Viper Phase 1
Title screen
| Developer: | Seibu Kaihatsu |
|---|---|
| Music: | Go Sato |
| Program: | Yoritaka Kasai |
| Art: | Toshinobu Komazawa |
| Release date: | May 1995 (Japan) |
| Previous game: | Raiden DX |
| Next game: | Raiden Fighters |
Viper Phase 1 is a 1995 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu for arcades. Often regarded as a spin-off or spiritual successor to the Raiden series, the game shares many similarities in terms of gameplay mechanics and design. Viper Phase 1 is the first game developed for Seibu Kaihatsu's SPI system board, featuring detailed sprite-based graphics and elaborate explosion effects.
The initial release (known as OLD version) failed to gain acceptance among many players due to its unorthodox weapons system. Three months later, a revised NEW version was released, featuring adjustments that brought the gameplay closer to Raiden, such as making sub-weapons permanent.
Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 in December 2024.
For replay videos, visit the Video Index.
Contents
Gameplay Overview
The game consists of eight stages and supports two-player simultaneous play. There are no extends. The player's craft is controlled using an 8-way joystick and two buttons (Shot and Bomb). There are two types of shots: a main weapon and a sub-weapon (with four varieties of the latter), and pressing the Shot button fires both simultaneously.
Controls
- A: Fires the player's weapons.
- B: Activates the player's bomb.
Weapons
| Icon | Name | Function |
|---|---|---|
Items
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Rank
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Loops
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Scoring
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Strategy
See (Template Page)/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.
This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.
(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)
Story
The year is 2050 (Cosmic Era), long after humanity embarked on a massive space colonization project in search of a "second Earth." Having settled across various star systems, humanity developed unique cultures and scientific advancements, yet simultaneously fell into conflict, sparking a succession of large-scale interstellar wars. The flames of war eventually reached Earth itself; a rebel force from another star system—possessing technology far superior to Earth's—brought a massive fleet led by a space aircraft carrier into Earth's orbit and demanded unconditional surrender. In response, the Earth Defense Force launched a top-secret operation codenamed "Viper Phase 1," the plan for which was to infiltrate the enemy carrier, gather data, seize a new type of enemy fighter, and then use that fighter to destroy the carrier.
Development History
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Version Differences
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Trivia
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Gallery
See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.
Other
We have support for wikitables, giving us the potential to add lots of cool info in a small box on the page somewhere, but we are not using them at the moment. I'm just leaving this here so we can have it handy in case we decide to actually use them. Feel free to not use this section.
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