is a

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

scrolling shooter In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

Seibu Kaihatsu was a Japanese manufacturer of arcade games. The company was founded in 1982 at Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan as , but changed to its current name sometime in 1984. It is currently owned by Hitoshi Hamada. One of their earliest arcade hits was ...

. It is the direct

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to '' Raiden Fighters'', which is a spin-off of the '' Raiden''

video game franchise. This game shares the same game mechanics as its predecessor while expanding on the concepts that defined it. It is followed by ''

Raiden Fighters Jet a 1998 scrolling shooter arcade game by Seibu Kaihatsu. It is a sequel to '' Raiden Fighters 2'', released one year later. ''Raiden Fighters Jet'' retains the same game mechanics as its predecessors, while introducing new ones in a departure from ...

'', the third game in the series.

Gameplay

''Raiden Fighters 2'' has simplistic controls typical of

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

games. A Fire button shoots the player's weapons. A Bomb button releases a special attack that damages enemies and cancels out enemy fire over a large area. A new feature introduced in ''Raiden Fighters 2'' is the Hybrid Attack, available only during a two-player game. When two players are close to each other and use their charged attacks, the Hybrid attack is activated, rendering both players invincible for the duration of the attack. Medals appear more frequently than in the first game, giving players increased scoring opportunities.

Stages

There are a total of seven stages, divided into three missions. Stage environments include

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

es, and a raid against enemy bombers. Each of the first two missions ends in a long boss encounter. The first two stages in these missions are randomly ordered. The final Mission pits the player against an attack base and an experimental attack aircraft as bosses.

Fighter craft

This game includes seven aircraft, which are retooled versions of the '' Raiden Fighters'' craft. Some craft had their secondary weapons switched around, while others had theirs revamped. The rest are new to this game, complete with new weaponry. The secret fighters in this game are unlocked the longer the arcade machine has been running since initial boot-up. Newer single-PCB versions of the game eliminate the time-based unlocking mechanic and make all the fighters available from the start. Unlockable fighters include the Miclus and Fairy (both collectible score items in the ''Raiden'' and ''Raiden Fighters'' series). Introduced in this game are the second-player colored variation of the Raiden mk-II and Judge Spear, dubbed the Raiden mk-IIβ and Blue Javelin respectively, each with different weaponry and attributes than their counterparts. All but two of the hidden craft in this game reappear in the sequel ''

''.

Plot

''Raiden Fighters 2'' takes place four years after the events of the first game. A few surviving guerrilla groups gather under a dictator. They form a new nation and begin attacks on the protagonists. In response, retooled fighters were deployed in a new mission called Operation Hell Dive.

Music

The music of ''Raiden Fighters 2'' is composed in the

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

style with some instances of

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

(the theme of the boss stages). The soundtrack was composed by Go Sato. His past works include the soundtracks of ''

Raiden II Raiden may refer to: *Raijin, also called Raiden or Raiden-sama, the god of thunder and lightning in Japanese mythology * ''Raiden'' (film), a 1928 film directed by Shōzō Makino *Raiden Tameemon (Seki Tarōkichi; 1767–1825), a Japanese sumo wr ...

'', parts of ''

Raiden DX Raiden may refer to: *Raijin, also called Raiden or Raiden-sama, the god of thunder and lightning in Japanese mythology * ''Raiden'' (film), a 1928 film directed by Shōzō Makino * Raiden Tameemon (Seki Tarōkichi; 1767–1825), a Japanese sumo w ...

'', ''

Viper Phase 1 is a 1995 scrolling shooter arcade game by Seibu Kaihatsu. It is a spin-off in the '' Raiden'' series set in space. Gameplay The game is set in outer space. Players pilot their space fighter through eight stages of enemy space fleets and bo ...

'', ''

Senkyu Senkyu (戦球), known as Battle Balls in English, is an arcade puzzle game created by Seibu Kaihatsu and released in 1995. A version for the Sony PlayStation was later released in limited quantities for the Japanese market and is now extremely r ...

'' (''Battle Balls'' in the USA), and the first '' Raiden Fighters''.

Other versions

The later ''Raiden Fighters 2 - 2000 Operation Hell Dive'' clone runs on cheaper hardware and features notoriously inferior sound than the original. A newer single-board version was released for the US market. This stand-alone version has all fighters available immediately. In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Raiden Fighters 2'' on their February 1, 1998 issue as being the eleventh most-successful arcade game of the month.

Ports and conversions

Footnotes

External links

Raiden Fighters 2
o
The Killer List of Videogames
{{Raiden series 1997 video games Arcade video games Fabtek games Vertically scrolling shooters Seibu Kaihatsu games Video game sequels Video games developed in Japan Windows games