April 24, 2007 - When I think of arcades, my mind wanders to weekends wasted in the game room at Yogi Bear Jellystone Park in northern Illinois. These sojourns away from my consoles and basement were meant to foster family ties, but they inevitably ended with me and a handful of friends pumping quarters into Spy Hunter and Golden Axe machines.

Ah, the arcade -- expensive and frustratingly difficult.

Raiden III, a UFO Interactive port of the Japanese arcade title, captures the top-down, 2D excitement of the game's cabinet days and adds some PS2 depth, but it fails to make itself a must buy for arcade fanboys -- even though you can turn your TV on its side for the full arcade-screen experience.

Like any arcade game worth its monitor, there's no story to Raiden III. You're a plane (red if you're player one, blue if you're player two) and your goal is to blow up everything and anything that crops up in front of you. The first level starts you in the skies over a coastal town that has been torn apart by war. As you head forward, planes in formation, tanks on the ground and flying fortresses surge into your path, and it's up to you and your unlimited machine guns to take them out. Knock down the baddies, and they'll cough up power-ups to strengthen your guns, give you a laser cannon or equip you with rockets and missiles. As the game progresses, you begin to see more and more diverse baddies -- gigantic warships, crazy spacecraft and a final boss powered by glowing pink diamonds -- but expect the same power-ups and 1,000-point fairies to get tossed out. When you run into a big boss or cavalcade of enemies, you can use one of your bombs -- a device that lights up the map while taking out all enemies and weapons on screen -- but you're limited to a specific number of the explosives, and you'll want to hold onto them for the tougher parts.

It sounds simplistic, and it is, but when you first get your hands on the classic arcade gameplay in Raiden III, you'll have a blast. Add a buddy to take on the world together, and you've got a good time ahead of you.

Sadly, that excitement only lasts for seven levels. Sure, there are seven difficulties for you to fool around with, but once you beat the game you're granted unlimited continues, and that sucks out the challenge of the higher difficulties. The game adds Score Attack (play individual levels and try to set the high score), Boss Rush (face off against all seven bosses in a row) and a gallery, but how many times do you want to watch your saved runs and look at level artwork?

The next shortcoming in this short title is collision detection. Some enemy fire will destroy you upon contact and other stuff will just glide over your plane. When it's you versus one or two pilots, the varied impacts are no big deal -- it's kind of a bonus for those times when you couldn't get out of the way of enemy fire -- but when you make it to the later levels and your screen is filled with bad guys, bombs and bullets, you need to know what is going to kill you and what is going to pass through you -- having to question it just complicates the frantic scene.

Closing Comments
Raiden III isn't a bad game, but it's not one I'd recommend plunking down the full $30 for. If you've played an arcade shooter before, you've played this title, and if you're really curious about Raiden III, a rental should satisfy your itch.