Ray’z Arcade Chronology Review (PlayStation 4)

For our Ray’z Arcade Chronology Review, we go back in time and play a game that was originally released for the arcade in 1994 by Taito Corporation, RayForce revolutionized the “two attack layer” system, where the player can shoot in two separate layers: the same level as the player and a lower level beneath the player – a feature that will characterize the whole Ray series. RayForce is set in the distant future, when human governments construct a massive supercomputer, named “Con-Human”, in charge of governing the planet’s environmental systems. However, disaster strikes when a cloned human’s mind is linked with the system, resulting in the AI becoming sentient and insane. After the prolonged war, Earth has utterly ceased to exist, transformed into a planet-sized mobile fortress that is in fact Con-Human’s body, with the remaining survivors having found shelter in space colonies. Con-Human intends to seek out and destroy the colonies, erasing all remaining traces of old life from the universe and leaving only the new life that it personally created. Humanity responds by developing powerful warships to battle the oppressive machine. As the last remnants of humanity prepare for a climactic showdown, the fate of their species and the twisted world they once called home hangs in the balance.

Ray’z Arcade Chronology Review Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 801.8MB download size.
• Platinum trophy.
• Own in-game achievements.
• Three games in one – Rayforce, Raystorm, and Ray Crisis.
• Shmup gameplay.
• Brief description and release date of each individual game.
• The system-wide menu can be brought up at any time.
• Can rebind controls.
• Game settings – 8 difficulties (can change it for each individual stage), starting lives, extend d settings, attraction sound, continues on/off, guide language, burn-in reduction, and rapid-fire shots from PCB.
• Screen settings – display type (pixel perfect/fit to screen/fullscreen), smoothing, scan lines, background, screen boundary effects, screen orientation, and menu orientation.
• Gadgets settings – score info, lock-on analyzer, power-up info, game rank, current area info, and music info.
• Sound settings – music settings (original/layered), arcade background noise, and volume sliders.
• Other settings – ranking type display, ranking registration, achievement notifications, contextual rapid fire suppression, and auto-save.
• Excellent game manual with text and images.
• Full online leaderboards support.
• You can pull up leaderboards, settings, and manuals whenever you want.
• Quick save/load setting.
• The gimmick is the game has fully animated 3D backdrops and you can shoot them with your secondary laser whilst always shooting the enemies as normal.
• Massive boss encounters.
• Some of the best heads-up displays that I have seen in a Shmup with full score breakdowns happening live, a moving mini-map showing your route, Weapons info and so much more.
• Choose your own route after each stage.
• Raystorm has both the original game and the Raystorm Neon HD version.
• Fast loading times.
• Raycrisis has both the original version and the HD version of the game.
• Each game has two-player Co-op support and can be drop-in and drop-out.
• You get a choice of two ships each with unique shooting patterns in each game but the first original game.
• You can see the evolution of the game series as you go from top-down to 3D to full-on moving backgrounds and perspective changes.
• Charge up a special ability.
• Satisfying combat.
• Bullet hell elements.
• Support both analog and d-pad movement.
• You can freely move around the screen.
• Points pop up as you kill enemies.
• Power-ups drop from enemies.

Ray’z Arcade Chronology Review Cons:

• No playable tutorial.
• A lot to take in.
• Doesn’t support online Co-op.
• Can be hard to work out what you can and cannot shoot or what is actually an enemy.
• Very overwhelming-looking screen/hud.

Related Post: Robolt Review (PlayStation 5)

Ray’z Arcade Chronology:

Official website.

Developer: TAITO CORPORATION

Publisher: ININ Games

Store Links –

PlayStation