Raiden: Difference between revisions
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''Raiden'' is a popular and influential series of vertical [[Shoot'Em Up]] created by Japanese developer Seibu Kaihatsu, and later handled by MOSS. It is quite notable for popularising (though not necessarily [[Older Than They Think|creating]]) many concepts and conventions still used by vertical shmups today. Spawned the ''[[Raiden Fighters]]'' series
The plot of the series is completely nonexistent and inconsequential, much like most shoot'em ups. The gist is that a race of aliens called the [[Fan Nickname|"Cranassian Empire"]] is invading Earth, and it's up to the Raiden supersonic jet to stop them.
The series is composed of the following games:
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* ''Raiden II''
* ''Raiden DX'' (an extension of Raiden II with a more elaborate scoring system and several different modes)
* ''The Raiden Project'' (
* ''Raiden III''
* ''Raiden IV''
Not to be confused with the thunder god of ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', or the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' character of the same name, or the big wrestler from ''[[Fatal Fury]]''...
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{{franchisetropes}}
* [[
* [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]]: All of the games begin by launching from one of these, and end by landing on it.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The purple Plasma laser, as cool as it looks, does less damage than the blue laser or the [[Spread Shot]] at point blank. Not to mention that it's distracting.
** It ''is'' quite useful for the [[Final Boss]] in ''Raiden II'' due to the fact that there are so many targets scattered about, handling all the [[Mook|Mooks]] whilst doing consistent damage to the actual boss at the same time.
*** It's also useful for the second boss in ''Raiden II'', since it lets you blast it while flying completely above the second form's flak storm (the guns don't cover the boss's sides or back). Just remember that the flame scatter ''can'' find you up there, but that's easy compared to the flak. Granted that the angles of all the flak storm's bullets are fixed, but given that the boss is moving around while shooting...
*** On a side note, if you get shot down in the later stages of ''Raiden II'' and ''
* [[Boring but Practical]]: The red vulcan shot, mostly because if (''if'') you can nose up close enough to an enemy to make all of the spray hit it, it will suffer more damage more quickly than even with the full-power blue laser. It is ''not'' uncommon to get a mid-sized enemy destroyed this way before it can even start shooting. To summarize, red is your standard-purpose, blue is for concentrated power when point-blank is ''not'' an option, and purple/green is for blue purposes that also need you to hit things ''behind'' that strong opponent.
* [[Bullet Hell]]: Later games have denser bullet patterns, although the focus remains on fast aimed shots.
* [[Combination Attack]]: In 2 player mode, a very strong attack happens if both players shot collide with each other.
* [[Continuing Is Painful]]: As with most shmups, you lose all your power ups when you die, although you can find a hidden fairy that gives some of them back.
* [[Cool Plane]]: The titular ship.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: The 360 port of ''Raiden IV'' offers a 360 mode that has all 5 stages plus two extra stages. At first glance that's the only difference, but if you're familiar with Arcade mode, you'll notice that 360 mode changes around the placements of many enemies, which can throw you off.
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: Usually occurs around the second or third stage.
* [[Divergent Character Evolution]]: In ''Raiden DX'', the red, player 1 ship moves faster vertically, while the blue, player 2 ship moves faster horiztonally.
* [[Dolled-Up Installment]]: The whole [[Raiden Fighters]] series started out as an unrelated game called ''Gun Dogs''.
* [[Double Play]]: The home ports of both ''Raiden III'' and ''Raiden IV'' have a mode where you can control both ships on the same controller.
* [[Dual Boss]]: The first Boss fight of ''Raiden I'' and ''Raiden II'' are two tanks and two [[Spider Tank|Spider Tanks]], respectively.
** Two tanks again in ''Raiden III''. In ''Raiden IV'', the fourth boss is a pair of tanks that take to the air when they suffer enough damage.
* [[Dynamic Difficulty]]: In ''Raiden I'' and ''Raiden II'', if you mange to make it far without dying, the difficulty gets batshit insane. Tanks will fire very fast ''and'' [[Improbable Aiming Skills|accurate]] shots almost as soon as they enter the screen!
* [[Easy Mode Mockery]]: Clear ''Raiden IV'''s Light mode and you're treated to an ending cutscene where the [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]] you took off from gets destroyed ([[Soundtrack Dissonance|to the tune of the happy ending theme]]). Then you're told to try Original mode and the game ends without going to the second loop.
* [[Everything's Better with Cows]]: Every game's first stage sends you flying over a farm with some cows. Cows that have ''animated sprites
* [[Grievous Harm with a Body]]: In ''Raiden II'' and ''Raiden DX'', destroyed airborne enemies have a pretty good chance of crashing into the ground instead of just exploding in mid-air. If their landing point happens to be on top of a ground enemy, that poor enemy is going to be ''hurting'' (if not destroyed outright). Like with the things noted in [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]], this is another element from [[Toaplan]] games, in this case Flying Shark/Sky Shark. In that game, if an enemy biplane was shot from far enough away, it would indeed crash-land rather than just explode—and destroy any hapless tank, patrol boat, or anti-aircraft gun that happened to be underneath.
* [[Hitbox Dissonance]]: Later games in the series reduce the ship's hitbox to the size of most [[Bullet Hell]] hitboxes.
* [[Lightning Gun]]: Come on! Don't fool us with the laser-beam shape, Plasma! We know you to actually be lightning!
* [[Marathon Level]]: The
* [[Nerf]]: The Lock-On Plasma Laser became the Proton Laser in ''Raiden III'' then came back in ''Raiden IV'' albeit with different coding. To be fair, the Lock-On Plasma Laser never was a good weapon to begin with.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: The older games in the series show that just because it's not [[Bullet Hell]] doesn't mean it's any easier.
* [[Product Placement]]: The Genesis port of the first game adds a really hard level that appears after the credits. Beating it will show a message advertising one of Micronet's (the port developer) game
* [[Recurring Boss]]: The giant jet bomber that launches missiles that look kind of like smaller planes.
▲* [[One Up]]: Most games in the series avert [[Every Ten Thousand Points]]; instead, you gain 1-ups by fulfilling some [[Guide Dang It|obscure]] requirements in later stages.
* [[Recurring Boss Template]]: The first boss battle of the first three games pits you against a [[Dual Boss|duo of ground enemies]] (gun platforms in the first, [[Spider Tank|spider tanks]] in ''Raiden II'' and giant tanks in ''Raiden III'') with the weaker one appearing slightly before the other. ''Raiden IV'' broke the trend by having a single spider tank instead.▼
▲* [[Product Placement]]: The Genesis port of the first game adds a really hard level that appears after the credits. Beating it will show a message advertising one of Micronet's (the port developer) game, ''Heavy Nova''.
** Also, there's the missile-carrying bomber in those games' second stages, and the giant aqueous vessel in the third stages (a battlecruiser in ''Raiden I'', a submarine in ''Raiden II'' and ''Raiden III'').▼
▲* [[Recurring Boss]]: The giant jet bomber that launches missiles that look kind of like smaller planes.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: Seibu's [[Self-Plagiarism|own]] ''Viper Phase 1'' is this series <small>IN SPACE</small>! Its soundtrack is even unlockable in the Playstation port of ''Raiden DX''.▼
▲* [[Recurring Boss Template]]: The first boss battle of the first three games pits you against a [[Dual Boss|duo of ground enemies]] (gun platforms in the first, [[Spider Tank|spider tanks]] in ''II'' and giant tanks in ''III'') with the weaker one appearing slightly before the other. ''IV'' broke the trend by having a single spider tank instead.
* [[Sequential Boss]]: The fifth boss of ''Raiden II''. First you destroy a space shuttle, then fight the fighter it was carrying, and finally face off with the orange jet housed inside it. Also kind of a [[Climax Boss]], considering it's the last level on Earth.
▲** Also, there's the missile-carrying bomber in those games' second stages, and the giant aqueous vessel in the third stages (a battlecruiser in ''I'', a submarine in ''II'' and ''III'').
** Also the [[Final Boss]], which has you fire at the core of this giant purple obsidian-temple-thing, with more and more crap coming out of the temple ([[Mook|Mooks]] and bulletfire) as the battle goes on.▼
▲* [[Recycled in Space]]: Seibu's [[Self-Plagiarism|own]] ''Viper Phase 1'' is this series <small>IN SPACE</small>! Its soundtrack is even unlockable in the Playstation port of Raiden DX.
▲* [[Sequential Boss]]: The fifth boss of ''Raiden II''. First you destroy a space shuttle, then fight the fighter it was carrying, and finally face off with the orange jet housed inside it. Also kind of a [[Climax Boss]], considering it's the last level on Earth.
▲** Also the Final Boss, which has you fire at the core of this giant purple obsidian-temple-thing, with more and more crap coming out of the temple ([[Mook|Mooks]] and bulletfire) as the battle goes on.
** Many of the bosses of the later games do this, as well as [[Turns Red|Turning Red]].
* [[Spider Tank]]: The first
* [[Spread Shot]]: The default (red) weapon.
* [[Video Game 3D Leap]]: ''Raiden III'' took the presentation aproach.
* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: Your blue powerup becomes this at max level pre-''Raiden III''. In ''Raiden III'' and ''Raiden IV'', it just gets steadily thicker.
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