RayCrisis

Infobox VG
title = RayCrisis
flagicon|USARayCrisis: Series Termination


caption = North American front cover art
developer = Taito Corporation
publisher = flagicon|JapanTaito Corporation (PS)
CyberFront Corporation (Windows)
MediaKite (Windows)
Sourcenext (Windows)
flagicon|USAWorking Designs (PS)
flagicon|EuropeJVC Digital Studios
designer =
released = flagicon|Japan2000-04-20 (PS)
2001-10-05 (Win, CyberFront)
2003-01-17 (Win, MediaKite)
2004-02-19 (Win, MediaKite)
2005-09-30 (Win, Sourcenext)
flagicon|USA1998 (arcade)
2000-10-25 (PS)
flagicon|Europe2000-? (PS)
genre = Scrolling shooter
modes = Single player
cabinet = Upright
arcade system = Taito G-Net system
display = Raster (Horizontal)
input = 8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons
platforms = Arcade, PlayStation, Windows 95

"RayCrisis", known as "RayCrisis: Series Termination" in North America, is the third game released in the "Ray" series of Taito shooting games. Chronologically, it is considered a prequel to the first game, "RayForce". First released for arcades in 1998, it supported co-op mode for two players, which the PlayStation ports released in 2000 lack; these ports are the only games in the "Ray" series to lack co-op.

Story

"RayCrisis", being a prequel to "RayForce", details the events during the timeframe of the supercomputer called the "Neuro-Computer Con-Human" gaining sentience and rebelling against its human creators, a direct result of a misguided scientist trying to bond a human clone to Con-Human mentally. Now, against Con-Human's massive attack forces laying siege to the Earth, exterminating and cloning humans, a mecha-neurologist jacks in to the Con-Human system in an attempt to regain control of the rogue machine by means of the computer viruses, known as the "Waveriders", into the Cybernetics Link, engaging "Operation Raycrisis" to cease the supercomputer's destructive actions permanently and prevent it from causing more havoc in the future.

However, even when Operation Raycrisis leaves Con-Human wrecked from the inside, it was too late to reverse the damage it has done. Furthermore, what is left of the human race has left for the space colonies as refuge from the destruction. In the end, years later, with the unveiling of the "X-LAY" starfighter and the ships of the fleet, Terran Command and the remaining humans initiate one final assault on Con-Human, who has turned the Earth into a bleak, metal graveyard. One final assault, in which will end the cybernetic nightmare once and for all, destroying the planet they've called home in the process. And that assault will be called:

"Operation RayForce".

Gameplay

The gameplay of "RayCrisis" is based on "RayForce", which features a viewpoint given to the player with an overhead perspective. The game is a vertically-scrolling shooter with a "virus infiltration" theme: the player plays the role of the "Waverider" computer virus, and the enemies he or she encounters are Con-Human's antibodies, programmed to terminate any virus—including the player—getting inside the supercomputer's system.

An Encroachment system is added, which causes player to lose points when it reaches 100%, especially facing Dis-Human and Infinity prematurely when reaching a huge Antibody, in addition to a bad ending. Encroachment percentage can be lowered by deleting Antibodies, terminating huge Antibodies or obtaining items, keeping a low profile not to be recognized by Con-Human.

The game starts with Self-Area, followed by 3 other stages out of the following: Emotion, Consciousness, Intelligence, Memory, or Consideration, each reflecting Con-Human's details of sentience. After completing stage 4, having the emergency control activated by "Con-Human" because of the havoc the player have caused, the "Waverider" computer virus must fight against the "Dis-Human" Antibody, and "Infinity", Con-Human's heart.

The player is given three ships called "Waveriders" to choose from at the start of the game:

* WR-01 - a ship resembling the R-Gray 1 from "RayStorm" in terms of firepower. It features a wide laser attack and can lock onto 8 targets at a time.
* WR-02 - a ship resembling the R-Gray 2. Uses a narrow-angled focused laser for its' main gun and it has a max capacity of 16 lock-ons available to the player and uses a weapon called the "thunder laser".
* WR-03 - An unlockable ship that removes the lock-on feature and forces the player to use a powerful photon chain gun. Its primary weapons are small guided missiles that swarms the enemies but weak in terms of hitting power.

Additionally, the two original ships from "RayStorm" (R-Gray 1 and R-Gray 2) can be unlocked on the PlayStation version.

Home releases

In the PlayStation version, Stages 2, 3, and 4 can be freely chosen, and stages can be played more than once in a single game. An original mode is added, which allows player to fight all stages in the game. In original mode, the player can obtain extra items, but there is no continue option if the player loses all of their lives. This port is the only game in the series to include a customization feature that allows the player to choose between multiple colors for their selected ship; the arcade version did not include this feature, electing to give player 1 a red color scheme and player 2 blue. The game supported a downloadable game called "Pocket-Ray" for the PocketStation system.

The Windows 95 port of the game is based on the PlayStation port.

This game was bundled with "RayStorm" as part of the compilation "Simple 1500 Series Vol. 75: The Double Shooting".cite web |url=http://psx.ign.com/objects/571/571222.html |title=The Double Shooting |publisher=IGN |accessdate=2008-08-22 ]

References

External links

* [http://curious-cat.net/rays/list/item.html List of Ray games]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20020809224842/http://www.cyberfront.co.jp/title/pc_best/61,62/raycrisis/index.htm Cyberfront RayCrisis page]
* [http://www.sourcenext.com/titles/ent/61270/ Sourcenext RayCrisis page]
* [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9271 RayCrisis at The Killer List of Videogames]