Deviation Actions
Description
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the original Raiden, which is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up released in September 1990 by Seibu Kaihatsu. The first installment in the popular Raiden series and was the company’s hit game.
The title in Japanese translates to "Thunder and Lightning". Rai means thunder, and den means lightning.
Story
The setting of the game takes place in the year 2090. Earth suddenly becomes a target for a race of deranged aliens known as Cranassians. Following the invasion, the World Alliance Military creates a new cutting-edge weapon, the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter which was based on one of the destroyed alien starships. And its purpose was to serve as humanity's only hope for survival.
Gameplay
Raiden consists of eight vertical scrolling missions where the player maneuvers the Raiden craft dodging and destroying enemy robots, buildings, ground targets, and aircraft.
There are bombs and missile powerups as well as collectable medals which add to the score. When player dies, the fighter's fragments become projectiles that damage enemies.
After defeating the final boss in Stage 8, the mission is completed, and player receives 1 million points for each completed loop. Afterwards, it will start back to Stage 1. This time around, enemies shoot faster and at a more rapid rate.
Legacy
Since its debut, Raiden has been at the top 10 in the charts for 26 consecutive months. It was ported for the PlayStation as The Raiden Project, and other ports, including Amiga, Atari Jaguar, NEC's PC Engine, NEC's Turbo Duo (known as Super Raiden, includes Redbook audio and two extra levels), Atari Lynx, Super Nintendo, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and mobile phones.
Seibu Kaihatsu developed the Raiden games and its related spin-offs from 1990 until 1998. The license of Raiden was recently purchased by MOSS. Since 2005, all Raiden games have been on various Taito boards (Taito Type X).
Raiden © Seibu Kaihatsu
Art ©Me
Also check out the comparisons between the different ports of the game here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cfUeU…
