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IGN Review of Raiden Fighters Aces
Top-down shooters don't get much attention these days, but there was a time when the genre dominated the arcade landscape. The Raiden franchise had its decade in the sun through the 1990s, spanning multiple releases that included three Raiden Fighters games towards the turn of the millennium. Those three can now be had on one disc at the budget price of just $19.99. While these aren't the greatest top-down shooters of all time and a little bit more could have been done to bring the package up to date, Raiden Fighters Aces is a good compilation of old-school gaming.
Though most top-down shooters have found their way to Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, Raiden Fighters Aces has made its home on disc and on store shelves. That gives it a few advantages over its XBLA brethren, most notably the full set of 1,000 Achievement points and a robust set of options for tweaking the gameplay.
There is little difference between the three Raiden Fighters games. Each has a good selection of ships, each carrying their own stats and special weapons. Once the game starts, it's a matter of dodging bullets amidst all of the chaos that goes on. Power-ups can be grabbed to add slave ships a la Galaga or to increase your firing power. Like all top-down shooters, the game is more about memorizing enemy patterns than any other skill set. The games are rather short, though beating them without continuing to get all of the Achievements is quite challenging.
Each game can be played co-operatively, but only offline with another player. The two-player game can get rather hectic after adding a second bullet-spewing ship onto the screen, so it isn't really my cup of tea. Still, the lack of any Xbox Live multiplayer features is disappointing.
In fact, the Xbox Live integration as a whole is a bit odd. There are leaderboards, but you have to select the Xbox Live tab on the main menu to play a game where your scores will be registered. There you'll find a more restrictive option set to keep everyone on the same playing field, but even if you play under the default settings on the normal "Game Play" tab you'll find that your scores aren't uploaded to the leaderboards.
Even with these small points of contention, Raiden Fighters Aces still has an impressive set of options and features. Plenty of sliders and filters exist for getting your visuals just right, including fully customizable controls and the ability to rotate the screen so you can get the full use of your widescreen television.
©2009-05-14, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Though most top-down shooters have found their way to Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, Raiden Fighters Aces has made its home on disc and on store shelves. That gives it a few advantages over its XBLA brethren, most notably the full set of 1,000 Achievement points and a robust set of options for tweaking the gameplay.
There is little difference between the three Raiden Fighters games. Each has a good selection of ships, each carrying their own stats and special weapons. Once the game starts, it's a matter of dodging bullets amidst all of the chaos that goes on. Power-ups can be grabbed to add slave ships a la Galaga or to increase your firing power. Like all top-down shooters, the game is more about memorizing enemy patterns than any other skill set. The games are rather short, though beating them without continuing to get all of the Achievements is quite challenging.
Each game can be played co-operatively, but only offline with another player. The two-player game can get rather hectic after adding a second bullet-spewing ship onto the screen, so it isn't really my cup of tea. Still, the lack of any Xbox Live multiplayer features is disappointing.
In fact, the Xbox Live integration as a whole is a bit odd. There are leaderboards, but you have to select the Xbox Live tab on the main menu to play a game where your scores will be registered. There you'll find a more restrictive option set to keep everyone on the same playing field, but even if you play under the default settings on the normal "Game Play" tab you'll find that your scores aren't uploaded to the leaderboards.
Even with these small points of contention, Raiden Fighters Aces still has an impressive set of options and features. Plenty of sliders and filters exist for getting your visuals just right, including fully customizable controls and the ability to rotate the screen so you can get the full use of your widescreen television.
©2009-05-14, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved