Arguably some of the best shmups from the 90s has to be those from the Ray series. This new collection, developed by retro port masters M2, does fitting tribute to these classic games.
The package includes three games; RayForce, RayStorm and RayCrisis. All three are vertical scrolling shmups and have two layers of combat. The main plane of attack has regular weapons but the other layer allows for the always incongruous homing lasers.
In many ways, this duality to the levels harks back to games like Xevious. Although Xevious required pinpoint accuracy with your bombs, the Ray games allow you to lock on to swathes of enemies to be dispatched in a very satisfying homing laser barrage.
You also need to keep an eye on the lower layer, as enemies are often spawned there and taking them out with your homing lasers first makes things a lot more manageable when the action kicks off.
In fact, this layered approach was actually and overtly messaged in RayForce when the game was released outside the arcades, with the game being named to Layer Section (although this was due to trademark issues). However, this layered aspect was made less restrictive in the subsequent games, as you could also use your homing lasers to lock on to enemies on the same plane as you.
The first game retains much of the shmup lineage of that era and retains its stylized 2D pixel art graphics, the later instalments RayStorm and RayCrisis took a more polygonal approach, which is something this collection emphasizes with the new HD versions.
The later games are also a lot more involved in terms of their complexity, but my favorite is still the first game, RayForce. Partly down to the story but mostly down to the 2D pixel art.
The story is pretty bleak though, humanity creates a massive supercomputer called Con-Human which when linked with a cloned human brain goes insane and starts to wipe out all life on Earth. The result is the near extinction of humanity, with Con-Human hollowing out the Earth into a giant space fortress.
Naturally, we send our last ship the RVA-818 X-LAY to destroy Con-Human and, in turn, destroy Earth. So even when you “win” the result is pretty tragic and bittersweet.
What accompanies all of this is a fantastic musical score by Tamayo Kawamoto, or simply known as Tamayo. Her music for these games is as iconic as the homing lasers your ship emits.
So if you ever wondered what made the Ray series of shmups so special, then this collection should hopefully help you with that, along with an abundance of homing lasers.
Ray’z Arcade Chronology
Platform: Switch (Reviewed), PlayStation 4
Developer: M2
Publisher: ININ Games
Released: 30th June 2023
Price: $49.99
Score: 8/10
Disclosure: ININ Games sent me a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. In addition, while I worked with M2 on Assault Suits Valken Declassified, I was not involved with this game in any way.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
Read the full article here
