60. Radiant Silvergun (Switch)
As I get older, time has a tendency of getting away from me. I've discovered numerous times over the past few years that way more time has gone by since playing and beating some of my favorite games than I'd originally realized. For example, just last year I was shocked to fund out it had actually been nearly 8 years since I last played and beat one of my all time favorite games, Ocarina of Time. While not as long since I last played and beat it, Radiant Silvergun was another example of a game I adore that far too much time had gone by since I last sat down and throughly enjoyed playing through it.
Throughout the years and despite having literally hundreds of shmups played and beat under my belt, Radiant Silvergun remains the undisputed best shooter of all time, in my humble opinion of course. Sometimes I'll play some other really good shmup and think, "yeah, maybe it's as good or maybe better than Radiant Silvergun?" Then I play Radiant Silvergun only to discover there is simply no comparison. I'd first heard about Radiant silvergun back in my Gamestop forum days in the late 2000s and it became one of my most coveted games around the beginning of the 2010s. Along with a white Japanese Sega Saturn console, I bought a copy back in 2010 and it was one of those games that not only met my expectations, but left them in the dust. And still going on 20 years since first playing through this absolute gem, it still makes me smile and gives me chills with how insanely epic it is.
Radiant Silvergun is a near perfect game. It still has the most dynamic, fun gameplay of any STG game I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Your ship is literally a Swiss army knife of weapons that you can switch between just by pressing a different button on your controller. You have your standard forward shot, a rear shot, a diagnal forward shot, a couple of homing laser attacks, and in palce of a bomb attack, you have your ships kick ass sword which absorbs specific types of enemy bullets to charge. And when fully charged, this sword unleashing a near screen filling sword attack that obliterates practically eveything it touches, minus the tougher enemies and bosses in the game of course. Speaking of bosses, in classic Treasure fashion, Radiant Silvergun is more or less a nonstop boss rush of really cool and interesting enemy ships, all presenting their own series of challenges and strategies to overcome. The final boss specifically, is still the most amazing, epic, and original shmup boss of all time.
Going along with Radiant Silvergun's gameplay, the difficulty balancing and overall stage design in this game is near flawless. Like nearly all other shooters, this game is hard as hell, but the difficulty almost always feels just right. It's always hard enough to give you a fair challenge, but you never feel like you're under epuipped or unable to handle with what the game throws at you at any given moment. Before getting good enough again to beat this game finally, I literally played through the game easily a dozen times or more, and never once felt like i was bored or tired of playing through the same levels or sections.
I can't talk about Radiant Silvergun's gameplay without also discussing its scoring system. Like most shooters, your score goes up when you destroy enemies, but this is only part of the picture. Radiant Silvergun utilizes a chaining system where destroying three enemy ships of the same color in succession will create a multiplier that will make the value of additional enemies of that color continue to increase as long as you continue the chain. Accidentally destroying an enemy of a different color resets the scoring chain, making enemies their default, lower value until you start another chain. This system may sound familiar as a more streamlines and forgiving version of it was implemented into Treasure's other beloved shooter, Ikaruga, but that system has its roots in its older brother.
If I had to name flaws with this game, I will say there a few very minor enemy balancing issues and a few sections in this game are somewhat annoying, but looking at the big picture, these barely amount to a blemish on this masterpiece of a shmup. I'd also say the chaining system, while easy enough to ignore if you don't care about scoring, is also not perfect and even slightly annoying at times, but again, this is pretty minor gripes we're talking here, especially since you don't have to deliberately chain the enemies you destroy and can just kill whatever is in front of you regardless of its color.
Radiant Silvergun's presentation is just as near perfect as its gameplay. The visuals, including the enemy variety, boss design, and stages are all excellent. The updated versions of this game widely available on modern platforms still looks incredible and very faithful to the arcade and Saturn releases. Everything has been given a makeover and sharpened to make visuals pop just that more. Stages that scroll through the backgrounds are all very cool looking too, and at times, this game has a very amazing way of introducing bosses or sections that just add to how spectacular this game looks.
On top of the visuals, Radiant Silvergun also carries the honor of having one of the most interesting stories in any shooter I've ever played. The story mostly plays of in both cutscenes that play during menu inactivity, as well as briefly between stages and at the very end of the game. It's also delivered in an excellent, 90s anime style with over the top performances, a batshit crazy, but also pretty interesting plot, and just about everything else a fan of anime from this era of games would want. It definitely adds to how enjoyable this game is and is a big part of what Radiant Silvergun remains one of the most interesting and fun shmups I've played to this day.
The audio in Radiant Silvergun is also amazing. The game doesn't use some high energy techno soundtrack like most shooters, but rather utilizes an orchestral soundtrack that perfectly compliments how grand in scale and presentation everything else is in this game. At times the soundtrack in Radiant Silvergun is intoxicating with how catchy it is; one minute it'll get you pumped as hell during an insane boss battle and then next it'll have you feeling oddly sentimental. Bottom line is the OST was amazingly composed and stands as one of the best soundtracks in a SHMUP title ever created.
Sound effects are equally as awesome and epic as the excellent orchestral music. Many bosses let out roars like wild beasts (some even resemble animals too, which is a unique touch). There are excellent crunchy explosion sounds too, and weapons noises also fit the way they look too. As mentioned, there some animated cutscenes, as well as still frames of the characters during the game which are all voice acted in Japanese. The voice cast does an excellent job despite their performances being appropriately over the top for a game like this.
While it saddens me to say it, I'm fairly certain video game will never be as good as it was roughly between the mid 90s up until he late 2000s. Being a product of this magical golden age of gaming, another game like Radiant Silvergun will never happen again either. I'm practically certain I will never play a shmup as good as Radaint Silvergun. This is coming from someone who has played (and also loves) games like Battle Garegga, Mushihimesama Futari, and Dodonpachi. Radiant Silvergun will always remain the pinnacle of its genre and a testament to how unbelievably good gaming as a whole used to be 20+ years ago. (10/29/26) [44/50]
