We will take on one more Saturn game before we move on and we will keep talking about games developed by Treasure. We have already covered Gunstar Heroes and Guardian Heroes, both of which are elite titles in their respective genres. Treasure proved that they were an elite developer once and for all when they released Radiant Silvergun, a co-op shoot ’em up (shmup) that really shows off Treasure’s versatility. Sadly this is a Japan only game for the Saturn and will cost you over 100$ but a very good HD remake is easily accessible on the Xbox 360 Marketplace for 15 measly bucks.

Radiant Silvergun might seem as your run of the mill vertical space shooter but the game has a few distinctive features that pull it away from the rest. The most obvious one is the fact that the game offers 7 ways of shooting right off the bat, anywhere, anytime in the game. You really won’t become good at this game until you learn what shot is best for every given situation. Again, the game is 2 player co-op which is always an amazing feature.
Other stuff that makes Radiant Silvergun special is the insane number of bosses in the game, in fact this game is almost like a boss gauntlet of a total of like 50 bosses, every boss more unique than the last.

You level up your 7 weapons based on how much you use them so you get stronger over the course of the game. Then when you get game over you can save your game, but that does not mean that you will spawn in the level you died in, it actually means that when you start the game again from the beginning but retain the weapon levels from your previous run. The levels range from 1-33 for each type of shot and beating the game from level one proved to be impossible for us. When we finally beat the game on our like 10th run our weapons had become so op it was kinda unfair. I think it was around level 20 and by that time we were sinking some earlier bosses before they could even shoot back. I can’t imagine how easy level 33 is…

The point is that even beyond the difficulty settings that ranges from very easy to ultra hard or something like that, Radiant Silvergun offers extreme challenge for clearing on level 1. If that proves to be too much, the game adjusts the difficulty of the game for you by retaining your previous weapon levels. So in your second run you start from level 5 which should be plenty easier. After that it starts at 9, then 12 and so on until you manage to beat the game. This makes the game accessible to newbies while at the same time it can be brutally difficult for hardcores who refuse to retain their gained levels and play on ultra hard. The game controls very well, the gameplay and bosses are top notch and some of the level designs and game mechanics are the most of unique stuff you will ever see in a shmup.

The game has a fun original setting that gets pretty epic by the end, and the game has to be one of the best looking Saturn game out there. The music is pretty good too but nothing amazingly good as i can remember.
Here is a fine 1 player lets play:

But anyway, i was just going to keep this short and talk about what i felt was special about Radiant Silvergun. The game has super tight gameplay, incredible level design, innovative bosses and the aesthetics are top tier. Radiant Silvergun has to be one of the best shoot em up games we have played and it gets high recommendation from us although I will say that in 2 player mode at least the game can suffer from significant slowdowns that affects the experience a bit.

Get this game on the Saturn if you can(even if you have to burn it) or get it for the Xbox360 in HD because Radiant Silvergun is an all time great game.

Gameplay 9
Visuals 9
Music 8
Lasting appeal 9
Is it gun? 9,5

Overall 9 an amazing game!

Thanks for reading, good times.