Ray'z Arcade Chronology

Just how many re-releases are there? Many Psikyo classics were released on mobile like more than once with later releases being based on the Zerodiv ports. The same can go for Taito's Rayforce on modern consoles and Deathsmiles on PC with the City Connection port being part of the compilation with DLC characters for the first game. Even the original Darius is guilty of the same thing, one that is Arcade Archives version and the other being part of the compilation made by M2. A regular audacity ever since the past times is how overpriced Taito games are.

City Connection has plans for modern console releases of several Taito arcade classics although Puzzle Bobble 2 was already in Arcade Archives under ACA Neo Geo but that was a little bit graphically inferior to the other arcade version of the same game whose hardware is 32-Bit. A cool thing about the S-Tribute release of Rayforce is that you can set the in-game screen orientation without setting the external UI to be in the same screen orientation as the in-game. Since the game is based on the Saturn version, you get superior soundtrack although the graphics are inaccurate in horizontal screen mode and the S-Tribute version doesn't fix the flaws the Saturn version has. The real concerns are the input-lag and screen shimmering and City Connection was aware of the input-lag issue.

What can the upcoming M2 version do besides the fact that all the games in the upcoming compilation game, Ray'z Arcade Chronology are based on the arcade versions? Will there be a consumer mode for the all games that have different game modes? G-Darius HD had Ver. 2 and Consumer Mode you can choose from in addition to the initial arcade version. Like G-Darius HD, Raystorm and Raycrisis will have a similar treatment from M2, so other than the games being basically upscaled, the rest of the graphics are the same. The mobile version of Raystorm is said to have Hi-Res HUD and rearranged Stage 1 BGM as the exclusive additions but it's a shame that the upcoming compilation game will not have that Hi-Res HUD for Raystorm Neo HD.

One exclusive bonus is that you'll be able to try out the prototype, R-Gear, which has only one stage. Suffice to say, it's something as experimental as G-Darius Exhibition from G-Darius HD Steam version, the deepest part of the compilation.

As for the choice of modern console ports of Taito's arcade classics, you can choose to go for either the City Connection port or the M2 port of Rayforce. It's unexpected for the upcoming compilation game, Ray'z Arcade Chronology to be the next project from M2 and it's going to be released in March next year. Only time will tell what else will they work on in the future.

Rayforce for IOS obtained

This series may seem to be the least popular one from Taito as the more popular ones are likely to be Space Invaders and Darius series. Other popular classics are Puzzle Bobble, Bubble Bobble, etc. but nowadays, those series are like on life-support due to leaving the developments for later generations to the wrong developers and that looks like the plans are done wrongly for Puzzle Bobble and Bubble Bobble.
For Rayforce, it was technically nice back then graphically as well as how the gameplay was made technically. There were tons of Mode-7 like features that looked interesting. However, from the technical specs of the arcade hardware back then, it might have superceded the Super Famicom/Nintendo that the game was suited to be ported to the 32-bit consoles as there were like more colors and stuffs on screen at once with no slowdowns whatsoever. And speaking of slowdowns, the IOS version is plagued with those, ruining your concentration. Another problem is the Arcade Mode whose ship movement is like crap compared to Iphone Mode which is polish but then, both modes should be polished in the first place with Iphone Mode having arranged soundtrack and better sound effects taken from the Sega Saturn version. Lastly, the price is unacceptably expensive for Raystorm and Rayforce for IOS as those two games are actually the old-school games from the 90s compared to Darius Burst SP in which we have no complaints about the price knowing that Darius Burst is the recent one.

Rayforce for Iphone/Ipod Touch

After the CCA Fair that took place today this morning, I stumbled on this port that was tweeted by Taito. They were not kidding about this port of Rayforce. Seems that Cave Co. Ltd was inspired by Taito’s creation action when it comes to shmup games on the Iphone and therefore, the controls work pretty well. However, there’s one bastard that is going to hold you back a bit. The game costs about $12 estimated as if you’re playing this on Xbox Live Arcade.