ESP Ra.De - M2 ShotTriggers

[The Boston Crab]

ESP Ra.De ("esp-raid")

PS4 and Switch

Long-lost CAVE bullet hell shmup from 90s decade.

First ever console release.

M2 ShotTriggers on porting duty.

Released via JPN eShop and PSN 19th December 2019.

[madhair60]

good game tbf.

[The Boston Crab]

I bought this off the Japanese eShop so it's already available and I've played a couple of hours. This game goes hard as fuck. Absolutely awesome. I've played it a bit on FBA before and it seems to run similarly well but it's all the little M2 touches and options which make it, as well as obviously having it in handheld and scoreboards and downloading other people's replays and stuff. They also fixed the arcade mode bug which meant you could milk the bosses almost infinitely so playing for score became meaningless. A really nice Novice Mode as well, not completely joke tier but a fun mode even if you're very familiar with Cave and a godsend mode for beginners/casuals. I'll say this is already in my top five of the year and easy top three shmup on Switch alongside Rolling Gunner and probably Ikaruga.

It's also from the pre-insanity Cave days of Dodonpachi and the original Espgaluda. Amazing games, loads of bullets and cool crazy patterns but not totally overwhelming or with insanely deep scoring strats. It's basically dodge and shoot. It's a bit of a Cave outlier, as well, in its presentation. Weird kind of shadowy corporate vibe and stages set in high schools and shopping malls and it's also set at Christmas! Makes a change from the military shooters and that.

PS4 version is coming tomorrow, I believe.

[remedial_gash]

Hold on Bosto, do you actually understand the scoring? I've read guides, played it a fair bit in mame and it's totally beyond my ken. That and it seems to me at least, to be a million times harder than espagaluda 1 & 2

[The Boston Crab]

Well, I'm trying to show its accessible side! You're absolutely right that there's definitely a lot of depth and skill to the scoring but it's not as strict as DOJ chaining which has been my focus for the past month or so. There doesn't seem to be any proximity mechanics, either. I might well be missing a lot but I thought it was about Power Shot to spray an enemy with bubbles and normal Shot to kill and spawn gems. Easier said than done!