Raystorm HD - Xbox Live Arcade & PSN

[Kiken]

Taito's HD remake of their PSOne shooter RayStorm HD has been given a release date -- you'll be shooting stuff out of the sky on the 5th of May -- but only on the Xbox Live Arcade.

While the game had been announced for both XBLA and PSN, the game will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 in both the United States and Europe according to Square-Enix's Twitter. This is not the first time this has happened -- Sega's Outrun Online Arcade was only released in Europe for the PlayStation Network last year, and doesn't look like it's coming to the USA anytime soon.

The game has been priced at 1200MSP, or $15. Check it out next week.

Link

[nZero]

About time this made it out. A shame Taito/Squeenix kept the price at that level for a remake of a single game, hopefully it will eventually be discounted under a promotion or deal-of-the-week or somesuch. Then again, they've got a habit of overpricing crap like 0-day Attack on Earth at 1200MSP also...

[kengou]

Taito's HD remake of their PSOne shooter RayStorm HD has been given a release date -- you'll be shooting stuff out of the sky on the 5th of May -- but only on the Xbox Live Arcade.

While the game had been announced for both XBLA and PSN, the game will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 in both the United States and Europe according to Square-Enix's Twitter. This is not the first time this has happened -- Sega's Outrun Online Arcade was only released in Europe for the PlayStation Network last year, and doesn't look like it's coming to the USA anytime soon.

The game has been priced at 1200MSP, or $15. Check it out next week.

Link

LAAAAAME, I was going to get it too. Not sure if I should blame Sony or Square for this one, but man this is bad news.

[Klatrymadon]

Two days after my birthday. HOOAH!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I get the impression that RaystormHD will be available on the JPN PSN site then? Wonder how much the asking yen price of it will be then?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BulletMagnet]

I get the impression that RaystormHD will be available on the JPN PSN site then? Wonder how much the asking yen price of it will be then?

1,500, presumably.

[nZero]

I get the impression that RaystormHD will be available on the JPN PSN site then? Wonder how much the asking yen price of it will be then?

1,500, presumably.

That's right, according to the official site.

[Voxbox]

I'm hoping it ends up in the HK store as well, so I can use my credit card to buy it.

[ZOM]

I'm hoping it ends up in the HK store as well, so I can use my credit card to buy it.

Yah, same here. I very much prefer to get this one for the PS3.

[ex.machina]

Ah nice, I should still have credit on my Japanese PSN account. So I'm good to go next week.

[EPS21]

I wonder if you can switch to the old graphics, perhaps even on the fly ala R-Type Dimensions.

[ZOM]

I wonder if you can switch to the old graphics, perhaps even on the fly ala R-Type Dimensions.

I don't think it will, there's not enough of a difference to warrant such a feature as this. With R-Type you had the "lookit we made this shiny!" to "OMGZ Retro 2Dee!" wow-effect, In Raystorm's case the "retro" is just lower polycount and uglier textures. Everything else is the same including the bullet-sprites.

[EPS21]

I wonder if you can switch to the old graphics, perhaps even on the fly ala R-Type Dimensions.

I don't think it will, there's not enough of a difference to warrant such a feature as this. With R-Type you had the "lookit we made this shiny!" to "OMGZ Retro 2Dee!" wow-effect, In Raystorm's case the "retro" is just lower polycount and uglier textures. Everything else is the same including the bullet-sprites.

Raystorm is one of the first shmups I've played before I even knew what the genre was, so it has quite a bit of nostalgia value for me, ugly Playstation polygons be damned. Guess I'll have to buy the port again for that if thats the case then.

[ex.machina]

I wonder if you can switch to the old graphics, perhaps even on the fly ala R-Type Dimensions.

Buy the PS1 version if you want old graphics, it's also on the PSN store. I want this one especially for the remade HD look.

[HamidoOs]

I haven't played this game, but it seems that a lot of people on this site will buy it, which means it is a good game.
I'll get it then.

[evil_ash_xero]

I've always liked shmups since I was a kid, but I wasn't really into them. They were just like any other game. Raystorm was the game that started my shmup obsession. I think the first one is a good bit better, but this one has special meaning, so i'm looking forward to it.

I wonder if Square will ever remake Einhander? Or maybe Taito could remake G-Darius? Hmm...

[Battlesmurf]

I've always liked shmups since I was a kid, but I wasn't really into them. They were just like any other game. Raystorm was the game that started my shmup obsession. I think the first one is a good bit better, but this one has special meaning, so i'm looking forward to it.

I wonder if Square will ever remake Einhander? Or maybe Taito could remake G-Darius? Hmm...

Einhander would make me a happy happy man.

[2dvertical]

The ps3 is like shmup kryptonite. The psp gets more love. Sad

Glad i got that jp xbox.

[ZOM]

d'oh. I just noticed I still have a valid ￥3000 PSN ticket! Problem solved

[drunkninja24]

So can you just make a JPN psn account and buy things from the JPN psn store? I assume you have to have either japanese points or a japanese credit card or something?

[ZOM]

So can you just make a JPN psn account and buy things from the JPN psn store? I assume you have to have either japanese points or a japanese credit card or something?

Yes, you need either a Japanese PSN card, a PSN ticket, or a Credit Card registered with a Japanese residential adress. Alternative would be the Honk Kong store but not everything that's available on J-PSN will see the light of day on that one.
Also, play-asia and other import shops sell prepaid PSN tickets - the cards are more difficult to obtain, so you'll probably get just a reciept with a code.

[system11]

Looking at that new video shows pretty much why they took so long: looks like they seriously redid the whole game to work on a 16:9 screen ratio, like recalculating the different bullet-spreads and "laser-gaps". I'm surprised they actually went to such lenght, even if it's silly IMO they should've just restricted the playfield to 4:3 and extend the background to the rest of the sides. Well, at least they did something else than just a lazy porting.

Looks like the awful auto-centering is still around...

Are you sure? Screenshots very much suggest all they did was chop it and change the perspective slightly in places.

[ZOM]

Looking at that new video shows pretty much why they took so long: looks like they seriously redid the whole game to work on a 16:9 screen ratio, like recalculating the different bullet-spreads and "laser-gaps". I'm surprised they actually went to such lenght, even if it's silly IMO they should've just restricted the playfield to 4:3 and extend the background to the rest of the sides. Well, at least they did something else than just a lazy porting.

Looks like the awful auto-centering is still around...

Are you sure? Screenshots very much suggest all they did was chop it and change the perspective slightly in places.

Hmm, you're making me insecure, moreso after looking at the screens... Then again, the battleship's laser's gaps seem pretty much the same as the original with the lasers extended to the whole screen. On the other hand, it's possible that a slight perspective change was all that was needed assuming the additional lasers were already there but offscreen.
On a sidenote, I tried to compare stage one's background for cropping, but it's fairly different: while the street-intersections seem pretty much the same length vertically, I found the rest of the city just too different to compare. Also, like you mentioned, the perspective is shifted a bit too there.

[Kron]

From the press release:

available worldwide (except Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Korea).

[Elixir]

From the press release:

available worldwide (except Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Korea).

Good example of Taito fucking up yet again.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

hy would taito not bother releasing in those contries? Its not asif theres content in it that will offend those contries unless the baddies flying the ships are Nazis or Korean Commies.

The video game industry can be abit on the daft side sometimes, why dont they copy off the US movie industry where distribution is much more universal. Making us consumers happy and them more richer.

[ZOM]

I don't get it. Licensing issues? Nah.

[8 1/2]

I can only think of two things:

1) There is SOME small bit of content that is deemed unacceptable, and is required to change to get it published in those countries. Australia, Germany, and Korea are notoriously censor happy. I can't imagine WHAT though in this game.

2) They didn't have the resources to localize it for those languages. Doesn't make a lot of sense in AU, but German in particular causes all kinds of hell in localization. You essentially have to plan for double the amount of text you'd need for english. Perhaps it was a UI concern and they didn't have time to resize all the text boxes.

[dcharlie]

Not sure i understand these exclusivity deals - especially on PSN where you can simply create a new login and download it from the JPN store anyways :/

[No_not_like_Quake]

Getting this fucker tomorrow. I've not played Raystorm before (I'm already expecting something not as good as Layer Section, I know the drill), bit excited.