The Raiden series carries a legacy of remarkably solid, well-designed shooters that never fail to impress, yet the individual entries never seem to make it into shooter fans’ Top 10 lists. DonPachi is pure bullet hell; Ikaruga, with its polarity-shifting gameplay, draws much praise; Mars Matrix‘ mosquito system turns the enemies’ guns on back on [...]

Remember the painful days of yesteryear when Japan had a lock on all extremely cool video game bonus items? If there was an art book to be had, it was there. If there was a soundtrack to drool over, it was there. But publishers are now seeing the value of supplying die hards with goodies; [...]

Is there any genre capable of delivering as potent a cathartic release as shooters? I reckon there is not. Unfortunately, the genre (much like brawlers), have yet to reclaim the popularity that it once had 15 years ago, but some titles (such as Valcon Game’s recently released Raiden Fighter Aces) have brought explosive joy to [...]