Radiant Silvergun (XBLA) – Review – Xbox 360

I love SHMUP (Shoot’em up) games, and I love being challenged by them. I thought I had met my match way back when I played Ikaruga on Dreamcast, I know now that Radiant Silvergun is the father that spawned Ikaruga, and boy does this game beat you like a terribly angry that he was forgotten dad.

Story: Ok well there is a story here and it is insane to try and keep up with, but I am going to give you a semi quick rundown of it. There is an artifact called Stone-Like that has been unearthed with some robot. Meanwhile you are a Silvergun prototype pilot waiting to try out the new Silvergun fighters way up above Earth’s atmosphere. The artifact becomes self aware and destroys Earth, while you and a handful of others are still above the clouds. With Earth gone and your supplies running low on you space station your on your crew along with you return to Earth about a year later. If you are still with me prepare to be lost coming up. With all this madness going on the story of Radiant Silvergun is also told non-linearly and through english subtitled anime cutscenes.

Gameplay:Radiant Silvergun is in a different class of SHUMP, there are no powerups to be found at all. Instead you are given a collection of weapons from the start of the game that level up as you go. Combos also play a big part in getting your score to the top of the leaderboards, kill a bunch of the same color (red, yellow, or blue) enemies in a row to make the most of point scoring. The level design is basic, but incredibly challenging and you will spend about half of your gametime in boss fights.

Graphics/Audio: 13 years is a long time for a game to age. Originally released in ’98 on Sega Saturn (in Japan ony) the visuals have not aged well. There is a small upscale going on but the game still looks aged. Want to just forgo the minor graphical change and play the game in it’s Saturn glory? You can as the game allows you to make the graphical switch at anytime(I found it less straining on my eyes to play in SS mode). The sound effects are run of the mill for the genre. The continuing patter of bullets on enemy ship exteriors and generic explosion sounds never get old but they are repeated endlessly. The games music is seemingly one track of an orchestral score with a few variations.

Overall: If you are a fan of the 2-D SHMUP genre and have missed this classic I would strongly recommend giving Radiant Silvergun a try. One thing that bothered me is there is an unlockable “Ikaruga Mode”, but to get it you must have purchased Ikaruga on XBLA and gotten at least one achievement. It isn’t a huge deal, but still feels like a cheap marketing tactic.

Pros:
-Great gameplay
-7 starting weapons
-Boss fights

Cons:
-Challenging for new players
-”Ikaruga Mode” snafu
-Music

7 out of 10

Popularity: unranked [?]