Thread: Raiden Fighters Collection- XBox 360

Once upon a time when a game was considered a 'shooter' these were often games like Tiger Shark, Tiger Heli, 1942, Xevious, Thunder Blade, etc... Top down or vertical shooters that involved some sort of flightcraft. This was before 2D shooters like Operation Wolf, Rambo and Commando appeared in arcades and early 8 Bit consoles.

The original Raiden from the early 90's was a top down vertical shooter probably inspired by current games of the genre in it's time like R Type and Super Star Soldier. It was highly successful in the arcades and Raiden and it's many sequels and spinoffs were ported to home consoles and PCs.

The next branch in the series of Raiden games that came in the arcades was the Raiden Fighters series. They retained the top down vertical shooter tradition of the originals, but the game moved faster, the graphics better, with bigger over-the-top cannons and bombs, and different ships to use that all performed differently and equipped different weapons. It was also very difficult and was definitely a quarter eater. Raiden Fighters and it's two sequels were very well received, and now all three come together in one game, all redone with a lot of new features, but the original experiences are complete.

Raiden Fighters Aces Collection- $19.99



Here are a few screenshots...

Raiden Fighters-


Raiden Fighters: Operation Hell Dive-


Raiden Fighters Jet (RF3)-


There are all kinds of options to format it to your TV, local co-op, replay scenes, turbo button layouts so you're not hammering the same buttons over and over, seven difficulty options, limited continues or free plays, and XBox LIVE support. There's also a small updated background story.

Three fun games for $20, cheaper than LIVE downloads, you can't beat that. It's a good frenzied shooter time waster, and suitable for all ages, even playing with kids. I just picked it up and it's really fun in small doses. I found it to get a little harder on the eyes after awhile with so many fast movements onscreen in later levels as the difficulty ramped up. It's a true throwback to the golden age of arcade games. For $20 I recommend it. Good fun.