Game Reviews

In 1996, Space Invaders company Tiato released a vertically-scrolling arcade shooter in Japanese arcades called Raystorm. A little bit later it showed up on the PlayStation, and was impressive looking on the system, especially considering the dated hardware. Nearly a decade and a half later, it is released onto XBLA and PSN (outside North America, for now) for 1200 Microsoft points, or $15. Is this classic shooter worth the price? Or are you better off spending you money elsewhere?

Raystorm was one of my favorite games on the PlayStation, so when the opportunity came for me to review it I had to take it and see how much they improved on the game. Unfortunately the answer here is not much. The game offers two different modes right away, with more to unlock later. Arcade mode is the original arcade game, while extra mode is a harder version of the game where some of the backgrounds are different, and the stage bosses change the way they attack and in some instances how to destroy them. There are eight total stages in the game, and depending on which mode you pick the stages change slightly. At the start of the game players have the option of choosing two different ships, one that fires bullets and directable lasers, and the other fires a straight forward laser and lightning. The first will, as the player collects power ups, start to resemble a spread gun. Likewise the second just gets a more powerful forward firing laser. The laser ship is more powerful; however it does not have the coverage that the bullet ship has. During game play there is a targeting reticle in front of the ship at all times. This is the locking mechanic, as targets are locked on to, players can fire a barrage of lightning or lasers at the target, depending on the ship. Some targets, including bosses, can be and are below the plane and thus can only be destroyed by using the lock on mechanic. Now for an HD release of an old arcade game, there is an expectation of some kind of improvement to be made, updated graphics, online play, etc. Unfortunately the only thing that was improved on were some textures, the rest stayed virtually the same.