Those dastardly Crassanians are causing more havoc, and it's up to Raiden's pilot (i.e., you) to send them back to the asteroid belt out of which they materialized. Released three years after the first game, Raiden II offers more challenge and intensity than the first as all good sequels should do. It ostensibly looks a lot like the first game with marginal graphical improvements, and admittedly, it does not do much to change the basics of the first. Then again, the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" certainly applies to this case. The few additions and changes that exist only help to augment the simple-yet-intense playstyle for which Raiden is known.

First off, the levels appear to be slightly more diverse in terrain and appearance, similar to the conservative natural look of the first game but with a bit more color in the landscape. Neat touches are abound in the graphics, like the scant pieces of debris that fly around after destroying enemy vehicles. The sound design is essentially the same as the first with a new original soundtrack that's just as kickass as the first with a bit less repetition to boot. The oddly named "Flap Towards The Hope," the first level track, is just as memorable and heroic as Gallantry from the first and sets the mood for the rest of the fight ahead. The levels take place over a rural mountain range, a residential town, a naval base, an abandoned ancient city (like the fourth stage of the first game), a fortified enemy airport, an enemy-occupied planetoid, a steel space base, and the newly-located Crassanian main headquarters. Some of these scenarios are similar to the first game but have a bit more detail, and they certainly up the ante in terms of enemy intensity.

As in the first game, you get either a wide shot or straight laser for your main weapon and either napalm or homing missiles for your secondary weapon. Raiden II introduces a third main weapon that is one of the most badass armaments in shoot-em-up history. The icon for it is colored purple, and it starts out shooting a quick stream of lasers before merging the lasers together into one long completely unbroken plasma beam. Affectionately dubbed the "toothpaste laser" by shoot-em-ups.com, this long purple rope of death sways as you move left and right to sweep over fodder. If you hit a large enemy, the plasma beam locks onto them and drains their life to nil. Any other enemies who touch the beam while it is locked on will still take damage. Sometimes, the beam grazes multiple targets at once, bending and looping around several times, eclipsing the terrain below in curls of purple death. This is a really damn cool weapon, albeit more difficult to properly use than the red or blue ones.

In addition to the classic large-explosion red nukes, you can also pick up yellow B icons that give you a really awesome cluster bomb. You drop about thirty small bombs at once that drop off in a large radius around you to cause a fantastic cascade of explosions. This is less powerful than the standard circular explosion, but compared to that style of bomb which has a delay before explosion, the cluster bomb fires out almost immediately and is thus better for blocking out enemy fire. Both types of bombs count up as multipliers for the end of stage score, as do the good old five-hundred point medals which, as before, are uncovered by tearing up the scenery. Miclus and Fairy remain as bonus items that do not count up to the end-of-stage bonus, 10,000 and 30,000 respectively. Occasionally, after dying, a Fairy pops out and grants you several weapon icons to help you power back up.

Raiden II (PlayStation)

Medals still count as one thousand points to the end-of-level bonus. New to the game are "super medals," which look as if they're made out of glowing crystals and are worth three thousand points on base. They grant five thousand points alongside the one thousand points offered by the regular medals at the stage bonus, all taken in total with the score multiplier from the bombs. Leniently, the medals still count if you lose a life, unlike the first game where credit for medals was removed after death. You DO lose points for medals if you have to continue, but you can continue on the spot instead of heading back to a check point as in the first game. Still, In terms of dodging projectiles, Raiden II's just as tough as its predecessor, perhaps even more difficult with the increased amount of enemies you'll be facing. The smaller enemies become more desperate to destroy you in later stages, with helicopters and futuristic jets practically dive-bombing you in addition to spitting out bullets. Larger enemies such as enemy tanks and battleships fire quick star-shaped projectiles at you in addition to the normal orange bullets. Once again, Raiden proves itself here as the forefather of the bullet hell.

With the cool and unique bosses of the first game, the sequel had to up the ante and pit you against even bigger and more terrifying machines of war. Each boss has the Crassanian emblem of a red diamond built into their constructs, and you'll actually see a red diamond fly out of each boss after you obliterate them. The first stage pits you against a large spider-legged tank before introducing you to a second spider tank, much how the first game unnerved you with two regular big tanks. Stage 5's boss is particularly impressive with three phases; it starts off as a giant ship slowly blasting off from a runway, but as you destroy it before it can even leave the ground, it launches out a smaller (but still much bigger than you) aircraft that's even deadlier, whose blue armor is blown away to reveal an even more vicious red jet fighter! The finale at the Crassanian Headquarters reveals none other than that damned red diamond as the final boss, and as it has nowhere to fly away now, it blitzes you with a myriad of projectiles as it summons smaller diamonds to help give a bad end to your long journey.

Even with just one player, the game is a hell of a challenge and a well-designed shoot-em-up without any prominent faults. Naturally, having a second player makes it kick even harder, particularly as you can still combine your firepower to shoot off incredibly damaging yet unpredictable starbursts that fly around every which where. A small difference that player two has between player one is starting out with three yellow cluster bombs as opposed to three red nuke bombs. Raiden II is all the first game was and then some, and the two-player experience makes it just that much greater. Though Raiden II may be better than the first, it is unfortunately relatively light in home ports compared to the original. Somehow, the game doesn't work in modern versions of MAME, due to encryption that has yet to be cracked.

Short of finding an actual arcade cabinet, the best bet for playing the game at home is on The Raiden Project, the PlayStation compilation of the first and second Raiden games. The port is just about flawless save for a few loading times in between levels, but they're relatively incremental. As with the first Raiden, it offers remixed music, four difficulty levels, and the "tate" option to play the game sideways (only in the Japanese version without hacking it), though credits are limited to a maximum of nine. This could make two-player games a bit tricky as credits are shared among both players, but two shoot-em-up experts should be able to bear with it. There was also a PC version released for Windows, which also plays more or less close to the arcade version.

Raiden DX is a definite curiosity in the series, as it appears at first to be nothing more than an updated re-release of Raiden II. However, while it is not quite its own game, it offers a fair deal more than Raiden II that sets it apart and arguably makes it the best title of the classic series. The best comparison to draw is Metal Slug X compared to Metal Slug 2, as both games have different enemy arrangements and graphics, but their stage structure is essentially the same. Raiden DX features completely different stages from Raiden II and a very interesting way of arranging them for play. The same classic gameplay is there, and while the differences aren't that prominent at first, they come through as welcome additions that make everything just that much better.

The graphical style of Raiden DX is essentially the same as Raiden 2, which is just fine. There is a nifty graphical change to the plasma beam where it flashes multiple colors as it locks onto an enemy, but other than that, it looks much the same as the previous games. The sound design is similar and the OST consists of remixed tracks from the first two Raiden titles. It plays exactly like Raiden II without any notable changes in arsenal. All the weapons are intact: The vulcan, the laser, the toothpaste plasma beam, the straight missiles, the homing missiles, the nuke bombs, the cluster bombs, and those awesome starts that fire off when weapons combine in two-player mode. The feel of the original games is still very much intact, but what exactly are the changes that warrant the "Deluxe" moniker?

The new content to DX comes in the form of significant replay value by offering three different courses selected at the main menu: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. These courses are seemingly in order of increasing difficulty, but the very existence of the Alpha course defies conventional difficulty structure. It is billed as a "Training" stage consisting simply of only one level. This is only half right: It is merely one level, but I'm not sure I'd consider it "training" when it's just as difficult as the rest of the game. "Endurance" is a more fitting moniker for the Alpha level. It is one long unbroken marathon level that totals to about fifteen minutes, and it becomes increasingly difficult the farther in you travel. You get no continues once all lives are gone; instead, your overall progress of how well you did is calculated (how far you got, how many enemies you shot down, etc.). It could be considered "training" in the sense that it's meant less for beating and more for gauging your overall skill at Raiden. However, there is a definitive ending to this gauntlet complete with a tough new boss: A large striped desert tank with starburst turrets.

The Bravo set of levels comprise the "Novice" course, which is actually just the first five levels of Raiden II. The terrain is the same and so are the bosses, and the enemy placements are similar if not exact. The game cuts out just before you head off into space, and it is Raiden 2 for all intents and purposes save for some changes in gameplay, mentioned below. That brings us to the Charlie levels, the "Expert" course which is naturally the whole eight levels all in a row. However, this is where things get interesting; these levels are completely different from Raiden II, with new terrain and enemy waves. There are even some new enemy types, like these statues in stage 4 that spit bullets at you from their mouths. The stages are overall harder than the originals, though they keep the same bosses as before, albeit with different colors.

If you're a shoot-em-up god and can somehow beat the Expert course without continuing, you get to play a secret ninth stage. This super-tough bonus finale takes you over several asteroids before coming to a bizarre chrome surface (possibly the remains of an alien spacecraft or planet) where enemies morph from the flat ground into existence. An ominous electrical storm leads up to the true finale, where the Crassanian red diamond has fled into a giant metal sphere which morphs into a vicious platinum tank. It is difficult to start, but it gains the assistance of smaller red diamonds after taking significant damage. The real kicker about the final stage is that you can't continue on the spot after dying, and you have to go back to a checkpoint, making the last boss even worse if you screw up. It's a helluva challenge that warrants full bragging rights if obliterated!

The overall changes in gameplay affect how points are earned aside from the obvious method of destroying as many enemies as possible. These changes apply to all three courses of gameplay, including the Novice course, thus making the stages from Raiden II not exactly like they were in their game of origin. First off, a timer appears at each end boss, and the sooner you destroy them, the bigger a bonus you are awarded. Furthermore, in addition to the yellow medals, the blue medals, Miclus, and Fairies, you can find hidden towers that pop out of the ground if you fly your ship over their exact position. Blowing these concealed suckers up earn you 50,000, though good luck finding them. Aside from other subtle factors, like earning mega-points for collecting a bomb when you're already maxed out at seven of the same type, the biggest score change involves the medals.

Medals now decrease in point value the longer they are on-screen, denoted by a gradual fade in color to a lifeless gray. They start out at 500 points immediately (3000 for the blue super-medals), then fall down in 100 point increments before turning entirely gray, worth a measly 10 points (though still counting to the end-of-level total). However, a second after a medal turns gray, it very quickly regains its full color for less than a second before going gray permanently. If you time it right so you pick up the medal during this brief flash, it's worth a big 3000 points for the normal medals and a titanic 10,000 for the super medals. If you find a Miclus and fly into him when he sneezes (telegraphed by a pause in animation), you snag a ridiculous 50,000 points. It can be difficult to get the right timing for picking up these big bonuses, particularly as you have to mind enemy fire as well, but this presents an extra layer of challenge for gamers determined to snag the highest of high scores.

All of the additions make Raiden DX the best of the classic series almost without question. It got even better with its PlayStation port, released in 1997, a seamless arcade-to-console translation that brings with it a myriad of bonus goodies. You have the standard gameplay options for console ports, such as difficulty level, amount of lives and bombs, flipping the screen position, and so forth. Inexplicably, it has a demo of SK's obscure Puyo Puyo-esque puzzle game, Senkyu/Battle Balls. It's a fun title to be sure, but why it's included alongside a shoot-em-up is anyone's guess. You also get an entirely original "New Release" soundtrack that sounds reasonably badass.

After beating the Expert course, you also unlock the Viper Phase 1 soundtrack which somehow fits well here! Completing the Expert course also unlocks the "Encyclopedia," a cool 3D gallery of the Raiden fighter and all of the game's bosses, and the "Special Stage," the obligatory boss rush of all ten bosses, including the Training Stage and Extra Stage bosses. Perhaps the most interesting item is "Master of Raiden," a demonstration of the Training stage unlocked if you manage to beat it. The AI of this demo finds every hidden item, obliterates every single enemy, and is otherwise flawless. It is awe-inspiring despite how inadequate it is likely to make you feel. The only downside of this port is that this was never released outside of Japan.

If Seibu Kaihatsu makes a shoot-em-up that is not billed as Raiden and does not look like Raiden, yet its gameplay is somewhat akin to Raiden, can it be considered part of the Raiden series? For the purposes of this series examination, absolutely. Viper Phase-1 could be considered "Raiden in space," except that the previous games also take place in space, just not at the start of the game. Viper Phase-1 offers the same explosion-filled fast-paced incrementally difficult gameplay of Raiden, perhaps increased to an even faster speed than before. It is generally considered a spinoff of the Raiden series, particularly due to its integration into the Raiden Fighters series. Even before this crossover, Viper Phase-1 exhibits several traits recognizable from the classic games, though they may not be recognizable at first glance. You don't seem to be fighting the Crassanians in this game, so the enemy is apparently a nameless alien space force. The mission: Blow up everything you can.

The graphics take on a different look than the naturalistic appearance of the classic games. Everything here is far beyond the stratosphere of Earth, taking place either above deep space or cold steel bases. The little details from Raiden carry over here, like the miniscule sprites of people running around bases and enemy debris flying around until impacting upon the ground with small shockwaves. They're not particularly colorful (get used to gray), but the detail is rich, smooth, and consistent. The sound design is notably different from that of classic Raiden titles, significantly more upbeat and dynamic. The overall sound quality is better than the classic games, and as always, the first stage tune particularly stands out. You start fighting back enemies on your home base before heading out into a large ship armada, then going on to destroy an enemy spaceport and an enemy production factory. The latter four stages take you through an asteroid belt, another giant ship armada, the enemy home base, and a massive tunnel housing an equally massive missile.

The two player fighters were not named by the time of this game's release, but when they were factored into the Raiden Fighters series, player 1's ship became "Judge Spear," and player 2 is "Blue Javelin." Viper Phase-1's weapon system is altered slightly from the old formula. Your main weapon is a quick and decent-powered laser stream, and there are also four sub-weapons that each have their pros and cons. The blue L gives you a straight laser, very powerful but does little to help your wide attack range. In contrast, the red W gives you a wide vulcan, not very powerful but useful for picking off smaller enemies. The yellow M gives you burst missiles which do good damage and have decent spread, but fire off a bit slowly. The green N gives napalm missiles with explode outwards. Picking up another weapon icon of the one you already have only gives you more points; the only way to power up is by collecting P icons which appear instead of weapon icons at times. As in previous games, you can also pick up B icons to add to your bomb total. The bombs function similar to the classic nukes from Raiden, except they detonate a bit faster and generate a neat-looking perfectly circular explosion.

Viper Phase-1

The scoring system is similar to the scoring system of Raiden, albeit with several differences. Aside from destroying enemies, you can also pick up medals under two flavors: Common 500 point red spheres and rarer 1000 point blue shields. This time around, medals aren't limited to being ground items. Some enemies explode with several medals at a time after you shoot them down, and you should attempt to collect as many as possible before they fall off the screen. You get 300 points for every bomb left over, 100 for all collected medals (red and blue combined), and you also get 10 points for all destroyed enemies. These combined point totals are boosted by a multiplier dependent on your total percentage of items destroyed throughout the stage, including enemies, ground terrain, and all other destructible targets. Anything lower than 80% destroyed gets you a measly 10x multiplier, while you get 20x for anything between 80% and 90%. Higher than 90% can get you 30x, 40x, 50x, and a whopping 100x if you manage the feat of destroying 100% in a stage.

Viper Phase-1's level of difficulty is about on par with Raiden II. The enemies are similar to what you'd expect from Raiden: Aerial units that are quick but don't take a lot of damage, ground units that take a bit more damage but are relatively easy targets, and large enemies that take several hits and often spit out more projectiles than everyone else. The difficulty curve is standard, starting out reasonably easy but getting rough around level 3, and it just gets tougher from there on out. You're allowed to continue on the spot, so the main challenge is attempting to get as high a score as you possibly can. Viper Phase-1 almost qualifies as a bullet hell, though the amount of bullets normally doesn't get so Cave-like, and you do have a moderately-sized hitbox. The key is to keep moving and be judicious with your use of bombs. Of course, the game is even more fun with the addition of a second player.

Naturally, the game has a fine array of kickass bosses to toss at you. The overall diversity of bosses isn't quite as pronounced as in Raiden, but there are plenty of good fights in which oodles of bullets are tossed in your direction. The first boss is a large gunship that gets launched into space via rockets. The second boss is a large red fighter that launches off from within an even bigger battleship. Boss three is a large rail-mounted artillery platform with a red dome for its weakspot. Boss four is the heavily armored core of the weapon production facility which spits out these annoying spherical enemies that dog you throughout the entire stage. Boss five appears to be a large rock-crushing battleship that's somewhat similar to the first boss, albeit with a sleeker design and even tougher. The most impressive boss might be the sixth, a giant fighter that has six large hexagonal turrets mounted upon it. What appears to be the enemy fortress core is the seventh boss, an ominous purple vortex flanked by a myriad of turrets that becomes gradually unstable as you shoot into it. The final boss, a big red spacefighter which may or may not be a large version of the classic Raiden aircraft is fought after being launched off of the gigantic missile seen throughout the entire stage. You only have twenty seconds to destroy the missile's weak spot before you engage the last boss in an epic space duel.

There's not much else to say about Viper Phase-1 except that it's a good shoot-em-up and worthy to be counted alongside the Raiden series. It has increasingly crazy challenge, a rewarding score system, and lots of explosions. Viper Phase-1 isn't quite Raiden and yet has enough design elements that it may as well be considered part of the series, the Salamander to Raiden's Gradius. It doesn't hurt that Viper Phase-1's OST is somehow an unlockable bonus in the PlayStation release of Raiden DX. Whether or not it qualifies as a Raiden game does not matter, as the game itself is a fine shoot-em-up in its own right. It is thus a shame that it has not been released to any consoles, but it at least holds up reasonably well in MAME.