In the year 2090, Earth has suddenly become the target of deranged aliens known as the Cranassians. Following the invasion, the World Alliance Military builds a new cutting-edge weapon, the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter. Based on a captured alien craft, it is humanity's only hope for survival.
Raiden is a scrolling shooter arcade game that was developed by Seibu Kaihatsu. The title is in Japanese and means "Thunder And Lightning". In September 1990, Raiden hit the top of the arcade game popularity charts. The game was on the charts for over 38 months, including 26 months in the top ten. Due to the success of Raiden, several sequels and related games were made.
Raiden consists of eight vertical scrolling missions where the player maneuvers the Raiden craft dodging and destroying enemy robots, buildings, ground targets, and aircraft. There are bombs and missile powerups as well as collectable medals which add to the score. When the player dies, the fighter's fragments become projectiles that damage enemies.
After defeating the Stage 8 boss, the mission is completed and the player receives 1 million points. Following Stage 8 the game reverts to Stage 1. However, this time around the enemy shots travel faster and are fired at a more rapid rate.
Raiden was ported to the FM Towns Marty, PC Engine, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx, Amiga (unreleased prototype) and MS-DOS.
Source: Wikipedia, "Raiden (arcade game)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
