Hidden Gems - Raiden Fighters Aces

Retro-game compilations are starting to become Dime-a-Dozen these days, most of them ending up in bargain bins within a couple months of their release. But there are a handful of them that are genuinely fantastic and worth your time.

Let's talk about Raiden Fighters Aces, which is an Xbox 360 Exclusive title for some reason.

Developed by Seibu Kaihatsu and published Valcon games, Raiden Fighters Aces is a collection containing all three Raiden Fighters games, which are a serials of Vertical-SHMUPs that were originally released in Japanese Arcades.

There's a lot of Tank Bosses in this game.

The Raiden Fighters series is a spin-off of the original Raiden games, what make RF different is that instead of one selectable ship, you have an assload to choose from, each with it's own unique specifications and weapons. All three games are visually similar, which isn't a bad thing, they have the classic 16-bit SHMUP look, which is actually pretty nice.

Gameplay is similar to most SHMUPs, you fire your upgradable weapons at a variety of enemy planes, tanks and turrets until you reach an enormous boss, which you destroy and complete the level. Nothing too fancy, but it's a tried-and-true formula that doesn't necessarily get old. The inclusion of multiple ships in each game is a good thing too, as each ship plays differently, causing the difficulty to fluctuate and give the game some replay value.

There music in this game is rather ridiculous, it's frantic trance music. You could easily buy the soundtrack and go play it while DJ-ing at a club. They would never know the difference. While on the topic of silly, the game also has some of the most poorly translated English ever. What's with SHMUPs and bad English?

A boss is coming up. Guess what? It's a tank!

The most significant difference that the Xbox port brings is the ability to customize the game. There are several gameplay modes for you to choose, a large abundance of difficulty settings, the ability to randomize the levels and the like.

There's only one real flaw. The lack of online multiplayer, it's strictly a local multiplayer game. Not that it's a bad thing, but since Online is something that's expected of games like this in today's world, you'd think they would put it.

In conclusion, the game has got lots of value and you can also pick it up for $15 new. So if you can find it, Raiden Fighters Aces is worth your money. So go grab it. Now.

- Kyle K.