Tell me about Night Raid.

[Damocles]

I recently started playing night raid and, though it's a fun little shmup, I'm perplexed about a few things.

For one, the application of the hug launcher. I gather that it fires straight out and, with joystick wiggling, will continue to stay out (and thus keep you invicible) as long as there are enemies. However, I've noticed that many times wiggling the joystick isn't necessary. What's the difference here?

Two, is it really this easy? On my first run I made it to level five, I think. All the bosses seemed like pushovers, and went down really quickly.

Third. Where is the hitbox? I was like a friggin messiah weaving through patterns, so I'm guessing it's pretty small.

Four. How many levels are there?

Oddly enough, I don't find the controls at all annoying. *shrug*

[Randorama]

Well, for completist purposes (All Takumi STs) i'll write down an ST in these days, is it ok for you?

[Damocles]

Thanks Rando. Knowing your work, it'll be quality.

[BulletMagnet]

I think there are either 5 or 6 levels, I forget offhand...as far as the launcher is concerned, I'm not sure how that thing works, I just wiggle the joystick and hope for the best. Good luck figuring everything out, Rando, heh heh.

[serge]

There are 6 stages, I believe.
I have this gameplay description quoted below, written by Randorama on the old forum, so here it is, before his ST for the game is ready.

Well, the game works in this way:

You have try buttons, shot, hug launcher and bomb.

You can power up the shot three times, third time the shot will start sweeping the screen if you hold down the button fora couple of seconds.

The hug launcher is, uhm, a peculiar weapon: it basically triggers a sort of doppel ganger that's invicible (and you are too,but also blocked where you launched it) and deals massive damage to everything it hits.Once you press the button, it will (if it actually hits any enemies) start bouncing from enemy to enemy, as long as there's energy left in the bar (bottom of the screen, your playing side).If you don't wiggle the joystick, it will just bounce among adiacent enemies and then get back once energy has finished.If you wiggle the joystick, you can actually control said doppel ganger and guide it against enemies.

Problem is, if you don't hit anything, the energy will be consumed, and only if you place hits it will be replenished.The more hits you place, the less energy you get back with every hit. Exampli gratia: you can hit a few enemies, then guide the doppel ganger against an enemy on the other side of screen, and this will consume half of your energy.If you hit it, you will get half a bar of energy back if you're under 10 hits, one third if in the 11-20 hits range, about 1/4 above 20 hits.A good chain is from 25 on.

While using the doppel ganger, you're invicible, and you can see your hit area (where the doppel ganger's "cable" is linked).Also, any bullets hit by the doppel ganger are transformed into bonuses, and collected too in case the said DG hits them again.

Bonuses raise you thermometre (bar on the left): the higher on screen you collect them on screen, the higher the bonus. If you let them go off the screen, they will lower your thermometre value, down to -100. This value is a multiplier to your score, basically: in some cases,like giga wing 2, if you can get enough bonuses on screen, they will transform into food, you need to collect just one of them to block for a few seconds the thermometre value to +100 (they're also worth 1M each). You can actually get negative scores,actually you can play for positive scores, negative ones and near-to-zero scores (last one has to be done by balancing both styles, no "no-shooting" policy). I think that's all.

[Damocles]

Score attack option in-game lists six stages.

[dave4shmups]

I think there are either 5 or 6 levels, I forget offhand...as far as the launcher is concerned, I'm not sure how that thing works, I just wiggle the joystick and hope for the best. Good luck figuring everything out, Rando, heh heh.

I watched a video replay of the first stage (which unfortunately isn't around anymore) and the "lines" drawn by the launcher reminded me of Qix!

Is it anything like that, or do you have little control over the path your ship takes when using the launcher?

[Randorama]

The St is up.I hope it helps, a review will appear in my journal soon, too.

[Damocles]

Damn Rando, that was quick!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For those of us shmuppers who have a Taito G-Net and a Taito G-Card of Night Raid, there are some subtle differences between the G-Card version & the later PSX released version from Takumi.

PSX version of Night Raid has a cool CGI opening intro that introduces one to the world of Night Raid. The official tagline of the original Taito G-Net version of Night Raid simply says, "Welcome to Nightmare" (which isn't found anywhere on the PSX version). Some concessions were made to keep the PSX version running at a respectable 60 frames per second.

No bonus scores appear after destroying enemies when using the Hug Launcher on the PSX version but does appear on the Taito G-Card version.

The Taito G-Card version of Night Raid is playable with up to two players simulteanously co-op mode whereas in the PSX version, just one player mode -- again to keep the framerate at 60 fps (by adding a 2nd player and the framerate would drop down).

The PSX version of Night Raid has an extra bonus mode to play through whereas the Taito G-Card has just the original "arcade" mode to play with only giving PSX gamers some extra added value for their money by buying the console version of Night Raid.

The G-Card version of Night Raid doesn't have any FMV clips but rather uses the built-in Night Raid game graphics engine to render real-time FMV on the fly for the title screen and ending credits -- is too fast to fully enjoy like on the slowed down PSX version where the title screen has been rendered into a PSX FMV clip.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[dave4shmups]

So, does the launcher work anythink like your ship in Qix??