Raiden Fighters Aces for Xbox 360 is a re-release of the old classic arcade shooters Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, and Raiden Fighters Jet. When I first saw this game on the shelves, I was quite curious why this game got the physical disc treatment and why it wasn't shuttled onto the Xbox Live Arcade like so many other classics such as all the Sonic the Hedgehog games or Ikaruga. I didn't really mind, though, since I would much rather have a physical copy I can snap in half when I get frustrated.

The gameplay hasn't changed much. If you are familiar with the old Raiden games, then this is really nothing new for you. A Game Clips feature has been added where you can save demos (or, at least, that's what we called them back in the day when we recorded ourselves playing Doom 2) or Game Clips to show off your best runs through the game, and you can also view other players' Game Clips over Xbox Live. Of course, this game also includes the leaderboard rankings and what not so that you can engage in the worldwide competition to have the highest score. Let me tell you, it's hard enough being the best 40 year old virgin at your local arcade, but to go against all of them in the whole world?

If you are not familiar with the old Raiden games, let me break it down to you, diggie wiggie style. Ya got to pick yo' plane and shoot up a bunch-a-bitches. Ya can pick up homies to fight with you, or as the game calls them "slaves" (Hmph!) and ya can get beefier missiles, lasers, and such so when ya be firin' yo piece, ya got so many bullets mang, they cover the whole dang screen! And tell all the bitches you da best by gettin' more points and pickin up recognition bling, aka medals! Rinse and repeat, dawg.



The graphics have a small makeover from the old original games.



The old game had that great grainy thing going on.



Not even close to being next-gen, but definitely removing what falling out of the ugly tree does to you. One disappointing aspect that was also exercised in Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection is that the resolution for these games don't change. They makeover the graphics, fine tune them a bit here and there, but the resolution seems to be unaffected. I say this because there's a big blue Raiden Fighters banner on either side of the actual game screen. You are using only one third of the screen to play. It would be nice to see the developers push to really recreate the game so that it had a much more next gen appeal. I am playing on a giant flat screen TV, I want to use every damned pixel I paid for!

When you get far in the game, upgrading all your weapons and have two slave ships fighting underneath you, it gets a little tough to see where your ship is amongst all the bullets flying and the dozen or so enemies circling around on the screen, so this game definitely requires your undivided attention. Look away for one moment, lose focus for one second, and you are toast.

The sound was also given a minor upgrade. The original game sounded, well, you know, 8-bit. The sound now resembles what a wanna be producer would try to create in a trial version of Fruity Loops before giving up on this career and settling for bagging groceries at Stop n Shop so he can afford his weekend rave excursions. The music really hasn't changed save for a minor quality upgrade in sound, but it is still the same stress inducing, simple, hard and furious techno. The explosions and gun sounds definitely appeal to the ears more now.

The choices of different ships help extend the replay value as each ship has different capabilities, speeds, bombs, etc.



But, like in the arcade, the fact that you cannot save your game makes it tough to pick this game up again and again as you have to replay the same levels again and again. The only data this game saves are your scores and the game clips, if you so choose. Don't see this as a huge downer, though, as picking this game up when you have a few moments to spare and you just want to shoot crap, this game will never fail to deliver a casual splurge on your destructive side. Kind of like playing CoD 4 online or Counter-Strike. It's the same crap every time, but it's just fun.

This game also comes loaded with fun options. You can play the game in sepia tone, photo negatives, monotone, make the game look like its on an old projector, and so on. There are many color effects options to pick from. You can also ask the game to emulate varying amounts of scan lines, and also change the games FPS. And that's frames per second for all you first person shooter nuts!

For $19.99, you cannot go wrong. Add these games to your collection!