Raiden V: Director’s Cut

A director's cut that for once makes a significant difference, with new levels and the return of co-op – although the underlying game is still slightly flawed.

Raiden V tries to add something new the shoot 'em up genre which is admirable, but unfortunately most of the ideas don't live up to expectations. The Cheer system may have worked better if you could let spectators view your game, and the running commentary is like trying to listen to couple arguing at back of a bus when you're at the front and have someone playing loud techno music on their phone right next to you. For a shoot 'em up there is a lot of content and the main mechanics have clearly been honed to perfection over the last twenty five years, making this a good, solid entry to the series.

It had been a while since I last played a Raiden game and Raiden V: Director's Cut was pretty enjoyable after reacquainting myself with the series, my eyesight issues aside.  The fact you can beat the game on any difficulty can seem a tad off putting, but this is actually a good concept for newer players so they can experience the story then increase the difficulty when they start to improve so they can get a better ending.  That combined with the boss challenges give quite a bit of replayability  to the game and being able to take things a stage at a time makes it great to play in short bursts.  Overall a pretty good entry for the series.