The game doesn't look good on small screenshots, I'm aware

It's just a little bit special, you know. Carefully tearing off the seal of the jewel case, taking a good look at the box art, the disc, the case inserts. All in the know it's a new Dreamcast game you're holding. Booting up the Dreamcast, checking your VM's for space, while coming across the save files from Baldr Force EXE, Chaos Field and Trizeal..it's a trip down memory lane. These 'new Dreamcast game' reviews a couple times a year are rather special for me, I admit. That said, most reviews I did were of games that turned out to be rather disappointing. Out of the bunch above it was probably Baldr Force EXE I appreciated the most, even while it was in Japanese. The last two I 'did' were Chaos Field and Trizeal. Both 2D vertical shooters, both a little disappointing.

Now onto Radirgy. A game that 'existed' for quite a while in the Arcades but only was announced for the Dreamcast last December. A game that wasn't just an ordinary 'space' shooter like both Chaos Field and Trizeal were. Cartoonish graphics, a very fresh style and a smart 'mobile phone' theme were the things that made Radirgy (originally called Radilgy or Rajurigi, but who cares) break the mould. Now the Dreamcast version of Radirgy arrived, it's time to take a good look at
it and see if it lives up to its expectations.. a good arcade game doesn't automatically makes a good console game, right?

Select one of the 3 different ships and one of 3 styles

The first boss

Indeed. The first thing I noticed when I started playing Radirgy was that very little was added to the Arcade game. There's just the basic arcade mode, a couple of options and that's, well, it.Now let me get back to December 2004, the month that I reviewed Mile-stone's last Dreamcast game; Chaos Field. Here's what I had to say;

'An enjoyable game, badly let down by a lack of modes'
'The absense of a 2P or ranking mode is a real shame and certainly drags down the value'

It's a bit of a mystery (maybe not) but for some reason Milestone made exact the same mistakes in Radirgy. There's no multiplayer mode (Hmpf!), no 'boss' mode, no 'art gallery', no nothing. Weeeeeell, yes..alright, you can save your high-scores now, even with different classes for each ship. It's not much, but hey. Another thing that disappointed me was the bordered display. The borders are -sadly- huge. It's only after you turn your tv on its side (provided it's safe) and select the 'Tate' option (instead of the standard 'Yoko' one) you can truely appreciate Radirgy's graphics.

'He's a bubble boy! He lives in a bubble!'

Now I got the niggles out of the way, let's talk about the actual game. Radirgy features a selection of 3 ships, all with three different weapon classes, effectively supplying you with a choice of nine different ships. Not bad. The story of Radirgy is a bit of a mystery to me, but the most important thing you should know is that it basicly revolves around a guy playing a (or the) game on his cell-phone. Every once in a while he received messages from various persons with either interesting level information, chit chat or -don't you just hate it- spam!

The interface is very nicely done with 'battery power' as your life supply, the 'signal' strenght your weapon strenght and a special 'BBS' (are they referring to bulletin board service?) mode in which you'll gain special powers for a short while. It's all a bit confusing at first but after playing the game for a fair while, you should have no problems.

As for the rest of the graphics; they look fine, sir. Naturally, they don't look very realistic but that's the whole appeal. If you want realistic graphics Under Defeat will be more up your alley. Note that the screenshots on this page don't do the game justice. Most sprites are very tiny and just don't look good on small screenshots such as these. The animation on these sprites isn't too bad either. Especially the player ship is animated in way that gives it a very cool 3D-ish look. The bullets that fly your way are a little disappointing, perhaps. Most enemies use the same kind of bullets and the bullets themselves are a little plain. The bosses are done brilliantly though, with some original themes. The fourth boss is a flying car garage and launches cars in your direction!

The levels are somewhat varied but mostly consist of cityscapes; a little more variation wouldn't have hurt. Thankfully, the backdrops are pretty nicely done with loads of small details such as lots of little parked cars, bridges and buildings in form of calculators(!). The 2D graphics are enhanced with some clever 3D touches (see the control tower in the second movie for an idea) which makes everything look just that little more interesting.

Some nice animation there

The gameplay in Radirgy is -to be honest- not very original. It's standard bullet dodging most of the time, with the occasional 'sword' swing to dodge even more bullets. Bullets that come in the usual patterns we must have seen a million times before. The power-ups aren't too inspired either, with things such as a 'shield/smart bomb' and a load of flying objects (bananas, leafs, rice balls) of which their use is still unclear to me.

The difficulty of the game is a bit hit and miss in my opinion. The first two stages are pretty easy and can be completed without even being hit once. The third stage is a lot harder (but still fair), but after that the game becomes just a little too hard too quick for my liking. (yeah, yeah, I know I'm rubbish at 2D shooters, but still). A couple of scenes in the fourth and fifth stages are just screaming 'over the top' with the entire screen filled with LOADS of firepower. It's a case of 'dodge or die' instead of killing.

Other things of note? Well, the soundtrack of the game is pretty good and goes well with the game. I don't like it as much as the Chaos Field one but that's because I'm an electronica freak. The sound effects are pretty good as well with excellent explosion sounds and loads of cool cartoonish sounds that go with some of the little 'scenes'. The only effect I didn't like was the sound of the 'bubble' weapon, which gets on your nerves rather quickly.

After playing Radirgy for a good while I've came to the conclusion that it was enjoyable but not much more than that. Like said, all the little mistakes Mile Stone made in Chaos Field were made again in Radirgy. Apart from the graphics and sound the games are a lot alike (even the credit system is the same) in the aspect that they are just too basic a game to be worth the price asked. Hopefully Mile-stone will learn from its mistakes and will make sure their next console game is a little more complete..this just isn't worth the $60 price asked.

Incooooomiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnng!

The fifth boss pulls a magic resurrection trick, d'oh!

GRAPHICS
Stylish graphics, plenty of detail on the ships but enemies
(and bullets) are a little plain and are used too often.
A special mention goes to the bosses, which are very original.

SOUND
The themes fit well. Good sound effects (except for the bubbles)

GAMEPLAY
Not too many bits 'n bobs and overall a little uninspired.
It's not broken, though.

VALUE
Just one mode (not even a multiplayer mode) but it does have
a good selection of ships.