What’s the story?: Original released in Japanese arcades on the ST-V arcade board in 1997, and then on the Japanese Sega Saturn in 1998, Radiant Slivergun is a vertical shooter of magnificent proportions. Featuring chaotic 2D graphics, an incredible musical score, and lightning fast gameplay, it’s easy to see why RS sits atop such a high perch in gaming lore.

As for the actual story, I can’t speak Japanese, so I had know idea what was going on in the game. But with the Internet, now I am an expert! In short, an artifact which has been uncovered on Earth (called Stone-Like) has suddenly destroyed the entire planet in a “flash” – Save for Captain Tengais and his crew of three, who were test piloting three “Silvergun” ships above Earth’s atmosphere. Now a year later, the crew is running low on supplies. They decide to make their return to a desolate earth to see just what exactly happened, and of course, battle the Stone-Like and its forces.

To help combat waves of enemies, there are no traditional power-ups in Radiant Silvergun - instead, all six buttons on the Saturn controller are utilized with a completely different weapon. The Vulcan Cannon, Homing Laser, Side Bombs, Rear Vulcans, Lightning Beams, and Homing Laser are your six guns. The right shoulder button will unleash your “Radiant Sword” – a tiny sword used to collect “small purple balls” flying all over the screen. When you’ve collected enough, pressing the right shoulder button will deliver a scissor-like chop with the Radiant Sword to all enemies unlucky enough to be in its path.

All around, gameplay is incredible. Every time you get that, “I’m done for” feeling, you’ll suddenly remember a certain gun that should get out of the situation. And to have the choice of six is the key to the fantastic twitch gameplay found in Radiant Silvergun. The other key is combos.

The combo system rewards you for destroying or “chaining” enemies of just one of three colors – blue, red, or yellow. If you kill three enemies in a row that are all the same color you’ll obtain point bonuses. Although there are no power-up in RS, these bonuses will upgrade your weapons over time. On this versions “Saturn Mode”, you’ll be able to save your file and start a game next time with all previous acquired upgrades. This makes playing through the games earlier levels (again and again) much easier, and increases replay value tremendously. Just keep saving your file, and watch each of your attacks double and triple in power.

Finally, with all this praising of the games graphics, it would only be right to give the same respect to the score, which simply said – is incredible. It does a wonderful job putting you in the shooter mood somehow. The theme to stage one has been stuck in my head since 1998. You can hear it for yourself in and see some of the incredible gameplay in the video near the bottom of the page.

Whats not to like: Am I kidding? Actually, yes I am because there isn’t one thing bad I could say about Radiant Silvergun other then its expensive (around $200), and has never been released in America. Gameplay wise this one’s perfect, even if it is a little tough.

Score
Overall
This masterpiece has it all – fantastic visuals, wonderful music, and most importantly, addictive innovative gameplay. The 7 button layout is tailor-made for the Saturn as are the game’s special effects and speed, which would easily melt “other” home consoles at the time. For those who haven’t played RS, there’s always hope for a release on XBLA or PSN, as this one is a little pricey (around $200). Then again, all the cornerstones of the Saturn’s library are expensive, and this is the greatest shooting game of all time. Having not played Radiant Silvergun in a while, I was happy to see it leave me in the same state it did a decade ago – with my jaw on the floor.
User Score: (2 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)  Loading ...