Raiden

Few arcade shoot-em-ups made as much of an impact in the early 1990s as Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden. First released into arcades in 1990, the vertically scrolling shooter quickly became a huge hit thanks to its fast action, varied weaponry and relentless challenge. Players took control of the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter in a desperate battle against an invading alien force, blasting through waves of enemies whilst collecting weapon upgrades and avoiding an overwhelming barrage of bullets. The success of the arcade game saw Raiden converted to a wide range of platforms over the following years, including the PC Engine, Mega Drive, SNES, FM Towns, DOS, Atari Jaguar and many others. However, two planned computer conversions would ultimately fail to make it onto shop shelves. Continue reading →