Raiden NOVA | 雷電NOVA | 雷電新星 Reviews

Anyone around in the 1990s will likely remember the original arcade experience in amusement halls, bowling alleys, fish & chips shops etc. - That experience remained largely unchanged for almost three decades... Until now. If you came here expecting that two player capable arcade cabinet / couch vertical scrolling shooter experience, don't. Nova brings a more open twin-stick shooter very much akin to the likes of Vampire Survivor. How does that work out? As someone who got hooked on games like Raptor: Call of the Shadows and Tyrian because of Galaxian and THIS FRANCHISE, I find myself pleasantly surprised. Raiden Nova plays like Super Stardust in the Raiden Universe with shops to purchase new fighters and upgrades with ingame currency - RELAX! No live service shenanigans to had here, unless you're referring to an online scoreboard where you can compare with other players on how you stack up. There are two modes of play for you to grind for your shopping credits and clock a high score. Arcade is where you progress and unlock new stages to be played in Unlimited. Arcade rounds count down from five minutes and conclude with a boss fight complete with cinematic entrance. Unlimited count up and ends with a Game Over instance (outta HP). Either way every enemy you eliminate will earn XP for that given run, where weapons and abilities are offers upon leveling up. Like prior games where you'd find ship packing weapons can be typically found carrying bombs and health refills. Throughout a given run you have objectives posted, that when completed drop a lootbox containing upgrades, bombs, HP refills and credit bonuses. Special objectives will award credit bonuses and upgrade gems (that work like a level up). Raiden Nova won't be for everyone, but for franchise diehards open to the idea of mixing things up with a Rogue-lite twin stick shooter experience... It's definitely an interesting take on the franchise. Unless you fall into that camp, it could be a tricky sell outside of a Steam Sale. Whether or not you wait for a sale, it's definitely a highly engaging time waster for an arcade chillout session that won't skimp out on a challenge.