Raiden II

Raiden II

Title screen.

Developer:	Seibu Kaihatsu
Publisher:	Seibu Kaihatsu
Producer:	Hitoshi Hamada
Music:	Go Satou
Program:	Tetsuya Kawaguchi S. Mori K. Sekimori
Art:	H. Azuma M. Matsuzawa T. Wada M. Ijima S. Yano
Designer:	Tetsuya Kawaguchi
Release date:	November 1993
Previous game:	Raiden
Next game:	Raiden DX

Raiden II (JP: 雷電II) is a vertical scrolling shoot em' up developed and published by Seibu Kaihatsu in 1990. It is the sequel to the original Raiden.

For replay videos, visit the Video Index.

Gameplay Overview

Raiden II uses 2 buttons. There are 8 stages with infinite loops.

Controls

• A button (Press): Fires the player's weapons.
• B button (Press): Activates the player's bomb.

Weapons

There are 3 main weapons, 2 secondary weapons and 2 types of bombs the player can use in Raiden II. These are obtained almost exclusively from item carriers. With the exception of bombs, the weapon item picked up must match the one the player currently has in order to increase its power. For example, going Red->Blue->Red->Blue->Red, or any pattern where the items don't match essentially the weapon won't strengthen at all.

Red shot

This is the weapon the player starts with. The shots are fired in sets of 2, 3 then 4 as it is powered up along with gradually gaining a wider range. Red is considered the best choice for the vast majority of situations due to its wide coverage and pointblank damage. Red primarily suffers from excessive mashing needed when not using autofire (one tap fires one volley).

Blue shot

A concentrated narrow laser. It starts as individual shots, turning into a thick beam at max power. Deals respectable damage even from far away and light tapping will provide a consistent stream of fire unlike Red, but it is severely inefficient at dealing with popcorn enemies even when paired with homing missiles.

Purple shot

The only new main weapon added in Raiden II. Initially, it's fired as individual shots that grow thicker when tapping fast enough, eventually morphing into a purple laser. As a laser, it has the ability to attach to enemies with a high enough HP and can bend to hit other targets nearby. Out of the 3, Purple has the least damage difference when used at pointblank range (non-existent aside from missiles), can suddenly detach from enemies and has similar shortcomings to Blue in regards to popcorn control.

Power-ups increase the number of shots fired (similar to Blue again) and make the laser thicker.

Homing missiles

Missiles with homing behavior. Subsequent power-ups increase their speed, homing capabilities and the number of volleys that can be fired is raised from 1 to 2 when maxed.

Nuclear missiles

These missiles move forward and release a sizeable explosion upon impact, increasing their size and explosion radius with every power-up that is picked up. They have a slower travelling speed compared to homing but outperform them at pointblank range.

Red bombs

The bomb from the first Raiden. A nuke that detonates into a wide explosion with considerably delay.

Yellow bombs

A new type of bomb added for Raiden II. It throws several smaller bombs around the player that proceed to detonate with a much shorter delay compared to red bombs. Unique to them is that the small bombs have actual collision before exploding. When used close to a flying enemy with an enough amount of HP, it can cancel the blast of whatever bomb it collided with, instead causing it to explode similar to a nuclear missile.

Items

Item	Description
Red shot	Powers up the red shot, or changes to it.
Blue shot	Powers up the blue shot, or changes to it.
Purple shot	Powers up the purple shot, or changes to it.
Nuclear missiles	Powers up the nuclear missiles, or changes to it.
Homing missiles	Powers up the homing missiles, or changes to it.
Red bomb	Adds a red bomb to the bomb stock.
Yellow bomb	Adds a yellow bomb to the bomb stock.
Fairy	Drops several items after the player loses a life.
Yellow medal	Grants 500 points.
Blue medal	Grants 3,000 points.
Miclus	Grants 10,000 points.
P	Maxes out the shot and missile weapons.
1UP	Grants an extra life / Extend.