Symphony PC/GOG 8.5/10 This is a fun shooter where an evil entity steals your music and makes you face his 5 demons who appear 3 times as he tries to take over the world, and your soul, through your music. You face waves of enemies who appear in formations and have up to 4 weapons to fight them with, that can be upgraded based on the difficulty settings of each song you play and how well you defeat the enemies. Technically you can't permanently die, but ever hit you take weakens you and your firepower decreases, and if you die, a re-gen will cost points. Also on boss fights, if you run out of time, the boss escapes and you have to play the song from the beginning again to defeat it. If a boss demon attaches itself to your song, every time you play the son (in the game) it will be there until you clear the 3rd form of the 5th boss. As you defeat the bosses, harder enemies spawn in the songs/levels, and the game gets harder. The score you receive at the end of a level, and another score based on the time of the level, are used to select and power up weapons. You can have 4 weapons selected at any song and can change them from song to song, but you have to have multiple versions of a weapon, if you want to use it multiple times. There are rare items you can acquire that will make the game easier, but its random as to getting them. I acquired at least one rare item after beating the game. Playing at higher difficulties will yield more points and you will need to power up your weapons if you want to win the game. The game has been made easier since I played it on Steam. The 3rd form of the fourth boss took 4 level 5 (max) weapons to beat on Steam and led to many people rage-equitting the game. I defeated the 5th boss, 3rd form, with 2 level 4 and 2 level 3 weapons. I also beat the game in much less time on GOG, less than 10 hours whereas the Steam version took over 15 hours to beat. I still enjoy playing the game and it is a fun shooter. I dunno if it goes on sale for $2.49 anymore on GOG, but its a fun shooter worth maybe even $5, if you're into music based shooters, and yes, my XBOX 360 controller works fine with the game.
It's a fun shooter, You gain credits by playing it and using continues. You can modify the number of ships and bombs you get per credit. I finished it with max ships and bombs after playing it a few times and earning more credits. I don't like the fact there aren't limited credits and that you have to play through the levels twice in a sitting to beat the game. I don't like the fact 2 player is a mode you have to choose in the beginning and that it isn't drop in/out. I don't like shared credits either. But it's Raiden and its fun, for the $6.99 I paid, it was worth it. There are better shooters, but this game is fun and even after beating it you can up the difficulty if you choose. If you like shooters, get it on a sale.
I took 2 stars off because there's no full screen support, and it has limited credits. That having been said, it was worth the $5 I spent on it. Arcades, if you can find them, have games in less than stellar condition, and charge upwards of $0.50 per credit. Had I seen a Raiden 3 arcade machine, I'd easily have spent $5 playing it. Yes, there are emulators where you can illegally play better shooters for free, and there are better shooters on GOG. I still like having this in my library. It is far from the best arcade shooter I've played, but it isn't the worst either. If you can get it for $2.50-$5.00, and like shooters, this is a good buy.
These are the DOS versions of the game. They are NOT the versions in the GFWL set. I can't even get my 360 wired controller to work right in the game. I'd suggest avoiding this bundle. I wish I did.
This is the best of the Pro Pinball series, with the only exception being the "original" Pro Pinball (the Web), which is not compatible with newer PCs. The graphics may be a bit limited and dated, but the table is very fun, and can be set up to run with a controller, IIRC, although many people may like the "default" settings for the game. The Pro Pinball games as a whole are very entertaining and worth owning by anyone who likes pinball. Remember, once you buy the tables, you won't be putting quarters in every game, and you will be playing many games.
