Mindless shooting games have always been a favourite of mine. The name Gradius sparks fine memories of shooting shit up, as do R-Type and Galaga. I never really played Raiden until I rented Raiden Project for the Playstation... I missed the arcade version entirely, so basically, the only thing I have to compare Raiden for the Jaguar to is the aforementioned Raiden Project. And people, let's face it: Raiden Project for the Playstation smashes the Jaguar version into the pavement, and then takes a sledge hammer to it followed by a quick flattening with a steamroller.

..contradictory to what you may now think my opinion of this game is, I personally find that Jaguar Raiden is still worthy.

[GRAPHICS]

The only thing instantly apparent regarding Raiden that takes advantage of the Jaguar is the fact that there is absolutely no slowdown during play, even when the screen is full of your shots, enemies' shots, kamikaze helicopters, etc. etc.. While this is impressive, what's left isn not particularily breathtaking. One thing that really pisses me off about this game, though, is that damn sidebar. It cuts off a good third of the screen... I understand that the arcade version of Raiden had a screen that was taller than it was wide, but there should be an option to maybe move around this nuisance, or make it transparent. Anything to get it out of the way.

Explosions look cool, especially your superbombs, and sprites are well done. But these aren't 'shit-your-pants-wow-that-feels-gross' amazingly great visuals.

I suppose they do what they're meant to, and that is to make a valiant attempt at an arcade perfect translation, but there isn't an amazingly large amount of detail anywhere in any given visual area.

..still, the lack of slow-down is a nice bonus.

[SOUND FX/MUSIC]

Nothing special, but the music is pretty cool, even though it sounds quite cheesy. Sound effects aren't remarkable, but far from terrible, and there is a decent variety of them. Probably the same as from the arcade...so it gets the job done. A very solid 'good' does the trick.

[GAMEPLAY]

It's pretty simplistic. Either one or two players have to save Earth from the forces of evil by piloting either a red or blue flying machine with wings (commonly known as a 'plane'). You can collect power-ups which can give you either a spread shot, or a concentrated blue laser. You can upgrade these two weapons by collecting their respective power-ups.

There are also missiles that come in two varieties, homing and straight-firering, both of which help to destroy enemies that may or may not have been a threat to you. The superbombs available for use do an EXTREMELY effective job of clearcutting, and come in especially handy against bosses.

The game isn't much of a challenge, though. You can whip through it fairly quickly. With 2 players, it's made even easier.

..Raiden needs a better autofire function, though. Holding down the fire button does result in a steady firering pattern, but you can shoot much faster by jamming the button repeatedly. If holding down the button meant being able to fire as quick as button mashing, destroying enemies quickly would be much more hassle free. The autofire is irritating, but not a severe problem.

[OVERALL]

It's not a great game, but it's a bit of slightly frenetic fun. As shooting games go, it's nothing special, but your selection on the Jaguar is quite lacking for this sort of thing. Should you buy it? Go ahead, but I'd recommend buying it used - it's far from bad, so the bottom line is if you can get ahold of it for a stellar deal, go for it.

[GRAPHICS] - 6/10

[SOUND FX/MUSIC] - 7/10

[GAMEPLAY] - 6.8/10

[OVERALL] - 6.7/10 (not an average)