Ray’z Arcade Chronology from ININ Games brings us a trio of classic TAITO shoot ’em ups to PlayStation 4. Check out our Ray’z Arcade Chronology review!
Ray’z Arcade Chronology from ININ Games brings us a trio of classic TAITO shoot ’em ups to PlayStation 4. We’re getting RayForce, RayStorm, and RayCrisis, along with HD remasters for the last two games in the bunch. RayForce was originally released way back in 1996 for Taito’s arcade Taito F3 hardware before being ported to the Sega Saturn for a release under the Akklaim label under the Galactic Attack name.
It was followed by 1996’s vertical shoot ’em up RayStorm, which launched first at arcades and was then ported to the Sega Saturn as well as the original PlayStation home console. This marked the first foray into 3D territory for the franchise, which certainly changed the feel of its fast-paced action. This was followed by RayCrisis at arcades in 1998, another 3D shoot ’em up that is actually a prequel to RayForce. This one was also ported to Sony’s first PlayStation home console a couple of years later.
What can you expect for each of these games story-wise? In RayForce, governments across the world worked together to develop what was known as the Con-Human supercomputer, a huge contraption that was created to govern Earth’s environmental systems. As expected, things go terribly wrong when Con-Human becomes sentient and goes crazy. The supercomputer managed to wipe out almost all of humankind, with the remaining survivors escaping to space colonies. It’s now up to you to pilot a powerful spaceship to unleash an all-out attack against the now-infected planet.
In RayStorm, it’s the year 2219 A.D. Earth has expanded its control over many colonies through the galaxy, with all of them falling under the protection of the Star Federation. Unfortunately, the Star Federation ends up biting more than it can chew and ends up making a harsh decision, establishing martial law on all colonies. This did not sit well with people in the colonies, so they mutinied and fought for their freedom. Winning the war, they set their sights on destroying Earth. Your task will be to defend the planet to prevent its destruction.
The last game in the collection is the aforementioned RayCrisis, which is actually set before the events of RayForce. Because of this, it is set during the events leading up to Con-Human gaining consciousness and attacking all humans. Since it’s a prequel to RayForce, we know how things will end: Con-Human goes crazy and attacks all of humankind, forcing the survivors to escape into space. At least you’ll give it your best effort to avoid the antivirus as you try to stop Con-Human, right?
Since the three games are shoot ’em ups, you’ll control your spaceship with the left analog stick or the D-Pad. For RayForce, you’ll shoot with the Square or Circle buttons for a regular or rapid-fire attack and use your laser with the X button. The laser is of the lock-on variety, so you’ll need to first lock-on some enemies on the lower plane before you can unleash the laser. You can collect three power-ups to boost your power by one level or collect a super power-up to immediately increase a level. There are also power-ups for the laser to increase the number of lock-ons you can have as you use your sight.
RayStorm and RayCrisis keep the shot buttons and the laser button in the same spots, but they add the Triangle button for activating the SP attack – that is the special attack. The special attack is very useful since it can save you from impending doom while also dealing a ton of damage to enemies or bosses. There are two different ships for RayStorm – R-Gray 1 and R-Gray 2 –, and each one will have a different main attack, lock-on laser, hyper laser, and SP attack.
For RayCrisis, the main gameplay mechanics remain, but some extra elements are also thrown into the mix. There’s an Encroachment Rate meter at the upper right corner of the screen that will increase at a steady pace. You can lower it by destroying enemies and by keeping enemies from escaping. If the meter reaches 100%, you’ll be forced into battle with dis-human. There are also three different ships to choose from – WR-01R, WR-02R, and the WR-03, which you’ll need to unlock – that will have a different main attack, lock-on laser, hyper laser, and SP attack, so be sure to try them all so that you can find the one that is right for you!
Since we’re getting three old-school shoot ’em ups, there are some quality-of-life elements to take advantage of. You can use the quick save and quick load system to save your progress at any time. Thanks to this, if you make a mistake, you can just quick load to fix things. As long as you’re patient and you learn from your mistakes, you can certainly reach the end credits for each of the games. You can also change the difficulty for each area, increase your life total, select how many points are needed to get an extra life, enable or disable the continue option,
This collection of three games has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy, and it has a long list with a ton of trophies to work on. There are 22 Bronze trophies, 9 Silver trophies, and 4 Gold trophies. What will you need to do? Get a score of 3,000,000 points or more in RayForce, beat RayForce, launch a hyper laser in RayStorm, fully power up shot and laser in RayStorm, get each of the endings in RayCrisis, listen to all story BGM songs in RayCrisis, or press the SP attack button immediately after your ship is hit while the SP attack gauge is full in RayCrisis.
Ray’z Arcade Chronology brings us a trio of classic TAITO shoot ’em ups now on PlayStation 4. We’re getting RayForce, RayStorm, and RayCrisis, with the last two of the bunch offering their original version, as well as HD versions that smooth things up. There are also some quality-of-life elements that will make for a better experience, having the option of changing things such as the difficulty setting, deciding how many lives you’ll have, if you can or can’t continue after losing all lives, changing the aspect ratio, adding filters, and more. Ray’z Arcade Chronology is available on PlayStation 4 with a $49.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Ray’z Arcade Chronology review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by ININ Games.
