small" schooters, I suck as hell in this game :]

maybe I just need a screen full of big fat bullets

*looks on mushi and galuda*

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:06 pm

I got my copy today. It works fine with hdloader, just like someone said before. The game seems pretty decent, but you guys weren't kidding when you said the music was bad...it is really annoying!

What is the green bar next to each score on the right of the scoreboard?

ForteMP3 · Post by **ForteMP3** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:04 am

The green bar is the difficulty icon, it shows what difficulty you obtained the score on.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:51 am

I just got mine this afternoon, and I'm lovin' it a bunch. This one will keep Mushi out of my dedicated tate PS2 for a while.

I'm so glad I was wrong on this one.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:15 am

Guardians Knight wrote:just ordered mine from yesasia its gonna take nearly a month to arrive but im in no hurry im still enjoying Gradius V and tate-ing and un-tate-ing my tv is a pain in the arse.

if its even half as good as DX il be a happy chappy

Don't give up hope. Mine said it wouldn't ship until the 5th of October or something, but it shipped yesterday. Since I put in for Priority shipping (well worth the $5), I might just see it on saturday.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:27 pm

A special note to those of you playing in YOKO mode:

the default screen setting (normal A) is actually for 16:9 TV's. if you are playing and the screen seems awful thin, you need to adjust the screen to (normal b) for standard 4:3 TVs.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:00 pm

Told you so, gentlemen.

Now, i need someone from the last seats to scream "OMG I CANT HAVE FUN WITH UGLY GRAPHICS!!1!"...

On a lighter note: is the yesasia free shipping slow as a bradip? I had stuff shipped two weeks ago and it still doesn't pop up, should i get worried?

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:05 pm

Nah, nothing to worry about. Last time I ordered from yesasia with free shipping, it took around 3 or 4 weeks.

I might pre-order BM IIDX 10th style and pay for shipping, it should still be cheaper than play-asia's price before shipping...

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:07 pm

iatneH wrote:Nah, nothing to worry about. Last time I ordered from yesasia with free shipping, it took around 3 or 4 weeks.

I might pre-order BM IIDX 10th style and pay for shipping, it should still be cheaper than play-asia's price before shipping...

Yeah! *bangs head against the wall*

Thanks for the info though.