The vertically scrolling plane shooter genre (often called "sh’mups") is one of my favorites; it’s easy for the player to learn, encourages both good mental skills and quick reflexes, and when done properly allows the player to do a lot of customization of their plane and weapons. Some games in this genre are well known, like Tyrian. Others are a little more obscure in some circles, such as Raiden... but this collection of three Raiden Fighters series games is one of the better offerings in the genre, and available at a mere $20.

Like most games in the genre, the Raiden Fighters games on this disc (1, 2, and Jet) send your plane scrolling upward along a fairly linear stage. You have two goals; dodge enemy fire and collisions, and shoot them down. It’s classic 2D gaming, very easy to pick up and play. Hailing from the early 90s, these games do not feature fifty hour epic storylines; they focus on ’score attack’ play that encourages you to perform better, faster, and more accurately. This might sound like a shallow formula for a game, but each Raiden Fighters game has several ships you can select from and they all play genuinely differently. Some are extremely fast but have a narrow range of fire, while others are slower and can blanket the screen in projectiles. Others still merge these two ideas to meet somewhere in the middle, and there are even some hidden ships to be had; the game’s manual tells you how to get most of them. This variety keeps things fun, either on your own or playing with a friend.

These three games are pretty straightforward ports of their arcade releases, though the developers have gone to some lengths to give you lots of options to play with regardless. You can limit yourself to a certain number of continues (or put them on unlimited "Free Play"), set the game’s plane roster to reflect specific sub-versions of that title, save replay movies of your run, and more. Particularly noteworthy are the graphics filters, which give you a lot of ways to customize the display for your TV. Some filters are useful and make things genuinely look better, while others are more playful; you can play with the colors inverted, have RGB separation going on to make the display seem a little like a dying arcade monitor, and so on. These are all either useful or fun, so Raiden Fighters Aces gets a nod in doing retro-game graphics right.

Unlike many modern games in the genre, the Raiden Fighters games are not about ’bullet hell.’ There certainly will be times where you have to do very precise dodging at high speeds, but this is mostly during boss battles. The real emphasis is on learning stage patterns and what moves best fit your chosen plane and weaponry, and while I wouldn’t call it an easy game by any means it’s generally not cruel to the player. Very well paced, you’ll find yourself making reasonable progress through each stage and having a good time throughout.

There are two faults worth noting in this compilation, however. One is inherent to the nature of the games; these are ports of arcade titles, so it doesn’t take long to play through any one of them and much of your replay value will come from seeking higher scores and beating it again on fewer continues. The other is more significant in that there is no online play. Mind you, there are some online functions; you can download replay movies from other players, using their tactics (and avoiding their mistakes) to improve your own run. The lack of online play is unfortunate, but not a crippling problem.

At $20, this is a pretty good deal. All three games on the disc are fun alone or with a friend, and the variety of ships that all play genuinely differently from one another keep things interesting. If you have any interest at all in the genre, you really should get this; it’s a lot of fun, and proof that old-school gaming still has a lot of joy to offer to us even today.