It is that time again. A well loved retro shoot ‘em up has had a smack with the remix stick and released onto unsuspecting Xboxes everywhere.
The Raiden series of games were everywhere when I was younger, with the first being released into the arcades in 1990. It’s with the original Raiden III with which we focus today, having first appeared in 2005. Now it has had a touch up, is it worth playing again in the form of Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX?
We’ll start with a bit of a story, shall we? The main baddies in the Raiden games are the Crystals, and in Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX, they are back and up to their old tricks. And what better way to teach them the error of their ways than by strapping ourselves into a warplane and shooting anything that moves? Hopefully nothing, as this is exactly what we are tasked with doing. And this concludes our discussion of the narrative.
Presentation is next on my reviewing tick list of things to mention, and here the story is pretty good. The look of Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX is exactly as you would expect from a game of this age, and the vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up action is still exactly as it used to be.
The screen is usually filled with about a million bullets, whilst the backdrops to the action are all nicely interactive as well, especially level 4, which has all the asteroids in the world for you to try and destroy. Everything moves at a good pace, and once you manage to power up your weapons, they look spectacular in action.
The main “enhancement” in this new version of the game appears to be both cosmetic and aural in nature, with new wallpapers unlocked as you blast your way through Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX. These new wallpapers can be applied to fill the blank space on the side of the screen left by the 4:3 aspect ratio of the action, and make things look jolly nice.
The music has had a big amendment too, with new versions of the old tunes all remixed and jazzed up for your listening pleasure. Each song has two new versions to listen to, and once you find your favourite track, you can assign it to be the background music (BGM) for any stage you like. Luckily, for those of us of more advanced years, the original music is also available, so you don’t have to listen to this modern take if you don’t want to.
Onto the actual gameplay itself, and here the MIKADO MANIAX have been at work. Nicely you can still play the game as it was originally intended, and it is still a very good shooter to this day. As you progress through the levels, you have a chance to utilise three different weapon types, and if you manage to pick up a crystal of the corresponding colour from blowing up enemy ships, it makes your weapon stronger.
Of course, if your luck is anything like mine, you’ll usually change weapon colour just before a boss, going into the fight with little more than harsh language. Still, at least the three different types look pretty, right? The weapons in question are a multi-way bullet sprayer, called the Vulcan, which is powered up by red crystals, a blue laser that is fixed in one direction, unsurprisingly powered up by blue crystals, and finally a green laser that bends and moves with the ship. You don’t need me to tell you that this is powered up by green crystals.
The green laser is the hardest to use, in my opinion, as to kill everything on screen you constantly need to be swaying from side to side to make it cover the playing field. It is however very effective once you get used to it. Add in the obligatory smart bombs and the shoot ‘em up bingo score card is full.
Luckily, given that this is a product of the days when games used to be properly hard, the controls are very responsive. While you will die, it is not down to the controls letting you down. Weaving through the boss’ bullet patterns is almost a full time job, even from the very first one, and luckily you can also enlist a second player to help you out. Double the firepower makes things easier, right? Well, how about if you want to have the extra firepower but have no player two sat around waiting? Well, the new version has you covered.
Double play is the answer in Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX, and this is a spectacularly difficult way to play. You see, in this mode, you control both ships from one controller, with the left stick moving player one’s ship, and the right stick moving that of player two. RB and LB are the respective fire buttons, while RT and LT are the smart bombs, shared across players. Trying to watch two ships at once is far too much for my ancient brain to process, and so it usually ends pretty poorly. Still, it’s a new challenge, isn’t it?
Speaking of new challenges, Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX also loads a couple of new modes into its release. Boss Rush does what it says on the tin, and allows you to fight all the bosses in a row, with none of the tedious shooting to interrupt the action. Score Attack is again pretty self explanatory – you compete to see how much score you can accumulate and then compare it to either local or worldwide leaderboards, so you can see how good you really are. Or not.
Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX is a remaster done right. The action is as good – and as hard – as ever and the new features included are all pretty good as well. The jury is out in regards the new music, but I am sure it will go down well with the younger generation.
It all means that if you fancy a shoot ‘em up from old school times, with modern manners, you could do much worse than to fire up Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX.
