Written by: Mark

 

 

 

I would hazard a guess that a high percentage of gamers may never have heard of the game "Radiant Silvergun". It is such a rare title that the Sega Saturn version first released in 1998 still fetches crazy sums of money amongst collectors.

 

Such has been the demand amongst those of us wanting to experience the game for ourselves that developers Treasure have finally made the game available on the XBLA service at a cost of 1200ms points.

 

Questions have arisen as to whether the game can live up to it’s hype as one of the all time classic shoot em ups? Whether the gameplay can hold up on the next gen systems? and most importantly whether it represents value for it’s fairly high price?

 

 

The majority of games in the genre do not have much of a storyline to write home about but Radiant Silvergun has what can only be described as a pretty confusing one.

 

The story involves a strange shaped artefact called Stone-like which has been unearthed along with a non-functioning robot and the Earth’s Secretary Of Defence orders it to be examined. Whilst this is happening three pilots are test flying the Silvergun fighter crafts and as Stone-like explodes destroying the earth only these three remain and it is left to them to destroy the artefact and go about recreating mankind.

 

This is only a brief description of proceedings as it is almost impossible to put into words the storyline of the game which is best explained whilst playing the story mode of the game through animated characters who explain objectives whilst the player is undertaking each mission.

 

 

As explained the game is a vertical scrolling shoot em up and anyone whom has experienced any other games by Treasure will know to expect some nice gameplay twists and this certainly lives up to expectations.

 

As with other Far Eastern shooters Radiant Silvergun proves as tough as nails thanks to the massive number of enemies on screen at any one time all intent on attacking you with a nice variety of bullets, missiles, bombs and other weapons. You can see almost instantly when playing the game just why titles such as this are nicknamed ‘Bullet Hell’ due to the incredibly challenging gameplay on offer.

 

 

To counteract the challenges the players craft is equipped with a choice of seven weapons from the very start and each are allocated a different button on the joypad. This is where one of the only changes from the original game occurs as the first release only utilised two buttons and to access the different weapons players had to have different combinations of button presses and thumbstick in order to launch assaults.

 

In all honestly I think the current versions control scheme works much better and makes things easier although it still can be a little confusing remembering which button does what. Purists may feel that the two button approach is better but I think for any newcomers to the game they need things to be slightly easier to ensure that they are not put off by the tough challenge from the very beginning.

 

One real positive about the choice of weapons is that the more you use one particular kind it upgrades and becomes much more powerful and this is noticeable and makes for some tactical approaches. There is no doubt that the weapon choice is very ambitious but works so well and stands out as one of the high points of the game.

 

Strangely the game sees you start at level three but don’t worry this is not a mistake and will become clear if you can follow the story. As you progress through the number of levels which can be described as average at best you will find that the level design also throws up some incredibly tough and frustrating challenges designed to test the skills of even the better gamers.

 

As you progress you encounter some well designed enemy crafts and stand out battles with some excellently designed and thought out boss crafts who have some excellent attack patterns, thus requiring the tactical approaches to defeat them.

 

In many ways the gameplay in Radiant Silvergun was way ahead of it’s time upon it’s original release and this is evident with many of Treasure’s other games with the excellent Ikaruga instantly springing to mind. Admittedly the game will not appeal to all gamers and some may wonder what the fuss was about but this is one game which requires you to have patience and dedication and if you give it the time it deserves then you will I am sure enjoy your purchase.

 

 

 

Like the gameplay, the overall presentation was superb for a game released on the Sega Saturn and must have pushed the system to it’s limits however thirteen years after it’s original release it is starting to look a little rough around the edges, particularly when compared to other titles.

 

I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the game as it still looks pretty good and is backed up by an excellent soundtrack and I for one am glad that the game has been released in it’s original glory instead of having the option to smooth out the graphics as is evident is several other re-releases of older games.