One of the best shoot 'em ups ever just arrived on Steam
rockpapershotgun.comRadiant Silvergun is a little less well known than its successor Ikaruga, but it remains a shmup classic from Treasure, the masters of the genre. It was released in Japanese arcades in 1998 and it arrives on Steam today.
A vertically scrolling shmup, you're given three primary weapons, three secondary weapons created by combining them, and a sword with which to take down enemies. While Ikaruga is better known for its colour-based combat, Radiant Silvergun still rewards you for using the correct weapon for the right situation, and grants bonus points for killing three enemies of the same colour in a row.
Although originally released in arcades and only in Japan, Radiant Silvergun came to Sega Saturn shortly thereafter, and eventually arrived in the west via Xbox Live Arcade in 2011. It then got a Nintendo Switch port in September of last year, paving the way for today's PC release.
The PC edition has a few extra bells and whistles, including local co-op, online leaderboards and downloadable replays. You can also play online co-op using Steam Remote Play.
I'm probably not good enough to get the most out of Radiant Silvergun, just as with its sorta-sequel Ikaruga, but I'm looking foroward to giving its story and arcade modes a go and seeing how long I last. Radiant Silvergun is £16.6/$20
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