RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection

From popularizing the shoot ‘em up genre with Space Invaders to linking a bunch of monitors together to create a super-wide display with Darius II, Taito is one of those companies constantly pushing the technological boundaries to create unforgettable action games. This was definitely true in the mid-1990s, when the shooter genre started to break free of their 2D confines and dabble in 3D worlds created out of polygons. Two of my favorite games of that era were RayStorm and RayCrisis, two classic shoot ‘em ups that have been packaged together in a brand-new HD collection from ININ Games. Is this a must-have for genre fans, or just another over-priced compilation from Taito? That’s what we’re about to find out in this review of RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection.

Before the storm or the crisis, there was RayForce, a vertical shooter from 1994 that confusingly also went by the names Layer Section and Galactic Attack. While it’s a fairly traditional shoot ‘em up with a cool lock-on system and detailed pixel graphics, you can see the developers wanting to push that technology as far as it can go, with inventive level designs that employ a lot of cool 3D effects. Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t a surprise to see the 1996 follow-up, RayStorm, dive head-first into a completely polygonal 3D world.

RayStorm takes everything that was great about RayForce and gives it a new, cinematic quality that remains surprisingly effective a quarter-century later. It’s the distant future and, once again, humanity is under the threat of being wiped out by a being known as Con-Human, a computer for planetary management that has evolved into a sentient machine. We’ve already survived one wave of attack, but defeating them a second time may come with a catastrophic price – the destruction of the Earth.

Much like RayForce, this sequel is also a top-down vertical shooter with multiple layers of fast-paced action. Our experimental ship comes equipped with not only a standard gun for taking out enemies in the air, but also a laser that will blow up the ground units below. What sets this apart from Xevious is that we’re able to lock on to a bunch of enemies at the same time, which will both clear out the battlefield in a hurry and give players a nice score multiplier. There’s also a super-powerful mega-bomb you can deploy when it’s charged up, but most of the gameplay involves the playful dance between shooting your guns and locking on with the laser beams.

What makes this game so great is that the levels are specifically designed to force you to use both types of attacks at the same time. We’ve flown over the ocean in plenty of shoot ‘em ups, but this one requires you to look at what’s in the water and attack before they get you. And thanks to the use of 3D polygons, it’s common to see an enemy start on the ground and then fly into the air, forcing you to take them on in a brand-new way. The eight stages and their mech bosses are all designed to take full advantage of the layer gimmick, and I love every bit of it.

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The same is true in the 1998 sequel, RayCrisis, which is actually a prequel to the events of the previous game. Although it’s set in a cyberspace environment, the level designs remain the same. We are once again treated to speedy stages that whip around the environment and really show off the 3D effect, while asking us to simultaneously take out Con-Human mechs using both bullets and lock-on lasers. While technically a prequel, this is a game that definitely plays by the sequel rule of making everything bigger and more explosive. We can target more enemies at once and the levels are bigger and more detailed than ever before, and don’t even get me started on the new boss designs.

One of the big changes to RayCrisis is in the way it dolls out levels. Instead of taking you on a linear path through all of the levels, the game will select a few for you to play in a row, adding some much-needed replay value. There are also multiple endings that will depend on how good you are at the game. Other changes include the way the super, mega, ultra powerful weapon works, as well as some important scoring tweaks.

Of the two games, RayCrisis is substantially easier than RayStorm, though I prefer the sequel to the prequel. Even with the graphical boost, I preferred the level designs in RayStorm and found myself constantly going back to it. The stages in RayCrisis are shorter and not as interesting, and the random nature of it means that you could get a few lame stages in a row. That said, I found RayStorm to be a lot more challenging, so I could see a lot of people far preferring the final game in the trilogy.

When it comes down to these shooters, I don’t have a lot of complaints. These are two great games from the mid-1990s, and they definitely come with the pros and cons of shooters from that time period. From the gobbledygook stories to the predictable action, these games check off all of the shoot ‘em up cliches. There are also some issues related to the layered gameplay and 3D visuals, such as not always knowing if you’re supposed to shoot at an enemy or blast them with the targeted laser beam. For the most part, these problems aren’t going to get in the way of having fun, especially if you’re the type of shoot ‘em up fan who is interested in this type of compilation.

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As a package, RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection is ... fine. This is another one of those barebones releases from Taito, but at least it allows you to switch between the original versions of the game and the HD remasters. This is a cool addition that really shows the difference between then and now. I would say that RayStorm benefits more from the HD upgrade than RayCrisis, but there are sections of both games that look a little rough.

While lacking in the extras department, I was impressed with the options menu. We’re able to customize a lot of the normal things (such as adjusting the scanlines and remapping the controller), as well as tinker with things you might not have even thought of (like changing the difficulty of individual levels). We also get a bunch of screen options, including different backgrounds. We get a surprising amount of control with these two games.

For me, the big disappointment is the lack of RayForce. It’s great having these two games packaged together, but why not complete the trilogy by including the game that started it all. It may not be 3D, but that’s no reason to keep it out of the package. At $40, this game needs as much content as it can get, so it’s extremely disappointing to see it left out. It’s also a shame that this package doesn’t give us more historical context or images of the cabinets. These two boundary-pushing shooters deserve something better than a barebones compilation.