RayForce

RayForce (Japan, arcade) Gunlock (Europe, arcade) Layer Section (Japan/USA/Europe, Saturn and Windows ports) Galactic Attack (USA/Europe, Saturn port)
Developer(s)	Taito Corporation
Publisher(s)	Taito Corporation Gamebank (Win) (Japan) Cyberfront Corporation (Win) (Japan) MediaKite (Win) Acclaim Taito Corporation
Director(s)	Yukio Abe Tatsuo Nakamura
Producer(s)	Yukio Abe
Designer(s)	Tatsuo Nakamura Yukio Abe Tomohisa Yamashita
Composer(s)	Tamayo Kawamoto
Platform(s)	Arcade, Saturn, Microsoft Windows, iOS
Release date(s)	Arcade JP: 1994 NA: 1994 EU: 1994 Saturn JP: 14 September 1995 NA: 1995 EU: 1995 JP: 25 April 1997 Microsoft Windows JP: 1997 (Gamebank) JP: 11 June 1999 (Cyberfront) JP: 17 January 2003 (MediaKite) iOS WW: January 13, 2012
Genre(s)	Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	single player, Co-op; Up to 2 players simultaneously
Cabinet	Horizontal
Arcade system	Taito F3
Display	Raster (Horizontal)

RayForce (レイフォース)^[1] is a vertical space shooter style game by Taito released for the Taito F3 arcade hardware in 1994, and later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, Microsoft Windows in 1997, and iOS in 2012.

Due to trademark problems, when the home version was released in Japan it was renamed Layer Section. When Acclaim published the Saturn version for the North American and European markets, it was renamed Galactic Attack. The game was also titled Gunlock in European arcades.

Story

In the distant future, human governments, across the planet Earth, construct a massive supercomputer, named "Con-Human". The purpose of this computer is to govern the planet's environmental systems, verifying proper nutrients and care is provided to ensure the culture of humans and animal alike.

However, disaster strikes when, after a cloned human's mind is linked with the system, Con-Human becomes sentient and insane. It begins to induce calamities across the planet, constructing corrupt clones of existing organisms, destroying its human masters and exterminating the nature it was intended to protect, apparently intending to replace everything with what Con-Human considers improved versions of themselves.

After prolonged war, Con-Human has succeeded in exterminating 99.8% of humankind, with the remnants fleeing to space colonies. Meanwhile, Con-Human remakes the very interior of Earth. As a result, Earth, as humanity knew it, has utterly ceased to exist, transformed into a planet-sized mobile fortress that is in fact Con-Human's body. Con-Human intends to use the transformed Earth 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. Now, taking the full-scale offensive, mankind develops powerful ships, one of them the RVA-818 X-LAY starfighter, to fight the oppressive machine by destroying the now-infected Earth entirely.

Game system

In-game screenshot of RayForce

The player is provided with a ship called the RVA-818 X-LAY, which is outfitted with two weapons: a primary weapon that fires straight lasers and increases in power when the player accumulates power-ups, and a secondary lock-on laser launcher, which can also be increased in power, that can target up to eight enemies at once by moving the targeting reticle. This weapon is used to attack enemies that appear on a lower plane than that of your craft, which are inaccessible to the player's primary weapon. During play, the screen predominantly scrolls vertically, but there is some horizontal leeway as is common in games of this genre.

Compilations

This game was also released on Taito Memories in Japan, as well as Xbox and PC versions of Taito Legends 2, but these releases all run in upscanned 640x448 resolution, which results in slight flickering, no scanlines and slightly blurrier image compared to the arcade and Sega Saturn versions. Also "tate mode" (monitor oriented in vertical position) is not supported, resulting in the game appearing in the middle of the horizontally oriented screen, with two black bars on the right and left side.

Sequels and Legacy

Taito initially worked on a sequel named R-Gear; at some point it was turned into RayStorm.^[2]

A prequel, RayCrisis, was released in 1998.

The X-LAY appears as a downloadable ship for Taito's Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PC.

Reception

Sega Saturn Magazine scored the Saturn version a 79%, saying that the game is fun but severely outdated in terms of both graphics and gameplay, though they did praise the absence of slowdown and the authentic arcade feel of the tate mode.^[3] Maximum similarly commented that the game falls into the retro genre without offering the nostalgia value found in most such releases, and further criticized that the tate mode "isn't very practical in execution (and not particularly healthy for your television)." While they acknowledged the game is fun, they noted it was being released alongside a host of top-quality Saturn titles (including Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally Championship), and concluded, "Come on - be honest now - is this really the sort of game you coughed up £300 to play with your high-tech next generation gaming system? Playable it may be, but it's not really worth buying." They gave it 3 out of 5 stars.^[4] GamePro gave the game a positive review, saying it "features gorgeous, space-themed backgrounds and a rockin' soundtrack. Although your ship is nothing to write home about, the enemies fly at you fast and furiously, giving your eyes a treat and your thumbs a workout. Resounding explosions, crisp voice-overs, and sharp laser blasts round out this quality game."^[5]

References

External links

• www.users.globalnet.co.uk/- Review of RayForce
• Gamebank page
• Cyberfront page
• Layer Section (MediaKite) page
• List of Ray games