Raiden Fighters Jet
Title screen
| Developer: | Seibu Kaihatsu |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Seibu Kaihatsu |
| Producer: | H. Hamada S. Mori |
| Music: | Y. Hashimoto |
| Program: | T. Saito M. Ishikawa I. Doi |
| Art: | T. Sasaki K. Morino T. Hatsuse Y. Gouma Y. Fuyukama N. Ohzeki N. Matsushita S. Ono N. Sugaya |
| Designer: | S. Yano T. Saito |
| Release date: | Arcade: August 1998[1] Xbox 360 JP: March 27, 2008[2] US: May 5, 2009[2] iPhone: December 13, 2012[3] PC: 2013[3] |
| Previous game: | Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive |
Raiden Fighters Jet (JP:ライデンファイターズJET, commonly abbreviated as RFJ) is a shoot em' up developed by Seibu Kaihatsu and released in 1998. It is the third and final game in the Raiden Fighters series. It is also the final game by Seibu. RFJ is known for its fast bullet speeds, energetic soundtrack, and large number of hidden secrets and easter eggs found during gameplay which are integral to playing for score. It was rereleased in 2008 for the Xbox 360 as part of the Raiden Fighters Aces collection, and again on PC in 2013 as part of Raiden Legacy.
For replay videos, visit the Video Index.
Gameplay Overview
Raiden Fighters Jet is a 2-button game with fourteen playable ships, plus two secret ships. The stages progress in a branching path depending on player performance, with a full run of the game adding up to seven stages. RFJ contains two different scoring systems - one in which medals follow the player and increase in value by merging with each other, and another that's activated mid-run via an easter egg. Bonus points are awarded under certain conditions, including destroying enemies quickly before they begin shooting, destroying multiple enemies simultaneously, destroying parts of enemies in a certain order, and grazing enemy bullets. Easter eggs and secrets are very important to score, primarily in the form of point and item-granting fairies which appear under certain conditions, and micluses, Seibu Kaihatsu's mascot, which come out from under specific locations in the scenery when the player hovers over them.
Controls
- A button (Press): Fires standard shots from the ship and slaves.
- A button (Hold): Charges the player's special attack.
- B button (Press): Fires a limited-use bomb.
Resources
RFJ uses lives to measure player health, and starts the player at two lives. There are no extra lives granted to the player at any point.
The player starts off with two or three bombs depending on the ship selected, which are replenished after respawning from death, regardless of how many bombs they had before. Additional bombs are granted by killing specific enemies.
Those playing for pure survival are advised to use a bomb if they feel death is unavoidable, in order to maximize how many bombs will be available to them throughout their playthrough.
Items
RFJ has four different types of items: power up items which increase the strength of the player's shot and switch it between laser type (L) and missile type (M) where applicable, bomb items which grant the player an additional bomb, slave items which grant the player an additional option ship, and medals which grant the player score. Every non-medal item grants 5,000 points when collected as a surplus item.
| Item | Description |
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Missile Powers-up the missile weapon. |
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Laser Powers-up the laser weapon. |
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Slaves Adds a slave. |
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Bomb Adds a bomb up to a maximum of 7. |
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Medal Medals that can be combined to create larger medals. Essential for entering Gold Medal Mode. |
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Gold Medal Medals that increase in value when collected one by one. |
Level Progression
Raiden Fighters Jet ditches the stage structure from previous entries. There are 12 stages with a non-linear progression based on the player's own performance (deaths and accomplishing other tasks). This means that not every level will be seen in a single run, as only a maximum of 7 can be played. After clearing, a run will be labelled the following way:
- ALL1: The last level is Level 35.
- ALL2: The last level is Level 50.
- ALL3: The last level is Real Battle Phase 2.
Upon entering Real Battle Phase 1, if the player is using any of the default fighters from Raiden Fighters 2 (or Hell Diver) a cutscene plays and they will control the Ixion for the remainder of the game. This Ixion is different from the one normally selectable in the player select screen, as it inherits the missile and laser weapons of whatever fighter the player was using before this. When using any of the other fighters, the cutscene doesn't play and the game continues as normal without changing to the Ixion.
The exact details about the level progression are presented here:
- If you die 2+ times in Level 5 or before, go to Level 10.
- Else, go to Level 15.
- If you die in Level 10 OR Level 15, go to Level 20.
- Else, go to Level 30.
- If you continue in Level 20 or before, go to Level 30.
- Else, go to Level 35, OR Level 40 if you destroy over 98% of enemies AND collect over 90% of medals in Level 20.
- If you die in Level 30 or before, go to Level 40.
- Else, go to Level 45.
- If you continue 4+ times in Level 40 or before, go to Level 35.
- If you die in Level 40 OR timeout a boss OR Gold Medal Mode is NOT active, go to Level 50.
- Else, go to Real Battle Phase 1.
- If Gold Medal Mode is NOT active in Level 45 OR you timeout a boss, go to Level 50.
- Else, go to Real Battle Phase 1.
- If you die in Real Battle Phase 1 OR continue in Real Battle Phase 2, XTB-1 (the True Last Boss) cannot be fought.
Ships
RFJ contains 14 standard ships and 2 secret ships. Each differs by speed, shot type, bomb type, base bomb count and hitbox size, as well as whether they have access to laser and missile weapons. The only new ship is the Ixion, a high mobility fighter with front-focused firepower, while Aegis IIC and Dark Sword from Raiden Fighters 2 have been removed.
Using 2P side gives some of the ships an alternate color scheme, (most of them have their original Raiden Fighters 2 palette), but this difference is purely cosmetical.
When the ship's animation is fully tilted by moving either left or right, the hitbox decreases in width (note that the actual hitbox dimensions are currently unknown).
| 1P | 2P |
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Included in the Speed bullet point is the speed measured in pixels by frame for both horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) movement.
Default ships
| Aegis IV | 1P | 2P |
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Straightforward fighter with easy to use weapons. Versatile laser that can be surprisingly strong when charged. Missile weapon is underwhelming and as a whole performance is average. | ||
| Beast Wing | 1P | 2P |
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Slow speed, high-firepower role. Easy to fall behind but wide shot and missile can make up for lack of routing to some degree. Flamethrower is really strong minus the long cooldown between shots. | ||
| Chaser 2000 | 1P | 2P |
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Above average speed and easy to use weapons. However, its main shot is among the weakest. Good usage of the charged missile attack is mandatory to survive. Laser weapon is fairly bad for stages but can be great against bosses. | ||
| Death Header | 1P | 2P |
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Standard performance, similar to Aegis IV. Both weapons are homing with laser being on the weaker side. Charged missile can do great damage when all 4 are locked on to the same target such as a boss. | ||
| Eraser | 1P | 2P |
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Remarkable fighter as far as raw damage goes. Unfortunately, the movement speed is slow and all of Eraser's weapons have very narrow coverage. Precise routing and knowledge of enemy placement is required in order to be played effectively. | ||
| Flying Ray | 1P | 2P |
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Fits a similar role to Chaser 2000 as a high mobility fighter with narrow shot. The main source of Flying Ray's damage is the laser weapon, particularly when charged, but it has to be used up close to destroy enemies quickly otherwise performs rather average. | ||
| Griffin | 1P | 2P |
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The strongest out of the default fighters from Raiden Fighters 2. Lasers have little to no cooldown, aim automatically and have piercing, much needed tool to make up for the lack of speed. Missile weapon is completely useless. Never worth using. | ||
| Hell Diver | 1P | 2P |
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The flagship fighter in Raiden Fighters 2 and one of the best performing in said entry, but considerably weaker in Jet. It is difficult to do good damage due to finnicky arsenal: main shot that spreads outwards, missiles with long cooldown and boomerangs can only hit specific angles, offering very little other than fast speed. | ||
| Raiden mk-II | 1P | 2P |
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Considered the worst fighter in every entry. Slowest speed, Plasma Laser is weak and difficult to control. The only way to mitigate lack of power is keeping the Plasma Laser at its initial state, which does higher and more consistent damage from any distance (not that pointblanking makes much of a difference for Raiden mk-II anyways). Bomb has a large radius (about on par with Judge Spear's) but it is severely crippled by low damage and delayed detonation. | ||
| Judge Spear | 1P | 2P |
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Top tier fighter with great damage and the strongest bomb in the game. Because all of Judge Spear's weapons are focused on the front, this can allow for a more "campy" playstyle while still disposing of enemies quickly. Despite of this, Judge Spear has a slight learning curve at first due to its movement speed and missile weapon hindering visibility. | ||
| Raiden mk-IIβ | 1P | 2P |
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Raiden mk-IIβ excels at pointblank damage, being one of the few fighters that can destroy the Level 45 boss without a bomb (alongside Miclus). However, moving away even a small distance drastically reduces damage. Bomb lasts very little and is generally unsafe. On top of that, the bombs themselves have collision before detonating (quirk from the original Raiden II), using them close to flying enemies with a high enough HP that kill the player upon contact (the vast majority of them) will cause them to cancel out part of the explosion. Furthermore, Raiden mk-IIβ is nigh unplayable without external autofire. | ||
| Blue Javelin | 1P | 2P |
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Somewhat easier to pick up than Judge Spear due to its medium speed while still having the strong bomb. Unlike most other missile weapons that have 2-3 volleys the player can control by tapping manually, all of Blue Javelin's missiles are released with a single tap of the A button, which can be a nuisance when trying to keep specific enemies alive. This also means Blue Javelin's playstyle is much more pointblank heavy compared to Judge Spear's. | ||
| Miclus | 1P | 2P |
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Extremely strong damage even surpassing that of a Slave. The bomb duration has been considerably shortened compared to Raiden Fighters 2 while retaining the same quirks (bullets can only be cleared by colliding with them), can lead to accidental deaths once invincibility wears off. | ||
| Ixion | 1P | 2P |
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Another one of the best fighters in the game. Wide shot that gets much stronger at close range and good laser weapon. Missile weapon is incredibly situational, the only real use it has is granting more points than laser when charged due to the missiles' explosions. | ||
Hidden ships
The only hidden ships are the slaves. To play as a Slave, simply hold the B button before starting a credit. Slaves retain the movement speed and bomb of the original selection.
| Fairy | 1P | 2P |
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The absolute best fighter in Raiden Fighters 2 for both scoring and just clearing, still very usable in Jet but retains the bomb nerf from Miclus. | ||
| Slave | 1P | 2P |
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The most popular choice in every entry. Easy to use thanks to strong wide shot, adjustable speed and smaller hitbox. | ||
Scoring
Full details: Raiden Fighters Jet/Scoring
Medals
The medal system in Raiden Fighters Jet can be summed up in two states: before and after Gold Medal Mode. At first, enemies always drop the same medals. These differ from the ones in the previous entries since collecting all of them never increases the value of the next one, neither does the number of slaves equipped. Instead, these medals can merge together into a higher value medal. When medals are dropped by airborne enemies, there are 2 ways the player can intentionally achieve this:
- Grazing bullets: This causes all the floating medals to follow the player and merge together in the process, for as long as the player is earning points from the graze.
- Having at least one slave: This makes floating medals follow the player's slave(s). Floating medals can then be guided to merge with ground medals speeding-up the process. It's worth noting that the hidden slave formations can affect this, and may even make it impossible to collect the medal until all of the player's slaves are destroyed.
From there, the player must perform the following steps to enter Gold Medal Mode.
- Build up a 2,048,000 points medal: By merging enough medals together this will create a medal worth 2,048,000 points, the maximum possible value. This is accompanied by a distinct sound effect.
- Make 9 medals appear: After picking up the maximum 2,048,000 points medal, medals will continue to spawn as normal until the player makes 9 medals appear on screen at once (e.g. by shooting a Miclus but not immediately picking up the medals). When done correctly, the medals will explode and all subsequent medals will appear as gold medals instead, fundamentally changing the scoring system.
- Gold Medal Mode: In Gold Medal Mode, the medals that merge together are replaced by the gold medals from the first 2 Raiden Fighters games, which have a base value of 10,000 points. Collecting all the medals on screen will increase the medal value by another 10,000 points, up to a maximum value of 100,000 points per medal. If a medal goes offscreen, the medal value will reset back to 10,000 for the next medal to appear on screen. Once the player has entered Gold Medal Mode, the game will not return to any of the earlier phases of medal collection. The only way to exit Gold Medal Mode is using a continue in Real Battle Phase 2.
Miclus & Fairy
Full details: Raiden Fighters Jet/Scoring#Secrets
Hovering over certain locations in the scenery will cause a Miclus, Seibu Kaihatsu's mascot, to appear. Continuously shooting a Miclus will release a total of 9 medals and destroying a Miclus awards an additional 100,000 points.
Fairies can appear when shooting down the main turret of a large ground enemy and waiting for it to advance far down on the screen. Picking up a fairy grants 100,000 points. Fairies will drop a bomb item if left on the screen for some time. However, they can also be killed by the player, reducing their value to only 10 points.
Both of them can also appear as rewards for fulfilling additional stage specific secret conditions.
Bonus Message Chaining
Certain actions will trigger various bonuses that grant points, indicated by a message at the top of the screen. When several bonuses are achieved in quick succession a multiplier is built up, which caps at x9. The multiplier is active as long as there is at least one message displayed on screen. The bonus messages are as follows:
| Bonus | Description |
|---|---|
| QUICK SHOT! (10,000-100,000 points) |
Destroy certain enemies before they shoot. |
| DESTROYED AT A TIME! (100,000 points) |
Destroy certain 2 enemies simultaneously. |
| DX BONUS! (100,000 points) |
Destroy all parts of the trains in Level 05. |
| DISCOVERED THE MICLUS! (100,000 points) |
Make a miclus appear. |
| DISCOVERED THE FAIRY!* (100,000 points) |
Make a fairy appear. |
| KILLED THE FAIRY! (10 points) |
Shoot down a fairy. |
*There are a few variations of this bonus where the fairies don't leave a bomb item, such as the DISCOVERED FAIRIES! bonus involving the crane at the end of Level 05 (fly over every part of the crane to uncover this secret) and the small tanks that can be ran over by the boss in Level 15.
It is worth mentioning that the chainable messages for the fairy and the miclus immediately appear when uncovering them, which then increases the multiplier. However, the actual score which effectively can be multiplied is gained only after picking up the fairy and destroying the Miclus (after shooting it for 9 medals).
Grazing
When bullets make contact with the player's graze hitbox (see the picture above) points will be awarded, this is accompanied by a unique sound effect and sparks appearing near the bullet. Points on a per-frame basis are granted, starting at 220 and increasing by 20 points every frame until reaching the max of 2,220 points per frame. The graze value resets back to 220 if no grazing is done for 60 frames. This is the same for all ships (including their slave variants) except for the Fairy. The graze value for the Fairy stays consistently at 2,220 points. This makes her accumulate much more score from grazing over the course of an entire run.
Stage Completion Points
Bonus points are awarded at the end of each stage based on three criteria: ability, medals earned, and technical points. Ability is a cumulative bonus based on enemies killed, medals collected, and bonuses chained. Medals earned is the number of medals collected during the stage, excluding medals blown up to enter gold medal mode.
Technical points are awarded according to the following criteria:
- Not dying in the level: five points
- Enemy destruction: up to three points, based on the number of medium and large enemies destroyed
- Discovering at least one miclus: one point
- Discovering at least one fairy: one point. However, killing a fairy will deduct a technical point.
The number of technical points for a level cannot exceed ten.
Strategy
Slave Formations
By collecting surplus slave items there are different slave formations the player can use, determined by the sum of lives and bombs when picking up the item. For ships that have access to the charged special attack the formations are only available when using it, otherwise the formations activate immediately. This system is mostly a carryover from the previous entries, the only change is that the formation activated by having a total of 1, 5 or 9 makes the slaves fire a thin, non-piercing laser.
| #Lives + #Bombs | Formation |
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| 0, 4, 8 |
Slaves positioned ahead of the player fire spread twin shots. |
| 1, 5, 9 |
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| 2, 6 |
Slaves move sideways and fire 3-way shots. |
| 3, 7 |
Homing slaves. |
Enemy Spawns
Achieving bonuses can cause extra enemies to appear during the levels, these hidden enemies can grant more bonuses and usually drop bombs. Almost every level in the optimal ALL3 route has these.
Level 01
- As the level starts immediately destroy the turret on top of the aircraft that is moving away (QUICK SHOT! bonus). This makes a stationary plane appear a few seconds afterwards that drops a slave item and a medal.
- Destroy all the midsize planes before they fire (QUICK SHOT! bonus). This makes an extra truck appear to the left near the end. Drops 4 medals and has the same bonuses as the truck on the right (QUICK SHOT! and DISCOVERED THE FAIRY!).
Level 05
- This train can drop up to 3 medals from the carts and grants a DX BONUS! when every part is destroyed. This spawn has more than one condition and is determined by the player's actions in Level 01. More specifically:
- Have a floating medal accompanying you that is above the lowest value from the previous level (2,000 points and onwards, floating medals worth 100 point don't carryover during level transitions).
- Alternatively, simply unlock the gold medals in Level 01.
- Fly over the first large round turret for roughly a second to achieve a DISCOVERED THE MICLUS! bonus. This makes a second plane appear shortly afterwards that has a QUICK SHOT! bonus and drops a slave item.
- Virtually the same as the bonus from before. Fly over the second large round turret for roughly a second to achieve a DISCOVERED THE MICLUS! bonus. This makes a second plane appear shortly afterwards that has a QUICK SHOT! bonus and drops a slave item.
- Achieve at least one DX Bonus!. This makes an extra truck appear before the crane that grants a QUICK SHOT! bonus and drops 2 medals.
- Achieve at least 2 DX BONUS!. This makes a second truck appear at the center near the end of the level that grants a QUICK SHOT! bonus and drops 2 medals. There are 3 trains in this level, so a mistake is allowed when triggering this enemy.
- Fly over the third large round turret for roughly a second to achieve a DISCOVERED THE MICLUS! bonus. This makes a large plane appear at the end of the level, drops a bomb and has a QUICK SHOT! bonus.
Level 15
- Achieve 4 QUICK SHOT! bonuses from the large planes halfway through the level, each of them also drops a bomb. This makes a large plane appear that has a QUICK SHOT! bonus and drops a slave item. The appearance of the 4 planes isn't exactly fixed and is simply based on how fast you destroy them, this means that aside from letting them fire this spawn can also be failed by only achieving 3 QUICK SHOT! bonuses.
Level 30
Level 45
Real Battle Phase 1
References
- Raiden Fighters Emporium
- System11 forum thread
- Primary info provided by SLRmercury, Plasmo and sht_ycw79
- ↑ Domestic and Overseas Arcade Game List 1971-2005
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Raiden Fighters Aces at MobyGames
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Raiden Legacy at MobyGames
