Radiant Silvergun Review

As long as there have been video games, people have dodged lasers and blasted aliens with spaceships. I am both surprised and heartened that such fare remains fun today in games like Radiant Silvergun. Originally released in 1998, the vertically-scrolling shooter finds its way to Xbox Live Arcade with modern conveniences like online multiplayer and high-definition visuals. Developed by Treasure, the same guys we have to thank for the amazing Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun still impresses with its clever gunplay.

Radiant Silvergun attempts to set up a story with an anime intro sequence, but the convoluted exposition is inconsequential to your enjoyment of the game. There are bad guys swarming you and shooting them down proves fun enough to provide all the motivation you'll need.

This remake runs in its original 4:3 ratio and includes a handful of attractive wallpapers to decorate the remaining bits of your TV with. The new high-resolution graphics smooth out the pixilated look of the original, but purists can play with the old school chunky sprites if they like.

Arcade and Story modes offer two variations of the same blow everything up model, with Story allowing you to save a persistent profile and constantly upgrade your ship over time. This addictive feature makes you feel like a play session is never wasted, no matter how poor your performance, because you always earn experience points that carry over to your next game.

Radiant Silvergun's trick is that it doesn't have any power-ups. It gives you seven weapons right from the start that all work well in different situations. You earn experience points for the kills you make with each gun that automatically level up that particular weapon. Effectively, the guns you prefer will always become more and more powerful just by playing the game.

The other major aspect of Radiant Silvergun is the color-coded combo system that rewards you with bonus experience points for consecutively shooting down enemies of the same ilk. Playing this way turns the game into more of a puzzler where you must choose carefully which enemies you blow up. I find it refreshing to play a shooter that has more to offer than just crazed gunplay (although there is nothing wrong with crazed gunplay, either).

For multiplayer, you can bring a friend along either locally or online. Full disclosure: I have not had a chance to test the online multiplayer, yet. But we've been having a blast playing local two-player here in the IGN office.

Finally, Radiant Silvergun's epic soundtrack is fantastic. I've been humming it whenever I haven't been playing.

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