Raiden Fighters Remix Collection, by MOSS and H2 Interactive, is a compilation of three beloved vertical shooters: Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, and Raiden Fighters Jet. Then, each title includes both the English and Japanese versions, supports online leaderboards, and some remixed tunes have also been bundled. This sounds like a winning formula, right? Unfortunately, the end result is horribly disappointing.
Personally, this is the first time I had the chance to play this well-regarded shooter series. After spending time with each game, it is easy to see the appeal as well as the progression between sequels. Jet, for example, has the highest number of playable crafts as well as the most flair. In short, these are good, fun shooters any fan of the genre will enjoy.
The problem comes from the lack of extras and quality control. This compilation is nothing more than three roms dumped together. As a newcomer, I was lost even though these are shmups, how hard can they be, right? Well, it would have been nice if there were instructions. For example, I have no idea what each of the power-ups do or why I would want to collect them. There isn’t even a button mapping screen so the player just has to guess what each one does. It wasn’t until a few retries did I realize there is a bomb button/feature.
The lack of extras provides zero context why anyone should care about these games. Why is there no marquee art? Why doesn’t the game explain the differences between the Japan and US versions? What do the controls do? Why aren’t there basic emulator options like rewind? There isn’t even anything about when these games were released, who designed them, or any historical context including the year they were released. Either the developers/publisher didn’t care, didn’t have enough money, or ran out of time… or possibly all three. I’m going to guess all three…
After playing for a while, I was getting frustrated because it is basically impossible to clear the third stage in any of the three titles. It is often a struggle to reach the end of the second stage, actually. However, I saw online that dedicated fans compared this Remix Collection against the original as well as other ports over the years. Turns out, the original ran as a unique, slower frame rate but this compilation has not compensated for this. Therefore, the game runs much faster which means you are going to get smoked. This is why I was barely able to squeak by the stage 2 boss. Bullets fly way too fast, and without a rewind feature, it is unlikely players will be able to reach the back half of each game. This increased framerate makes a huge difference, so much so, makes me question if the final product was tested.
Let me paint a quick picture. Imagine you are hungry and want a sandwich. So you go to your favorite sandwich shop, order a sandwich, and take it back to your table to eat. When you unwrap it, it is simply two pieces of untoasted white bread covering a single piece of bologna. If you are hungry, will you still eat that sandwich? Sure, but the disappointment stays with you when you anticipated meat piled high, all the toppings, and everything toasted to perfection. This analogy fits with this Raiden Fighters Remix Collection. Fans are starved so they will take whatever crumbs are available, and they might eat it, but they won’t be satisfied, will still be hungry, while the memorable disappointment indicates they probably won’t be visiting that sandwich shop in the near future.
SCORE: 4/10
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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