Treasure, one of the more interesting companies that broke away from Konami, eschews the traditional shooter genre with ideas of its own. Their last shooter, Axelay, is a classic, although I wasn't particularly fond of it (insert comment here, "what! Axelay was the best!") ... thought the mode7 was overdone.

Radiant Silvergun, which was an arcade release in Japan, epitomises these ideas with a single concept - No Powerups. Usually the gamut of shooters out there feature a shitload of powerups, used to make your ship bigger, badder, and meaner to survive the onslaught of enemies waiting to annihilate you. Instead, Radiant Silvergun takes the unique approach - have all different weapons at your disposal anytime, and pressing certain button combinations will unleash different weapons. For example, button A unleashes a straightforward shot, B unleashes tracking green shots, C causes a split shot with a mortar effect. Combinations of A+B, B+C and A+C add another 3 weapons (Homing lasers, Back shot and a lock on laser lightning thing).

The best one of all though is the Radiant Sword itself. Pressing all three of these will cause a sword to swing around your ship, which can nullify some enemy shots (believe me, you'll need this). What might not be so obvious is the smart bomb mode this has. Collect the floaty purple shots with the RSG, and it'll power up, enabling you to do a special move - You'll fall off your seat when you see it! .

What this entails is a blast happy time with a hint of strategy - certain enemies can be attacked different ways, and experimentation is a must to figure out how the hell to survive. The graphics in this game are drop dead gorgeous. Transparencies, notably tough as hell to program on the Saturn, abound. The polygonal bosses (as opposed to your sprite ship) are menacing, using every damn trick in the book to ensure your death. Portions of the game evoke anime, as with the end scenes and cut scenes.

Difficulty: Okay, now to difficulty. This is one of the most difficult shooters out there. Forget everything else, you'll need a damn miracle to survive this one on a quarter. Believe me, I've played my share of tough shooters in my lifetime (R-Type, Layer Section) but this one takes the cake. What you'll be facing against is a shitload of bullets, tons of flying lasers, and huge missiles hurling at you. In some instances, you'll have to contend with multiple oh-shit scenarios - i.e. bosses spew bullets at you, while simultaneously launching a tracking laser, on top of that, little ships come kamikazing toward you. If you manage to score a 100% killrate on the bosses, without continuing, you are truly the master of the shooter genre.

I tend to think the chances of achieving this is almost as bad as winning a huge $40 million jackpot in the lottery. However, don't be daunted at the difficulty - difficult shooters are a good thing, and you'll start sweating buckets. After I played this game, i had to lay down, take a tylenol, and watch the grass grow. There is occasionally slowdown in this game (not a lot), notably during the scenes were you have 100 billion bullets and lasers hurling toward you and the boss death scenes as they explode into million pieces of scrap metal.

Gameplay: Extremely good. You get a percentage score based on destruction bonus (some bosses can self destruct, which is good, but the points are low), combination score multiplier, etc. To top it off, in those oh-fuck situations, you have a gauge which allows you to unleash the huge ass killing sword, which kills almost everything within a 5 inch radius. This baby comes in handy, especially in those above mentioned tight situations. There are only about 5-6 stages in the game. This might seem low, but take in account that you have 4 mini bosses in each stage, one big ass boss in each stage, and stage segments are roughly long as Layer Section stages, you'll be sitting on the chair for some time. Some stages took me 10-15 minutes to complete, which is pretty long for a shooter. Also, you have the ability to save your progress, which is absolutely essential if you're trying to go for the one-quarter kill.

Quick menu explanation:
You have 3 choices - arcade mode, Saturn mode, and options. Arcade mode is no frills blasting action. Saturn mode has a storyline, Japanese speech, and anime characters. The options lets your configure game layout, music, difficulty, lives, etc. After beating the game, you will have access to options+, which allows you to have stage select and various other goodies.

Final thoughts:
Overall, a great damn game. Those shooter fanatics who think they're up to the challenge should do themselves a favour and pick up this game - don't miss it. Hardcore shooters will love it, others might not due to the insane difficulty level. I otherwise love it, this shooter really tests my reflexes and hand-eye coordination. Most of the game is in English, save for the storyline, which is in Japanese. Most amusing is the garbled messages that come up whenever a boss blasts onto the screen. If the boss doesn't kill you, the messages will...
Treasure strikes it again with a winner.