Raiden II

is the sequel to the arcade game Raiden.

Plot
Three years after the World Alliance Military is triumphant over the Cranassian invasion force of Earth, the remaining aliens on Earth have created an army on Earth to carry out their original mission to conquer the planet. To combat the collaborative army, a new weapon is developed for the Raiden - the previous ship designed to save the Earth three years ago - to use in another attempt to save the Earth.

Description
This game expanded on the original formula with enhanced graphics and two new weapons (Plasma Beam, which can lock on to a target but does damage slowly; Cluster Bomb, which does less damage than regular bombs but strike a larger area). There are 8 missions in the game, and the bosses are (unofficially) called Death Walkers, Ichneumon, Shadow Submarine, Fort Cyclops, Dread Bomber, Manticore, Whisper and Cranassian Headquarters.

Port
Raiden II was ported to Windows by Kinesoft and Microsoft Corporation. The Windows version uses Red Book audio for music.

In addition, this game and the original Raiden were released for the PlayStation as The Raiden Project.

Weapons
The player's weapons can be changed and enhanced in power through Power-ups which are released by certain defeated enemy crafts.

Main weapon
The power-ups once released fly around the screen and cycle in color from  red  to  blue  to  purple . Guns are at maximum power after collecting 7 power-ups. Collect different main weapon will only change your main weapon.

There are 3 main weapons:

Vulcan ( red ): the basic peashooter. Powering it up increases its spread. Useful but lacks power unless you can get close so most of the spread will hit.

Laser ( blue ): A straight firing laser. Powering this up will increase the number and potency of beams. This is the strongest in terms of power.

Plasma ( purple ): New to Raiden II. At first, it's a lot like the laser but firing until it turns into a single beam will enable it to lock onto what it hits, enabling the player to move freely while still causing damage. This is not a homing gun; you still need to guide the beam to the enemy which you want to hit. This is the most effective weapon of the game.

Missiles
They are fired automatically together with the main weapon and work on air targets. You don't have missiles at start or after death. Four power-ups are needed for full power. Like weapon power-ups, these cycle between the possible choices.

Nuclear Missiles (Yellow  M ): These fly straight and are quite powerful.

Homing Missiles (Green  H ): These pursue their target automatically. When not fully powered they are weak and slow.

Bombs
They cause damage and eliminate all enemy shots within the effect area. You can carry a maximum of 7 at once; grabbing an 8th will only give 5000 points.

Bomb (Red  B ): A concentrated explosion causes heavy damage to anything within its area. It takes about two seconds to detonate after releasing it so it needs to be timed well.

Cluster Bomb (Yellow  B ): Although not as powerful, this bomb has wider coverage. In addition, it also comes out faster and lasts longer. New to Raiden II.