Raiden V: Director's Cut
Top Critic Average
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Raiden V: Director's Cut Trailers
Critic Reviews for Raiden V: Director's Cut
Raiden V: Director’s Cut quietly lands on the Switch with little fanfare, and yet feels right at home along with all the numerous other bullet hell shmups currently available on the system.
Raiden V: Director's Cut offers a wide variety of weapons and difficulties that are sure to keep players busy for some time. I could have used a few additional modes, ships, and weapons, but what's provided was enough for me to have a blast. Hopefully, the success of Raiden V: Director's Cut opens the floodgates for the bullet hell genre on consoles in the west.
A director's cut that for once makes a significant difference, with new levels and the return of co-op – although the underlying game is still slightly flawed.
Raiden V tries to add something new the shoot 'em up genre which is admirable, but unfortunately most of the ideas don't live up to expectations. The Cheer system may have worked better if you could let spectators view your game, and the running commentary is like trying to listen to couple arguing at back of a bus when you're at the front and have someone playing loud techno music on their phone right next to you. For a shoot 'em up there is a lot of content and the main mechanics have clearly been honed to perfection over the last twenty five years, making this a good, solid entry to the series.
Raiden V doesn't feature any crazy features or design choices that turn the shoot 'em up genre on its head, but it doesn't need to. Instead, it offers up an extremely polished shooter that sticks to the basics, while also having plenty of customizability due to a robust weapon system. There's enough missions and story branches to keep players busy for quite some time, and it's a great addition to any SHMUP fan's library.
Raiden V: Director's Cut has a nice rhythm and flow to it and the difficulty seems neutral enough to be appealing to most gamers.
All in all, it's a decent ride of a game and done really well, but I find that because of the high price point, only the shump veterans should look into getting it.
Raiden V: Director's Cut is a solid, retro-flavored shooter that does a lot right but doesn't innovate or advance the genre forward in any way.
