Radiant Silvergun HD

Yet for anyone who has not previously heard of Radiant Silvergun, we'd imagine that the update will look just like any other update of an old, obscure arcade game.It even has the audacity to charge you 1200 Microsoft Points, the absolute cads, which is a price usually reserved for the top games of Xbox Live Arcade.

Then again, this is a game with a story.

Ever since releasing its first title, Japanese developer Treasure has been known as one of the leading software-houses when it comes to the kind of old-school action game that was once reserved for the arcades. With a nack for taking seemingly simplistic gameplay mechanics and turning them on their heads with amazing results, the developer has been able to carve out it's own niche, with Radiant Silvergun no exception.

Originally released in the arcades running on the arcade-version of the Sega Saturn hardware, it was expected from day one that an conversion would one day be reality. At that point of time Treasure usually only released games in limited numbers, and the same happened with Radiant Silvergun, released in small numbers on the Japanese market.

Attention from collectors the world over soon followed, and rightly justified. Firstly it was one of the very best shoot'em'ups to date with deep layers of complexity, and secondly it was and impressive argument in the discussion between PlayStation and Sega Saturn owners who debated which console was the technically dominant - Radiant Silvergun was one of the most impressive Saturn games ever.

All of this meant that the price of the few copies available on eBay exploded, and Radiant Silvergun quickly became the item to own for the most hardcore of game collectors - a mint condition version of the game is still going for $549 on eBay today.

It is no secret that Microsoft has been trying to secure a conversion of the game for a long time, probably mostly as a sign of prestige, seeing that this is one of the last few, extremely rare exclusives from a generation of consoles that has almost been forgotten.

The conversion has been handled by Treasure, and to keep the game as faithful as possible to the original, the developer has decided to reuse some of the original assets. Graphically we are therefore presented with a mix of pixels and simple polygon-enemies who have all received a coating of new effects making them sharper than before. A "fake" transparency effect has also been added, which was one of the things that the Saturn-hardware just wasn't able to pull off. However no options for widescreen has been included, unless you want to use the games "zoom"-feature (which no one should) and the sidebars of the screen are instead used to show information such features as the score, chain meter and the weapon system.

Several elements combined to make the original Radiant Silvergun something special, the weapon system being one. There were no powerups to collect. Instead you were equipped with three different weapons, all of which could be combined with each other, resulting in a surprisingly diverse system. We are still talking about the sort of game where you and your spaceship has to shoot everything to smithereens, but the weapon system let's you tackle every situation in several different ways. For instance combine your vulcan-cannon with spreadshot and get a weapon that shoots backwards, or what about combining your vulcan-cannon with the heatseeking weapon and getting heatseeking lasers that cuts through everything instead? Combine all three weapons and you end up with the "Radiant Sword" that let's you absorb projectiles and active a smartbomb.

Further depth was added to the Saturn-version of the game and thereby also this new Xbox 360-version. The different weapons now level up if you make use of the games chain-system, whereby you must shoot three enemies of the same colour. If this is done properly the points the enemies add to your score are doubled, and expert players will be able to chain together whole levels although it should be noted that this will take insane amounts of dedication and skill. It is also possible to restart the game with the upgraded weapons, which does make the game a bit easier.

The Xbox 360 version of Radiant Silvergun does bring a few new elements with it, not the least the new online-highscore system which lets you know exactly how many superior Radiant Silvergun players are out there. A new option offers downloadable replays, allowing you to watch some of the world's best players work their magic - brilliant for learning techniques and finding secrets. The addition of a new online co-op is also appreciated.

It is higly possible that the updated version of Radiant Silvergun is more of status symbol for Microsoft, rather than the simply intention of allowing more players access to one of the most exclusive darlings from the 32bit era.

That shouldn't matter to any of us though, because Radiant Silvergun is still amongst the best games of the genre more then 13 years after it's original launch. Together with it's spiritual successor Ikaruga, it clearly shows that this genre is still much more than bullet hells and lacklustre fan projects, and that strategy, dexterity and finesse meshes are as key to its mechanics as blowing seven hells out of everything moving.