For starters, there are three ships from which to choose, all of which play somewhat differently from one another (though not terribly so), and a handful of weapon-types. Sure, the game is still very much so entrenched in the foundation of shoot’em ups - meaning that a great deal of success will come from trial, error, and memorization of enemies, but it doesn’t solely hang its hat on this mechanic. While many of the aforesaid SHMUP titles shoehorn folks into one style of playing, by only providing a small amount of ways to actually make it through each stage without dying a dozen times, Raiden IV is more about providing players with a series of avenues to explore, all of which feel viable.

In fact, genre-veterans will find themselves right at home with the various difficulty settings and overall number of ways there are to play the game, and play it well. That being said, Raiden IV is such a special game in that it doesn’t just pander to newbies.

Thus, this more straight-forward approach ultimately means a more accessible title with a less infuriatingly steep learning curve, making it a great title for folks wanting to cut their teeth on these types of games. This approach is a breath of fresh air considering the SHMUP genre was mostly dominated by CAVE’s mega intense bullet-hell shooters last generation. But while those particular titles are fairly hardcore manic shooters, Raiden is a more methodical series less concerned with hypnotic patterns of death-dealing projectiles, and more about using a sound-mind and various weapon options to make it through all the chaos (though it’s still very bullet heavy, mind you). Raiden IV: OverKill is a vertical-scrolling shoot’em up in the vein of classics such as DoDonPachi, Radiant Silvergun and Espgaluda. With a much more digestible digital sticker-price and some new gameplay additions, loyalists of the shooter genre have a solid game to sink their teeth into for a long time to come. Now fast-forward to 2014, and we have UFO Interactive’s PS3 enhancement Port, Raiden IV: OverKill. Ultimately, this resulted in a game not being experienced by as many people as it maybe should have been. This was unfortunate, though, because what Raiden had to offer was actually quite mechanically sound. $40 was just far too high of a price point for anyone outside of the hardcore shoot’em up fanbase. The problem with Raiden IV when it first debuted here in North America back in 2009 on the Xbox 360 was simply that it was overpriced for the amount of content it offered.

Overkill 3 reviews