Raiden Fighters 2

Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive (ライデンファイターズ2) is a 1997 scrolling shooter arcade game by Seibu Kaihatsu. It is the direct sequel to Raiden Fighters, which is part of the Raiden scrolling shooter game legacy. This game shares the same intense gameplay as its predecessor, as well as expanding on the concepts that defined it. It is followed by Raiden Fighters Jet, the third and final game so far in the series.

The later Raiden Fighters 2 - 2000 Operation Hell Dive clone runs on cheaper hardware and features notoriously inferior sound than the original. A newer single-board version was released for the US market. This version of Raiden Fighters 2 is a stand-alone version that has all fighters available immediately.



Plot
Raiden Fighters 2 takes place four years after the events of the first game. In the aftermath, a few surviving guerrilla groups gather under a dictator. Together, this rogue group forms a new nation and launches a salvo of attacks on the protagonist fighting forces. In response to these surprise attacks, the government recalls the previous troops into action once again, outfitted with retooled ordinances.

Gameplay
Like most games in the shoot 'em up genre, Raiden Fighters 2 has simplistic controls. A Fire button shoots the player craft's weaponry. A Bomb button unleashes an attack that deals massive damage to all enemy targets caught in its blast, as well as nullify enemy firepower. Bombing is most often used as a panic attack to save the player from death.

A new feature introduced in Raiden Fighters 2 is the Hybrid Attack, available only during a two-player game. This attack is initiated by both players unleashing their charged special attacks near simultaneously while within very close proximity within each other.

Scoring has been given a significant upgrade from the first game. Medals, bonus items that increase player score, appear far more frequently in Raiden Fighters 2.

Stages
There are a total of seven stages, divided into three Missions. Stage environments include swamps, beaches, and high in the sky on a strafing run against very large bombers. Each of the first two Missions ends in a long boss encounter. The first two stages in these Missions are randomly ordered. The final Mission pits the player against an attack base and an experimental attack aircraft as bosses.

Fighter Craft
The seven standard aircraft in this game are mostly overhauls of their original Raiden Fighters incarnations. Some craft had their secondary weapons switched around, while others had theirs revamped. The rest are new to this game, complete with new weaponry.

There are even more secret fighters available in the game. This game makes use of a time-release feature that makes more fighters available for play depending how long the arcade machine had been running since initial boot-up. Several newer single-PCB versions of the game eliminate the time-release feature outright and make all the fighters available for selection immediately. Secret ships include the Miclus (a collectible score item) and the second-player colored variation of the Raiden mk-II and Judge Spear, each with different weaponry and attributes than their counterparts.

All but two of the hidden craft in this game reappear in the sequel Raiden Fighters Jet.

Music
The music of Raiden Fighters 2 is composed in the techno style with some instances of drum and bass (the theme of the boss stages). The soundtrack was composed by Go Satoh. His past works include the soundtracks of Raiden II, parts of Raiden DX, Viper Phase 1, Senkyu (Battle Balls in the USA), and the first Raiden Fighters.

References to the Original Raiden Games

 * In addition to their roles in the Raiden Fighters series, the Miclus and Fairy are also pick-ups in the original Raiden series. The Miclus gives the player 10,000 points (50,000 in Raiden DX if the player picks it up while it jumps). The Fairy gave the player 10,000 points and released power-ups when the player dies.
 * When playing a two-player game using both Raiden ships, a classic trick from the original Raiden series appears. When the Raiden mk-IIβ shoots the Raiden mk-II, the Raiden mk-IIβ's shots turn into very damaging star-shaped projectiles with their trajectories changed into random directions covering a wide arc in front of the Raiden mk-II. This trick is also present in Raiden Fighters Jet.