Raiden III is a Bigboy Shoot 'em Up Game
So you want to start playing tougher games, running counter to the Faux Gaming Cabal's plot to stifle gameplaying, Damn them. Everybody know that Shoot 'Em Up games are hard, so they're a good place to start. After playing a handful of them, both oldschool and indie, I can say with confidence that Raiden III is the real deal, a bigboy shoot 'em up for bigboy players. Shoot 'em up's and arcade fighing games both share a classic demand for quarters, so it's fitting that the guy from Mortal Kombat works a side-gig as a fighter pilot, at least that's my head cannon. As far as previous games are concerned, all I could find is a spin-off compilation series on Steam, so I can't speak to just how Raiden III compares to the previous two games, though I'd believe the claim that it's three times harder than the original, this isn't some retro reproduction or baby's first shmup title, this is the kind of game you play when your dominatrix is too busy to stomp on your peripherals. If you're looking for the real arcade shoot 'em up experience on Steam, then you should buy Raiden III, here's why.
Old school shoot 'em up games are tough for a few reasons, the main one is just how high the stakes are. Running out of lives and continues means getting kicked back to the menu screen, no checkpoints or savestates here, that's for new age hipster shmups. One hit equals one life and one continue is worth 3-5 lives depending on what you choose in the options menu. I don't consider choosing the higher life numbers cheating in this game, Raiden III still about as forgiving as making a faux pas on social media. You'll even take a firepower downgrade on death, that is unless you have collected one of the little gun-fairies hidden amongst the levels, they're about as easy to find as IRL cryptids, so keep that in mind if you think you're going to hold onto all your hard earned weapons. Just how hard it is to stay alive in Raiden III is dictated by the sheer number of fast moving bullets contrasted by Raiden's slow movements speed. It all makes the game harder, but you still have options.
Raiden III has difficulty modes just like most games do, though if you've got a fragile ego like me, then you'll spend most of your time in the Arcade difficulty setting, that's the legit, default experience, it even says as much in the difficulty menu. Sure you could breeze through the game on the easiest difficulty with the enemeis not even firing their guns, but that's what anti-gaming conspirators want, so instead of cheating yourself of the Raiden III experience you should play it on at least Normal mode to experience the sheer bullet-madness of it all. It's enough to make you feel like an ace pilot and that's a good thing.
Old school shoot 'em up games are tough for a few reasons, the main one is just how high the stakes are. Running out of lives and continues means getting kicked back to the menu screen, no checkpoints or savestates here, that's for new age hipster shmups. One hit equals one life and one continue is worth 3-5 lives depending on what you choose in the options menu. I don't consider choosing the higher life numbers cheating in this game, Raiden III still about as forgiving as making a faux pas on social media. You'll even take a firepower downgrade on death, that is unless you have collected one of the little gun-fairies hidden amongst the levels, they're about as easy to find as IRL cryptids, so keep that in mind if you think you're going to hold onto all your hard earned weapons. Just how hard it is to stay alive in Raiden III is dictated by the sheer number of fast moving bullets contrasted by Raiden's slow movements speed. It all makes the game harder, but you still have options.
Raiden III has difficulty modes just like most games do, though if you've got a fragile ego like me, then you'll spend most of your time in the Arcade difficulty setting, that's the legit, default experience, it even says as much in the difficulty menu. Sure you could breeze through the game on the easiest difficulty with the enemeis not even firing their guns, but that's what anti-gaming conspirators want, so instead of cheating yourself of the Raiden III experience you should play it on at least Normal mode to experience the sheer bullet-madness of it all. It's enough to make you feel like an ace pilot and that's a good thing.
You'll die a lot, maybe less than me. I clocked nine hours of deaths and defeats, finally beating the boss on my final credit, cheesing bombs like a spokesman for Haliburton. As you can see it took me a long time to memorize bullet patterns and enemy spawns to even reach the final stage, that goes extra for the multi-stage bossfights that end each of the seven areas. With enough practice you'll know what weapons to choose for every situation. In some sections the wide-arcing machine gun or steerable green laser helps scratch those hard to reach enemy placements, but when it comes to killing bosses and sub-bosses, the focused blue laser was always my weapon of choice. Choosing the right weapon at the right time will come with experience, at least it did for me. All of this gives Raiden III a high skill-ceiling, with enough patience and fast reflexes it could be possible to achieve the coveted one-credit run, so it's a little odd that credits are all infinite after beating the game, kind of an odd choice, maybe a pc port thing.
As far as the quality of Raiden III's port is concerned it's a little below par. There's limited graphical and options and getting my Xbox controller to work meant setting the input manually. Not the biggest complaint in the world, but I am spoiled by games that are plug-and-play for Steam supported controllers. It's not a case of missing features, but there's no little QOL features packaged into a game that was originally released in 2005. Once again, it's not a big deal for me, because I don't have a copy for my ps2 for comparison, this is from a cheap-assed Steam user viewpoint, so while I find it a little rough around the edges, you can pick far worse games at the same pricepoint. You'll get top quality shoot 'em up design courtesy of Moss.
As far as the quality of Raiden III's port is concerned it's a little below par. There's limited graphical and options and getting my Xbox controller to work meant setting the input manually. Not the biggest complaint in the world, but I am spoiled by games that are plug-and-play for Steam supported controllers. It's not a case of missing features, but there's no little QOL features packaged into a game that was originally released in 2005. Once again, it's not a big deal for me, because I don't have a copy for my ps2 for comparison, this is from a cheap-assed Steam user viewpoint, so while I find it a little rough around the edges, you can pick far worse games at the same pricepoint. You'll get top quality shoot 'em up design courtesy of Moss.
I can't blame the Pc port of Raiden III for eating up all my quarters, but like everyone else, I do need money. If you'd like to support my gaming escapades then consider supporting me on Patreon.
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