RAY STORM

How it was?

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

RAY STORM

Rated 4.4/5 based on 44 reviews