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View Full Version : GOTD 7/11/2016: Rayxanber II (PC Engine)



bb_hood
07-10-2016, 11:20 PM
http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r0_zpsfg5janzo.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r0_zpsfg5janzo.jpg.html)http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r2_zpsbz5meqlo.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r2_zpsbz5meqlo.jpg.html)http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r3_zpsglvcyint.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r3_zpsglvcyint.jpg.html)http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r4_zpswhmtem6u.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r4_zpswhmtem6u.jpg.html)http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r5_zpsyedjofpl.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r5_zpsyedjofpl.jpg.html)http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad77/ren_hoek2/r6_zpshxjpzcih.jpg (http://s923.photobucket.com/user/ren_hoek2/media/r6_zpshxjpzcih.jpg.html)

Taken from the Digital Press rarity guide: Considered by many to be the hardest shooter EVER made! If you can get to the level 1 boss, you're doing good.
Saying that Rayxanber II is the hardest shooter ever made is arguable, and I can not fathom the above statement being true with all of the bullet-hell games that now exist. However, as far as retro shooter games are concerned... yeah, its up there. It is a very, very hard & unforgiving game. At the same time it is a game that is so awesome that you (or at least I) won't mind grinding over & over again.

I really dont know the backstory to this game because it is not explained in the game nor have I explored the manual which is in Japanese. The enemies have a similar look & feel to gradius or r-type; organic yet many spaceship/robotic type sprites. It has the whole "blast off and destroy the evil Bydo empire" type feel to it. Anyhow, this is much harder and faster than any R-type or Gradius game. This is where much of the difficulty lies; all the bad guys and enemy fire comes at you fast & furious. In some stages you have very limited free space, and you are not only crowded but also continually assaulted by enemy ships and fire.

Your ship comes equipped with a basic forward shot as well as a thruster which will blast your ship around the screen at lightning speed. There are 3 different power-ups which you can find: Ice Storm, Lightning Bolt, and a Fire Shot. Needless to say you will die from a single hit, and of course you lose your special weapon when you die. No shields, never. Many enemies will take multiple hits, and often the game throws multiple of these at you at once, making it very hard to navigate the screen and focus your fire at the same time. I have played this game quite a bit in the past, and I can only get to the 4th level.

The first and second levels are actually not super-hard, but once you get to level 3 the difficulty ramps up considerably. While awesome, level 3 is a serious challenge. You are flying beneath a giant spider-like robot that dispenses ships while at the same time tanks patrol the ground shooting at you. Level 4 is filled with a crystal type lattice which needs to be destroyed to navigate the screen. Often times enemies come at you and there is nowhere to go. This is as far as I have gotten, although I have not attempted this game in years. I have seen comments online where people consider level 4 to be impossible. I shudder to think what lies beyond stage 4..

The graphics in Rayxanber II are top-notch. The scrolling fore & backgrounds look amazing and all of the sprites are very cool looking.
The soundtrack is just awesome. If you like killer video game soundtracks, this game will not dissapoint. Everything about this game is hardcore to the point where casuals players might simply regard this game as unbeatable & very frustrating. But I love everything about Rayxanber II. If you watch a longplay/speedrun of Rayxanber II you might think that this game is.. well.. 'manageable'. Dont be fooled. It is super-hard and super-fast. If you want a challenge then seek this game out... but dont say I diddn't warn you.

celerystalker
07-10-2016, 11:31 PM
I dig this one. I do think its difficulty is overrated, but it has a hell of a look to it. It's in my top ten PCE shooters for sure. That might not sound like much a compliment, but on a system with Gate of Thunder, Gradius II, Salamander, Download, Lords of Thunder, Final Soldier, etc., it's in great company. Excellent pick!

bb_hood
07-10-2016, 11:48 PM
I dig this one. I do think its difficulty is overrated, but it has a hell of a look to it. It's in my top ten PCE shooters for sure. That might not sound like much a compliment, but on a system with Gate of Thunder, Gradius II, Salamander, Download, Lords of Thunder, Final Soldier, etc., it's in great company. Excellent pick!

Thanks! PC Engine has so many amazing shooters. Its just too bad that the Turbo CD systems are so hard to find & expensive. More people should be able to enjoy these without dropping like 500$ on a system. I love having Lords of Thunder on my WiiU, I can play it without having my Duo hooked up and I can play it with a decent joystick instead of a regular controller.

celerystalker
07-11-2016, 01:24 AM
Thanks! PC Engine has so many amazing shooters. Its just too bad that the Turbo CD systems are so hard to find & expensive. More people should be able to enjoy these without dropping like 500$ on a system. I love having Lords of Thunder on my WiiU, I can play it without having my Duo hooked up and I can play it with a decent joystick instead of a regular controller.

I mainly play the CD games on my PCE Duo-R, and then my US HuCards on a regular old Turbografx. I don't mind the D-pads on the Turbo controllers, but the TurboStick is a rubber dome that just doesn't have that arcade feel. I should build a real arcade stick for one sometime. It'd be a fun project for a vacation week in the fall. I bet I could chop up an aftermarket Genesis 1 AV for the connector for the US Turbo controller port and wire something up with some Seimitsu parts...

Back to the game, though; the PCE really stands out to me for having so many high end horizontal shooters in the classic style. I used to play more bullet hell stuff, but really have gravitated back to the more methodical style of late '80s, early '90s horizontal shooters. Gate of Thunder has really risen in my esteem over the years, and Download I just loved. The Gradius/Salamander games, R-Type, Rayxanber, Sinistron... the system is just a treasure trove for the style. The vertical games are winners, too, but I've really taken a shine to the side-scrollers.

Tanooki
07-11-2016, 11:50 AM
Great game, only bettered by a fantastic sequel. I had both on the PCE CD (I had a Turbo Duo remember?) and they got some serious use. They have a familiar while not style to them which give it a nice feel that I liked back in the 90s so I kept coming back for more then tracked down the sequel. I imagine though today it would just piss me the hell off as I don't have a lot of patience for overly hard memorization kind of (if not required) type games.

Emperor Megas
07-11-2016, 12:38 PM
I love shooters, but I've never played this one yet. I own it though. I really need to get on with my summer project, which is setting up half of my upstairs for retro gaming.

MetalFRO
07-15-2016, 03:40 PM
If/when I get myself a PC Engine Duo (or Duo R), this is one of the games (along with its sequel) that is at the top of my "to buy" list. I've heard good things, despite the notorious difficulty. The OP says the soundtrack is awesome - is it guitar/synth rock like Gates/Lords of Thunder, or is it more electro?

bb_hood
07-16-2016, 04:24 AM
If/when I get myself a PC Engine Duo (or Duo R), this is one of the games (along with its sequel) that is at the top of my "to buy" list. I've heard good things, despite the notorious difficulty. The OP says the soundtrack is awesome - is it guitar/synth rock like Gates/Lords of Thunder, or is it more electro?

I would say its more elctro than guitar rock when compared to Gates & Lords of Thunder.