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Raiden II

Windows - 1997
Also available on: Arcade

Raiden II is an excellent sequel to Raiden, one of the best shoot em-ups ever made. The game is not very well known due to its limited distribution (sold in Japan only, ported by Cyberfront Studios), but that doesn't stop us from honoring it here, of course ;)

The plot picks up where Raiden left off. It's been 3 years since you utterly destroyed the alien forces and sent the survivors packing. But the angry stragglers, bent on revenge, returned to their planet and raised a vicious army. Now they're back, tougher, meaner and better armed than before. To turn the tide of battle, the members of Earth's Think Tank regroup, and develop an even more powerful and maneuverable fighter craft... and guess who they put in the cockpit?

Raiden II has all the addictive gameplay of its predecessor, this time with even sharper graphics and a rocking soundtrack. The graphics are very more detailed, with excellent 3D effects (e.g. flying enemies cast shadows on the ground, so you could distinguish them from ground-based enemies). In contrast to most shoot em-ups where enemies you destroy just blow up and disappear without a trace, enemies in Raiden II blow up, turn into a wreckage, plummet to the ground, and only then explode on impact. This causes a lot of debris to fly around the screen, which in turn cause nice ripple effects on the grass and even on the water once they land -- very, very nice. Background graphics are also excellent, especially in the volcanoes levels.

In addition to the myriad of power-ups and weapons that made Raiden a classic, Raiden II features a powerful new weapon called the Plasma Laser, and new Cluster Bombs: unique defences that make it nearly invincible against the aliens... but only if you are nimble, of course. No doubt the best weapon in the game, the Plasma Laser homes in on the target, and locks on it until you move or it blows up. The enemy bosses are tougher than in Raiden, so even joystick experts will find a nice challenge in this one.

Overall, Raiden II is a polished and addictive vertical shooter in every respect.. a must have for all action fans!

Note: The game is in Japanese, but most menu commands are either in English, or are self-explanatory.

Review By HOTUD

Comments and reviews

tuku 07 Apr. 2026

Me salía el error "Cannot detect the CD-ROM audio tracks"
La solución como comentaron arriba es montarlo en la unidad con la letra más baja, por ejemplo la C ya la tenía ocupada, entonces monté el juego en D y de esa forma SI funcionó

1
io 06 Feb. 2026

This game has both game CD (as a drive) and audio CD (to be played on a CD player). Mounting the game CD only will gives you "Cannot detect the CD-ROM audio tracks" error. My WinCDEmu defaults to mount game CD only, but switching to Daemon Tools mounted both (not sure why that is). When using other program to mount, be sure to open Windows Media Player and check if all the 11 tracks was there (in the mounted drive), if it did then audio CD was mounted and you good to go. Have a nice day.

1
dan 21 Mar. 2023

Loader exe got flagged as a trojan

1
Pelger 11 Mar. 2023

for those of you having problems, make sure that you mount it (like with Daemon Tools) as the first cd rom drive. If you have C and D hard disks, it should be E. or if you have only one disk or partition C, then the Daemon Tools drive should be D.
It works fine if you do that and copy all the files to a folder in your hard disk and run raiden2.exe

4
jayden 10 Feb. 2023

At least this game hasn't been taken off... (Now watch it get taken off)

-2
Cruise Overdrive 02 Feb. 2023

Hello, for some reason windows detects the drive as a virus. Did it happen to someone else? How can I solve that?

I hope someone can read this

1
jayden 27 Aug. 2022

To get past the music error you have to mount the iso as a cd drive and run the game from that drive.

2
tj 03 Feb. 2021

me too, getting audio track error

2
AKCK53 23 Jan. 2021

Good game

1
Naniyue 22 Aug. 2020

For the longest time, arcade emulation of this game was absent, making this version the best available for windows.

0
meowiyah 04 Feb. 2020

the dialog box size in game options is too small, i cant even change the control settings

1
optimus Prime 30 Nov. 2019

only 9 credit coin....how to get unlimited credit coin

-3
Eggbomber 10 Nov. 2019

I keep getting an error saying it can't detect CD audio tracks

4
frank 26 May. 2019

anyone can help me
i dont know how to download raiden game
anyone can teach me ?

-2
Strum 25 Mar. 2019

Found this post on GameFAQs that helped me run the game:

In windows 7:
Click 'Start'
then right click 'Computer'
then click 'Manage'
the 'computer management' window will come up,
then click on 'Disk Management' (under 'Storage')
you will need to change the disk drive you have raiden disk or image in to the lowest letter of any of your disk drives.
now, I use Daemon Tools so i changed the drive letter to A, as A and B are usually reserved for floppy drives, you, probably like me don't use floppy drives so I changed Daemon Tools Drive to A from G (my physical drive was E, a higher letter than G thus causing a problem)
The game ISO image or physical disk needs to be in the lowest drive letter, simple, i know, rather silly but it worked.
enjoy :)

0
Mylo 21 Jan. 2019

how to run MDF & MDS file

-24
Mylo 21 Jan. 2019

I don't get how to install this in Windows 10

-5
perezado 28 Oct. 2018

it's ok

1
Farius 30 Sep. 2018

raga ma come faccio a giocare con ISO aiuto per favore

-1
Fais 24 Apr. 2018

how to install it? it cant works with mdf file,, please fix it

0
GamerBoy Carsten 14 Apr. 2018

Sweet Memories of the best Time of my Life .

Thanks a lot , myabandonware !

0
Boreth 12 Apr. 2018

I like this game

0
eko sugianto 01 Apr. 2018

sweet memo

0

No comment nor review for this game at the moment.

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Downloads

Windows version
ISO Version
United Kingdom English
428 MB
Arcade version
US, set 1
United Kingdom English
10 MB
US, set 2
United Kingdom English
554 KB
easier, US set 1
United Kingdom English
643 KB
easier, US set 2
United Kingdom English
550 KB
easier, US set 3
United Kingdom English
549 KB
easier, US, prototype? 11-16
United Kingdom English
628 KB
Game file
United Kingdom English
430 KB
Holland
United Kingdom English
436 KB
Switzerland
United Kingdom English
200 KB
Game file
Germany German
184 KB
easier, Germany
Germany German
643 KB
Game file
Spain Spanish
436 KB
Game file
France French
419 KB
Game file
Italy Italian
430 KB
Game file
Japan Japanese
200 KB
easier, Japan
Japan Japanese
550 KB
easier, Korea
South Korea Korean
575 KB
harder, Korea
South Korea Korean
412 KB
harder, Raiden DX hardware, Korea
South Korea Korean
6 MB
Game file
China Chinese
200 KB

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