Raiden Fighters Remix Collection review

In Japanese, raiden means thunder and lightning, and few franchise titles feel as appropriate. From the breakneck speed and intensity of enemy bullets to the booming, pulse-pounding soundtrack, the Raiden Fighters series truly lives up to its name. And while The Remix Compilation is certainly better than Dotemu’s 2015 PC anthology, there are several glaring issues that should have been remedied before launch. Unlike the raw elements of nature, these could be tamed, with a patch or two.

A Trio of Fighters, United and Separate

The collection includes Raiden Fighters Remix, Raiden Fighters 2 Remix, and Raiden Fighters Jet Remix, which are all available individually on the eShop if you’d prefer to pick and choose. Each game includes both its original Japanese version and international versions, which feature slightly different stage layouts and enemy placements.

Mercifully, the former gets rid of all the time-locked ships while the international versions of Raiden Fighters and Jet have second loops. Beyond the games themselves, the collection offers unlockables, rewarding achievements with dividends like in-game wallpapers. I do miss the totally unnecessary but exceedingly cool analytics of Raiden V: Director’s Cut, though.

The Play’s The Thing – Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2)

Mechanically, each Raiden Fighters entry has its own rhythm and personality. The first game lays the foundation for the series with elevated enemies that shoot razer-fast projectiles. After evading a few waves of foes with slower bullets, the inaugural spin-off (which was originally a standalone STG titled Gun Dogs), syncopated tempos can easily trip you up. On the upside, there’s assistance through the “slave” system, where small assist ships flank your craft, contributing extra munitions.

Raiden Fighters 2 Remix amps up that formula with some flashier visuals and even more aggressive enemies. Here, lieutenants and bosses fire volleys of bullets in dense patterns that will truly test your evasion skills. The ship variety widens too; 14 different crafts favor different playstyles, with loadouts that range from homing shots, wide spreads, and Raiden’s signature purple toothpaste/boa constrictor. The variety increases replayability, as you scour the roster for a ship that suits your play style.

Then there’s Raiden Fighters Jet Remix, the showstopper of the collection. It introduces a non-linear progression across its 7-stage run, picking between 12 different levels based on your performance. The result is a game that truly rewards patience and mastery, which should hook 1CC chasers. The sense of speed and unremitting sense of danger makes Jet the most intense title in the anthology, which humbled my aspirations repeatedly while writing this review. 28 years on, it’s still easy to see why this is fan favorite.

Insert the “Mortal Kombat” Yell in Almost Any Track

For some, the soundtrack will be one of the Remix Collection ‘s biggest enticements. Thirty brand-new remixed tracks have been composed by Soshi Hosoi (DEATHSMILES, Raiden IV x MIKADO REMIX), Yuki Arai (Maitetsu Last Run!!), and Kazushi Tsurukubo (Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX). Pleasingly, each composer brings their own flavor while maintaining the franchise’s frantic tempo. From Hosoi’s sizzling guitar riffs, Arai’s punchy synths, to Tsurukubo’s forceful percussion, the new tracks tend to amplify the onscreen chaos. That said, if you’re not a fan of hard-hitting techno, you’ll probably want to head into the audio menu to boost the sound effects. Approproiately, the Fighters games deliver some thunderous explosions.

A Frame Rate That Fights Against You

Yet for all the projectile-dodging potencies of the Raiden Fighters games, there are some rather egregious issues. One of the more frustrating technical oversights in the Remix Collection is its locked 60Hz frame rate, which pushes the game speed approximately 11% faster. The original arcade PCB hardware ran at 54Hz, making every ship, bullet, and explosion tuned to a meticulous cadence.

Now, evading those punishingly fast bullets becomes even more demanding at 60FPS, marring Seibu Kaihatsu’s meticulous craftsmanship. This is bewildering since the Xbox 360 port of Raiden Fighters Aces offered players the option to replicate the original frame rate. Given the prevalence of variable refresh rate monitors, this is an oversight that’s going to dissuade the dedicated audience who’s interest in this compilation.

Bullets Don’t Care About Your Skill Level

Compounding the frame rate issue is another unmistakable flaw: enemy bullet speeds remain entirely static across difficulty settings. Sure, the collection’s practice mode completely removes bullets from the equation. But even the Easy difficulty will propel projectiles at high velocities, alienating any newcomers. The STG genre doesn’t have many entry points, and unlike the accommodating difficulties of 1995’s The Raiden Project (which introduced me to this great series) this feels like a missed opportunity.

Not Quite “Game Over”

Decades after the release of the original games, Raiden Fighters Remix Collection still packs a punch. Undoubtedly, the trilogy hasn’t lost its flash, with each entry dispensing, punishing projectile-dodging and boss battles that will test your mettle. Still, that locked 60Hz speed-up and unchanged bullet behavior are baffling misses for these precision-driven titles. A couple of patches could easily fix that. Until then, this is a thunderous blast from the past but not the divine lightning that a Raiden collection should have been.

Raiden Fighters Remix Collection was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher