Pong and Beyond

876th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1990
Developer: Seibu Kaihatsu
Publisher: Tecmo

Thanks to one bundle or another, I found out that this game has had at least four direct sequels, as well as, it seems, a couple of spin offs. The plot of the fifth game goes beyond alien invaders that try to take over the earth, with deception and evasion and multiple endings. The original game, though, stays with the usual shoot ’em up storylines: an alien race (the Cranassians) have invaded the Earth and you have to fight them off.

Our Thoughts

You know what the basics of this are – you fire at enemies as you move left and right, back and forth, killing your enemies as they keep spawning around you. Here, those controls are solid, as a game that feels good to control, which helps a lot. In fact, there are a bunch of those things – for example, the game always gives you a special weapon when you restart after dying – the enemy is always spawned in in addition to everything else. It’s a small touch, but it helps feel like the developer wants you to feel good.

The special weapon feels good anyway – rather than having you switch between them, you get cumulative upgrades that make you feel a bit more powerful. It’s a good way of handling them, where you don’t feel like you’re missing out at any point.

Final Thoughts

Raiden is a good shooter – hitting, you could say, the right buttons for me through out – that feels like it’s helpful enough to keep you going even as it does the usual thing of overwhelming you. For what it is, it really is a good shooter.