Raiden by Author: DJ Tigresa and MC Pantera Email: djtigresa@classicgaming.com, mcpantera@classicgaming.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mother Earth has fallen under siege by militant aliens. Now, as pilot of the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter, it’s up to you to mount a daring counterattack. Rip through enemy lines and take back our cities...torch Gatling units with your homing missiles...and teach these galactic pirates why nobody messes with your planet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power-Ups ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The machine gun is a nice weapon, since it offers greater spread when firing, but the laser beam is more powerful. To strengthen the laser beam, collect the blue power-ups. To find the power-ups, destroy the ships that release them. (Makes sense, right?) The power-up ship first appears at the beginning of Level 1, right after the three jetcopters on the beach scene. These ships also appear at regular intervals through out all levels. Each power-up is red or blue in color, and cycles to the other color every few seconds. Red power-ups increase the power of the machine gun, and blue power-ups increase the power of the laser. Therefore, if a ship releases a red power-up, but you want to strengthen your laser beam, wait until it turns blue before grabbing it. There are two types of missile power-ups: direct fire missiles and homing missiles. Missile power-ups are hidden under crates that are located on most levels. A yellow M is the direct fire mis sile power-up, and a green H is the homing missile power-up. Direct fire missiles are more powerful, but only fly straight ahead; homing missiles aren’t as powerful, but seek out and destroy enemy ships. The bomb power-up adds to your number of bombs, but it does not make them more powerful. The P power-up is the coolest of them all, as it gives you the most powerful version of any weapon that you have. Also, if the player wants to change their maxed-out weapon, they need only grab a laser or machine gun power-up. They do not need to start over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Staying Alive ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don’t fly your ship at the bottom of the screen; instead, try to stay about a quarter of the way up. This way, if anything tries to get you from behind, you will have time and room to maneuver around it. If you have a low-power weapon, try to collect the direct fire missile; if your weapon is very powerful, collect the homing missile. If you are surrounded by enemies, use a bomb and then move to the center of the bomb explosion. The explosion shelters you from the enemy shots, as well as destroying any nearby enemies. If you’re being hassled by a particular enemy, try moving away so that it’s off the screen. Enemies off the screen won’t shoot at you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bonus Items ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are several bonus items that can be col lected during the course of the game: medals, dragons, and fairies. The medals and dragons are hidden under crates, and they can also be found on some rooftops and other strange places. Blast at everything and you might uncover some. The medals also have an additional feature: they give you bonus points at the end of each level. For example, if you have ten medals and three bombs at the end of a level, you receive 30,000 bonus points (1,000 points for each medal X three bombs). The fairy is only hidden on a few levels and is very difficult to find. If you do, she’s worth 10,000 points. To find some fairies, look for “invisible” targets in clumps of trees. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Start by shooting the power-up ship at the beginning of the level; collect the power-up when it is red or blue. Shoot open the crates nearby and collect the direct fire missile power-up. Shoot the large, green airplane ships that fly down from the top of the screen; if you don’t destroy them on the way down, they’ll come back from the bottom of the screen and travel up, usually smashing into your ship from behind. Don’t be afraid to use your bombs, especially at the two large, green tanks before the river. When you reach the end bosses of Level 1, concentrate on killing one boss at a time. Try to position your ship so that only one boss is on-screen. This keeps the other boss from shooting at you, and helps you concentrate. Be sure to get rid of other small tanks. Stay at the bottom just to the right or left of the tank’s main turret. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep the laser and start working on collecting homing missiles. Level 2 is a great level for building up weapons, because there are so many power-ups. Watch out for the small air planes that fly in formations of three—they will try to ram you. After you cross the first set of railroad tracks, there will be large, green airplanes; destroy them before they go off- screen. Otherwise, they will come back from the bottom of the screen and ram you from behind. At the second set of railroad tracks, there will be a swarm of robotic wasp-looking ships. At this point, it’s more helpful to have the machine gun than the laser, so just before this section you should collect the red power up from the power-up ship that appears just before you reach the railroad tracks. After you make it through the swarm, you will face the end boss. This boss releases more of the robotic wasps, so the machine gun is still useful. To destroy the boss, start by shooting the tips of its wings off. After you do this, avoid the wasps and keep shooting at the body until it catch es fire. When the boss catches fire, it starts shooting. You can drop some bombs on it or try to avoid its shots and keep shooting until it’s destroyed. Also, with the machine gun, you can stay all the way to the right or left of the boss and shoot one wing and the body. All that ever comes out are the wasps. It takes longer, but it saves lives and boosts your score. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The easiest way to finish Level 3 is to stay in the middle of the screen. Don’t go looking for trouble, because you just might find it! About halfway through, a large boat comes onto the screen from the right-hand side. This boat releases several small gunboats; destroy it quickly by shooting at the engine in the middle of the boat. After this, another boat comes on-screen from the left. Destroy this also, because, right after the first boat appears, there are two large, green airplanes that fire a spread shot which is hard to avoid while also trying to avoid the boats. You may want to drop a bomb at this point and save yourself a lot of hassle. When you reach the end boss, there are four turrets that open and close while shooting at you. Kill these before you have to deal with the end boss. After you have destroyed these turrets, destroy the large engine that is at the bottom-middle of the end boss. Once this is destroyed, collect the P power-up to boost your weapon up to the maximum. Shoot at the turrets that pop up on the boss. When all of these turrets have been destroyed, the boss starts to explode—but he’s not dead yet. At this point, he fires at you from cannons. Destroy the can nons if you can, and use bombs if you have to. After the cannons are destroyed, he will fire at you from the top of his ship. You are now very close to killing him; just keep shooting and you’ll have it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the beginning of this level, there are a few green enemies that look like a large accordion. These can be tough, so avoid them if you don’t have much weapon power. Fly over the water, being careful to avoid the floating gun turrets. After the water sequence is past, there are two large, five-turreted tanks that travel up dirt tracks. If you are having trouble killing these tanks, try moving your ship all the way to the right side of the screen, so that only one tank is on the screen. This way, you can concentrate on one tank at a time. (You can do this because off-screen enemies won’t fire at you.) After you pass the two tanks, you reach the red eye building. This building holds two power-ups that you can release by shooting the eye in the building. When you reach the end boss, kill the two smaller extensions of the end boss on the far right and left of the main boss. Once you do this, you can concentrate on killing the end boss. Line up right in front of him, and fire away. When the boss starts to fire at you, move to the side and drop a bomb on him. Continue firing at him and dropping bombs until he dies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are a lot of flying jetcopters on this level, so the best weapon to have would be the machine gun, to give you the maximum amount of cover. Stay in the middle of the screen on this level, because you will have plenty of enemies shooting at you from behind. When you reach the end boss, it’s best to have the laser, so if you can, grab the laser just before you reach the end. An ideal spot for this would he the bridge with tanks lined up on it. Just before this bridge, there is a power-up ship; shoot it and collect the blue power-up. The secret to this end boss is to kill it fast, before it releases its spinning disks. Once the disks are out, it’s much more difficult to destroy the boss. Start by dropping a bomb on the boss; while this is going off, shoot off his wings. After you have shot the wings off, drop another bomb and keep shooting the boss, even during the bomb explosion. Continue this until you kill him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the first space level, and it begins with a meteor shower. Shoot the power-up ship that appears early on and grab the red power-up. Avoid the meteors as best you can until you reach land. Here, you will encounter small, quick ships that do their best to ram your ship. It is very helpful to have full machine guns and full homing missiles for this level. When you reach a point in the level when you see what appears to be a sateffite in a crater, immediately move up on the screen if you are at the bottom. This is because a large flying ship is now moving up behind you. Stay in the middle of the screen for the remainder of this level, because there’s another one of these ships that comes up from behind. When you reach the end bosses, the secret to killing them is proper bomb placement. Drop your first bomb to the left of the bottom boss once he starts to move. If done correctly, this bomb will affect both bosses. Once the bomb goes off, move to the top-right corner, because there are meteors that fly up from behind you. Once the bomb ends, drop another right in between the bosses as they cross. If done correctly, this will almost certainly kill both bosses; if not, one more bomb when they cross again will be necessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the most difficult level in the game. You are constantly attacked by flying ene mies that try to ram or shoot you, and there are crab-type enemies that crawl along the framework of the spaceship on this level and shoot at you constantly. The best way to sur vive this level is to have the most powerful machine gun, along with the most powerful homing missiles. If you don’t have either of these, drop a lot of bombs, or hide along the sides of the screen. When you reach the end boss, drop a bomb immediately. Shoot at the boss while the explosion is happening. Keep dropping bombs and keep shooting; there is no real trick to destroying this boss. Shooting the turrets first is useful. The machine gun at full power is definately the weapon to use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The laser beam is definitely the weapon of choice in Level 8, the last level of the game. If possible, having homing missiles here is a great help also. Try to stockpile your bombs, too; you’ll need them for the tough final boss. When you get to the end boss, don’t drop bombs on him while his armor is being loaded on him, because it will do no good. Wait until the boss has been completely loaded and is at the end of his track. When this hap pens, drop a bomb on him and start shooting. Don’t shoot at the boss, but shoot at his individual pieces of armor. Once you have blown all these pieces up, concentrate on the boss or any pieces that are flashing red. The best thing to do at this point is to stay at the edges of the screen and try to avoid the boss’s shots. When you get a chance, move in and drop anoth er bomb, shooting while the bomb explosion is on-screen. Keep this up to beat the boss and win the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Secrets (Jaguar version only) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Infinite Lives: Play through Level 1 until you reach the end boss. (That’s the hard part.) Press PAUSE to pause the game, then hold down 1, 4, 7, 3, 6, 9, and OPTION on the controller. Press PAUSE again to unpause the game and you’ll hear an explosion to indicate that the cheat is activated. You now have infinite lives.