New PCB: Raiden DX

For years, I had heard from Raiden devotees that DX was by far the best of the classic old school Raidens with its three different games and better balanced gameplay. I absolutely agree.

Raiden DX may be the best old school game (pre-Cave) period. Regular readers of this blog will know that I do love Toaplan and their myriad of shmup titles, but DX - especially the Charlie game option - is just exceptional. If it's any indicator, I have played DX everyday for about a month and I'm still itching to play more - especially as I just got to stage 6 on Charlie last night on one credit. 

The bullet timing is different that previous games, more progressive, so you don't rank up fast and then have to deal with super fast bullets by stage 3. The enemy placement is excellent, even trying to mess with you a bit - like the fast tanks that move into position in the blink of an eye. 

The OST is also excellent, but simple. The sprite style is Raiden II to a T, but with more varied backgrounds and more interesting enemies earlier in Alpha and Charlie.

High score posts should be coming fast and furious as I have high scores in all three modes I'm working on. 

I picked it up on the cheap for $125 shipped from a KLOV member, which is half of what it use to sell for though I have seen a few sell on the low side off Shmups in the past year. I will most likely never sell this game - it's too good, too pure, too eminently enjoyable to not be in an old school shmup lovers collection till the end of time.