Raiden (TG-16) - Full Run ALL Clear [to 2-7]

Описание: Full Run of Raiden (雷電) for the Turbografx-16/PC Engine. I made it to stage 7 of loop 2 before getting the game over, with a score of around 3.5 Million. This was played on a real TG-16 with the real HuCard.

Stage Listing:
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Stage 1
02:58 - Stage 2
06:27 - Stage 3
09:43 - Stage 4
14:07 - Stage 5
17:55 - Stage 6
22:09 - Stage 7
25:10 - Stage 8
28:14 - Final Boss + "Ending"
29:16 - Loop 2 Stage 1
31:55 - Loop 2 Stage 2
36:15 - Loop 2 Stage 3
39:39 - Loop 2 Stage 4
45:07 - Loop 2 Stage 5
48:56 - Loop 2 Stage 6
54:39 - Loop 2 Stage 7

Raiden for the Turbografx/PC Engine is a port of the classic arcade game that was a massive hit back in the 90's, and it was virtually ubiquitous in arcades at the time. So how does this port stack up to the arcade version? Well it's pretty good, but there are definitely some differences, some of which are only obvious if you've put time into both versions.

First off, the graphics are quite good in this port, everything looks pretty close to the arcade version unlike the Genesis port (which looked much more drab) or the horrendous SNES port (which is just terrible in general). The stages do seem a bit shorter than I remember though, so I'm sure cuts were made to the length of the game. While the graphics looks nice there is still plenty of flicker when the screen gets filled up and things start to get hectic.

Unfortunately the music doesn't hold up as well, a lot of the tunes are muffled and just don't have the vigor that they did in the arcade version. I'd actually rank this port near the bottom in that department, as even the SNES version had better music.

As for the mechanics of the game, the scoring is basically the same, you pick up medals throughout the stages which add to your end of stage bonus assuming you didn't die (medals x bombs x 1000 = end of stage bonus). That is the bulk of your score, the remainder comes from picking up excess powerups once you are fully powered, and you also get a massive 1 Million point bonus for clearing the game.

Unlike the arcade version, you can carry more bombs (9 vs 7) in this one, and you also continue to get extends based on score, whereas the arcade version capped you to only 2 of them. So this game throws a lot more extra lives your way, especially if you are scoring well.

Unfortunately (I guess depending on how you view it) this version does carry over the checkpoints on deaths that made the original Japanese arcade version so ridiculous. However, unlike that version where a single death was basically the end of your run, you can actually recover quite well in most of the checkpoints, especially if you got the fairy earlier.

When all that said I would probably still rank the TG version a tad behind the Genesis port, mainly because the Genesis version has fewer cuts to the stages, better music, and no flickering. Either way, this is a very solid and competent port, and it gets my recommendation.