GAME BACKGROUND
The Year is 2219. The place, Earth. Alien
beings from the Secilia System have arrived
in our solar system. Their objective, is to
obliterate and take over the Earth with their
Battle Cruisers, Mechs and Fighter Crafts.
Only you and your pal who are pilots on
the R-Gray Advanced Fighter stand in their
way. Thus begins the saga of RayStorm.
RayStorm is the sequel to RayForce. The
original arcade version of RayStorm came
out in Japanese arcades in 1996 to wide
acclaim. Shooters are still very popular in
Japan. This sequel to RayForce now takes
a 3/4 overhead perspective of the action
where you have an isometric view at your
ship as it courses through the different
levels. The graphics in RayStorm are
composed of polygons, from your craft to
the backgrounds, to the enemy ships.
AT A GLANCE
Upon starting the game, you can choose
from two types of fighters, one fighter the
R-Gray 1 has a wide arc spread and can
shoot a maximum of 8 target lock-on
lasers. This is great for novices to use as
you can destroy a larger number of
enemies. The other craft, the R-Gray 9
carries a single twin beam that is
concentrated for shearing through metal
with a maximum of 16 target lock-on lasers
for seasoned gamers.
The Playstation version comes with an
Extra Mode which features added on game
enhancements and special effects that were
done by the original arcade development
staff. Taito has pumped in enough power
into this shooter to blow our feeble minds
away.
As RayStorm was developed using
Playstation technology in the arcades, the
translation is seamless with a near exact
duplicate of the arcade wonder.
GAME OPTIONS
Standard stuff like controller setting, sound
setting, stock ship setting, rapid fire and
even a stage select (which can only be
activated if you complete the game in one
sitting. Another innovative feature is the
difficulty setting where you can set different
levels of difficulty for a specific stage.
GAME PLAY & COMMENTS
8 Levels of pure blasting mayhem. That;s
what I’d use to describe RayStorm. This
games pushes the Playstation graphical
engine to new limits. There’s hardly any
slowdown. The game boasts of huge
bosses and awesome firepower. The
relentless attacks by the enemies on even
the easiest difficulty setting leaves you
gasping for breath. Another element that
sets this game apart is the use of your
special weapon. The special weapon will
obliterate anything that moves on the
screen. What makes this different from all
the other shooters is that once you used it
up, the only way you can recharge the
weapon is by killing more enemies. The
more you enemies destroy the faster your
‘Special’ level bar goes up. As long as
there are enemies to annihilate, you will
never run out of juice. Another thing to look
out for is the spectacular explosions each
time a Level Boss is destroyed. This is
especially so in the Extra Mode.
LAST WORDS
It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a
good shoot-em-up. However, buy this only
if you’re good at at this sort of game,
otherwise try before you buy. the frustration
level can get really high at the later stages
when you get completely swamped with
enemy fire. The barrage of enemy ships
coupled with the fact that they don’t stop to
smell the flowers by plummeting you with
hot laser fire can be a real discouragement
for novice gamers.
GRAPHICS 10
SOUNDS 8
PLAYABILITY 7
PRESENTATION 9
REPLAY VALUE 6
OVERALL SCORE 8
