I've been playing a lot of Radiant Silvergun lately. It's sad to notice my Saturn stuttering more and more on those grainy but great MPEG videos in the game. The game really is a work of genius, its levels bathed in colour as they sweep and swirl around the screen, its bosses spectacular and challenging, its soundtrack mesmerizing. There's no doubting it's place amongst the greatest shooters of all time.
It's hard not to mention Radiant Silvergun without thinking about it's spiritual successor, Ikaruga. Ikaruga is, of course, also a stunning shooter. Its pace even more relentless than Radiant Silvergun, it demands constant attention and focus and is as brutally unforgiving as its older brother. Of course, we've had a stunning port of Ikaruga to Xbox live, but it looks like we'll never see Radiant Silvergun on anything other than the Saturn and the ST-V. I for one think this is a shame. The real reason we will never see a port is probably due to the effort it would take. The Sega Saturn had some very esoteric hardware, quite alien from anything in circulation today. Radiant Silvergun would certainly have been written in non-portable Saturn-optimised assembly code. Emulation would probably be out of the question, since the Saturn was so unusual that accurate emulation is probably impossible even for the Xbox 360. Basically, creating an Xbox live version would most likely mean starting from scratch.
Imagine if that were to happen, a high definition, widescreen Radiant Silvergun sounds very appealing and yet, it would never be Radiant Silvergun. It might even be a better game in its own right, but Xbox Live Ikaruga is Ikaruga through and through, but when the last Saturn in the world finally dies, Radiant Silvergun will die with it.
Personally, I think that is a shame. Treasure CEO Masato Maegawa recently said, when asked if we could look forward to a port of Radiant Silvergun for Xbox Live Arcade, "If you play Radiant Silvergun nowadays, it's certainly aged in assorted ways, and I'm not sure they're all good." Not counting aesthetics, in my opinion very little has aged in Radiant Silvergun, particularly not the game-play or level design. The game plays out like an epic space opera, its bosses stunningly varied and challenging, its pacing swaying between fast and slow, but never anything less than intense. In comparison, Ikaruga is a rock concert, its frantic, adrenaline pumping levels topped by an even louder, more intense boss battle at the end. Really, the two games are quite different, both brilliant and more than worthy of any hardcore gamers attention.
Even after all this time, there's not been a shooter that has come close to being a better Radiant Silvergun. There really isn't another shooter like it that I am aware of (please mail me if you know of one!) Let's hope that in two or three hundred years time, if humanity is still around, there's still some way of playing Radiant Silvergun. Be attitude for gains!
